"CIEL's insights into what make communities tick, and their ability to translate those insights into real world tools, strategies and actions, are worth a look."
- Michael Buda
Senior Policy Analyst, Federation of Canadian Municipalities | Fédération Canadienne des Municipalités
“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
CIEL assists in creating vibrant, vital communities – CIEL does this by using unique assessments and community processes to bring communities to action. We develop innovative tools and services to help communities, organizations, and individuals become more dynamic and entrepreneurial and to foster strong, responsive leadership.
CIEL is a national non-profit located in Nelson, in the beautiful Selkirk Mountains of South Eastern British Columbia. Years of working with the abundance of small communities that dot the many valleys have enabled us to gain important insights into the dynamics of communities and organizations. It has also enabled us to hone our skills in providing the right catalyst to enable communities and organizations to better meet their needs and fulfill their potential. We have taken the lessons we learned locally to communities across Canada.
The CIEL organizational culture encourages innovation, creativity and inspiration and embraces life-long learning. We apply these characteristics to the development and implementation of our tools and services.
In recent years, CIEL has been called upon to make national presentations to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), the National Rural Conference (Government of Canada), and the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNET).
In addition, CIEL has built custom tools and programs on community vitality, entrepreneurship and leadership on request from the Government of Canada and various provincial, regional and local organizations.
While working at a national level, CIEL has its roots in building practical, cost- effective solutions for organizations and communities. CIEL began as part of a community-based organization, the Community Futures Development Corporation of Central Kootenay. Because of the success of its programs at a community and regional level, it has become a self-sustaining organization dedicated to building entrepreneurship, innovation and strong, responsive leadership in communities and organizations across Canada.