"Mike and his tools and processes are wonderful to work with. He knows communities. The depth of CIEL’s tools bring credibility, rigour and confidence to the process.”
- Antoinette Danaher
Uncommon Solutions PL, Bendigo, Australia
“It brought people together effectively to discuss the community candidly. It was an excellent tool for economic development planning and helped the community to focus on what was most important.”
- Laurie Kerr
CED Manager, Prince George, BC
About CIEL
The Centre for Innovative and Entrepreneurial Leadership (CIEL) strengthens communities by helping them become more business-friendly, more culturally vibrant, and more sustainable. We also assist them in improving leadership and enhancing community involvement.
CIEL is a located in Nelson, British Columbia, in a region featuring many communities that are quickly having to make transitions to survive in a fast-changing global economy.
Our early work assisted small communities in the neighbouring mountain valleys. We developed innovative assessments coupled with strategic processes that helped communities focus, leverage assets and energy and, most importantly, jumpstart action. Then our ideas attracted the attention of communities farther afield, and we began working with communities across the rest of B.C. More recently we have been invited into communities across Canada, the U.S, New Zealand and Australia.
Our Communities Matrix – a one page tool for assessing stages of community readiness – has now been used in many countries across the globe. The Government of Canada contracted CIEL to research, develop and build a collaborative leadership program as an effective means of building capacity for rural communities in Canada.
CIEL continues to develop practical, engaging and innovative tools and processes that strengthen communities. In 2008, CIEL won the award for the region’s most innovative organization from the Kootenay Association for Science & Technology.
Our network of facilitators and trainers allows us to be responsive to the needs of communities across the world. CIEL’s conference presentations have inspired at the local, regional, state/province and international level. Our work has been featured on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canadian Living Magazine and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Contact us to help build a custom solution to engage your community and move it to action.