Thomas Fisher has extensive experience of community development and learning, research and policy, across different continents and different roles, from local action to national and international policy. He is a social entrepreneur, developing and leading projects and teams, and building organisations, … a creative facilitator and trainer, … an experienced coach and mentor, … an impactful researcher and policy advocate.
As a founder and Director of CoDeL living in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland since 2003, Thomas has led research on all things rural and island: demographics, education, community action, community responses to environmental policy, social enterprise, micro-enterprise, and the EU-funded research on Covid economic impacts and recovery across the Northern Periphery and Arctic region. He has presented at international conferences such as on the EU’s Rural Pact, the Northern Peripery and Arctic Programme, the international Regional Studies Association, and the World Rural Health Conference.
Thomas has facilitated visioning and Open Space sessions for communities, young people and organisations, including at the last two Scottish Rural and Island Parliaments. And he actively supports the on-going development and growth of the innovative Uist Beò platform, and a range of community organisations.
Much of his, and CoDeL’s, work focuses on changing distorted narratives about so-called remote communities, shining a light on their assets and strengths, their vibrancy and resilience, and demonstrating that they are often at the very heart and centre of solutions to societies’ most pressing challenges, not least the climate emergency.
Thomas has also been a long-term facilitator and coach for the Social Enterprise Academy. He has designed and facilitated programmes for community visioning and for enterprise, coached social entrepreneurs, and delivered learning programmes, including for young people (in leadership, coaching, difficult conversations, social enterprise and measuring social impact). Thomas has designed and facilitated strategic workshops for national Third Sector organisations, as well as enterprising programmes and learning materials for New Scots refugees, in partnership with the Scottish Islands Federation and European partners.
Formerly he was Director of Enterprising Communities at the New Economics Foundation in London (1996-2002). At NEF he led work on community development finance, enterprise and economic inclusion in Britain, Europe and India. The work of his team laid the foundations for community development finance as a sector in Britain, and influenced government policy, including managing the research for the Chancellor’s Social Investment Taskforce (2000).
Thomas worked in India between 1991 and 2002, assisting the Tibetan government-in-exile with development in Tibetan refugee settlements, undertaking extensive research into rural non-farm employment across India, and supporting Indian micro-finance and other development organisations with training, mentoring and organisational development.
Since 2003 Thomas has lived in South Uist in the Outer Hebrides. He managed the (Scottish) Children’s Parliament‘s group of 20 children from Uist and Barra for three years, and worked with one of Uist’s leading social enterprises, Cothrom, for almost a decade. At Cothrom he engaged in community economic development, including enterprising workshops for young people, supporting community development projects and influencing local economic policy. He set up two mentoring projects for young people, trained community mentors and managed a social audit of Cothrom. He has been involved as a board member of different community groups, and was a Trustee of the Linda Norgrove Foundation.
For the last 15 years he has been a Facilitator for the Social Enterprise Academy, designing and facilitating a wide range of learning programmes. He designed and delivered the Academy’s first 12-day ‘Wide Horizons’ enterprise programme, to help disadvantaged young people explore enterprising opportunities. And since Covid he has designed and delivered visioning workshops, e.g. for rural communities in Scotland and Wales, and for young people at the Scottish Rural Parliament, and in Scotland and Malaysia in the lead up to COP26 in Glasgow. Both designs have been adapted and integrated into Academy programmes across the globe.
Thomas was a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex University (1995-96), and has published three books (with Sage, Oxfam and Intermediate Technology), enterprise manuals as well as articles and research reports on local and international development. He was also the editor of a book, The United Kingdom – The United Nations, published by Macmillan. Thomas studied in Britain and the United States, but has learnt even more from colleagues and communities in India, London and the Outer Hebrides.