As part of CEMVO UK, Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations (CEMVO) Scotland was set up in 2003 with the aim of building the capacity and sustainability of the ethnic minority voluntary sector and its communities in Scotland.

Back in 2003, CEMVO Scotland started its operations with just the Director and one part-time administrative officer, while 3 new recruits were sent to London to study for a sponsored Master in Business Administration (MBA) course. After finishing their full-time studies 9 months later, the new Capacity Building Officers came back to Scotland and started working with ethnic minority voluntary organisations and community groups throughout Scotland. Though the UK national Capacity Building Programme came to an end in 2006, CEMVO Scotland was successful in securing funding from the Scottish Executive to continue the delivery of the Capacity Building Programme. We have built upon our success over the years and now run 7 national programmes and undertake other short-term projects.

With a database network of over 600 EM voluntary organisations and community groups, CEMVO Scotland has a proven track record of delivering Scotland-wide programmes and projects and is a strategic partner of the Scottish Government. We continually engage with the EM voluntary sector and its communities, which enables us to gather vital intelligence about the needs of and issues affecting the sector. We also work strategically with public, statutory and government agencies to tackle a range of prevalent issues such as race equality, social inclusion, capacity building and civic participation.