Community Enterprise in Scotland conference

The Common Good First team attended the Community Enterprise in Scotland (CEIS) conference on Wednesday 6^th September 2017. It was launched by Angela Constance, MSP and Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Security and Equalities.

The Cabinet Secretary introduced the headlines from the 2017 census on Social Enterprise in Scotland which showed some very positive movement in the number of the country’s social enterprises, the number led by women and the economic contribution to Scotland.

Later in the morning, eight ‘rising stars’ in social enterprise introduced their projects, including Common Good First’s friends from our pilot project, Freedom Bakery. Staying with the baking theme, girls from Drumchapel High School in Glasgow also introduced their social enterprise which aims to combat bullying, Bake my Day.

The day ended with break-out groups and we went for the one most relevant to our project – Social Tech: use of technology to address social issues. We had a walk-through of Nominet’s Social Tech for Good map which showed some great examples but the discussion also covered access to networks, digital literacy and how digital networks can be created to connect social enterprises. Which sounds like Common Good First is on the right track!