Launched in 2024, the Community Anchor Development Programme provides flexible funding and tailored support to eleven organisations across Wales – each is a trusted local hub within the heart of their community and offer everything from social activities to vital support services.
Each organisation receives £150,000 over four years to strengthen and grow according to their own priorities. These vary considerably but include:
· developing income generating opportunities
· renovating or expanding community buildings
· supporting and training volunteers
· improving governance and organisational sustainability
· building stronger partnerships and networks
Participating organisations were selected through a competitive process, focused on areas with low levels of community assets according to the Wales Community Assets Index.
Alongside funding, organisations benefit from a structured networking and learning programme, plus access to professional support and training when needed.
Externally evaluated since its launch, the programme will continue until summer 2028, helping to ensure that Wales’ community anchors remain strong, connected and able to support the needs of local people.
Scroll down to read more about the organisations that form the Community Anchor Development Programme.
1Compass Youth Support
Our aim is to improve the lives and wellbeing of young people, and in doing so, strengthen the community around them so that they have more opportunities to thrive. We believe that to best support the young people in our area, we must also help develop the community they grow into — creating safe, supportive and engaging spaces where everyone can participate, share and grow together.
With the support of CADP funding, we’re working to build our capacity and ensure lasting stability for the future. This funding enables us to expand our reach and create more inclusive, community-led projects designed to bring people together, encourage collaboration, and build a stronger network of local support
Contact: 1compassnihal@gmail.com
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Our work includes developing community groups, forums and information-sharing networks that strengthen connections across generations. These initiatives help residents share ideas, access support, and take part in shaping local priorities — ensuring that our community voice is heard and that everyone has the opportunity to get involved.
A key part of our growth is our Community Minibus, which can be used by any not-for-profit group operating in Conwy — including sports teams, residents’ associations, youth groups, faith groups, and charities. This shared resource helps ensure that community organisations have affordable, accessible transport to connect people and make participation easier across the region.
Our community action projects — such as litter picks, neighbourhood clean-ups and creative community activities — give residents of all ages the chance to make a visible difference to their local area. Through this intergenerational work, we help foster pride, connection and a shared sense of purpose.
Young people remain at the heart of what we do. Our youth groups, including The Helpful 1’s and the Helpful 1’s Community Action Group, give young people the opportunity to take the lead on local projects, build confidence, and develop essential life skills such as teamwork and resilience.
We also work closely with local schools, Home-Start, Family Centres, and other community partners, ensuring that our projects meet local needs and that our network of support extends to every corner of the community. Our outreach work in rural areas continues to make sure that no young person or resident is left without access to positive opportunities or support.
As 1Compass continues to grow, we remain committed to creating a stable, long-lasting presence within the community, empowering local people and young people alike to play an active role in shaping a stronger, more connected future for all.
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1Compass Youth Support is supported by Gwen Thirsk.
Blaen-y-Maes Drop in Centre (Swansea)
Blaen-y-Maes Drop In Centre has been open for 20 years. The centre is run by those from the community, for the community, and offers a range of services via our volunteers.
We offer a friendly drop in space while supporting a range of other organisations and support services.
Contact: blaenymaesdic@yahoo.co.uk
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We provide foodbank and foodshare throughout the week – alongside a wellbeing and gardening group that runs weekly – free adult learning opportunities, free family fun half-term activities and a litter picking hub, where the community can use and borrow equipment.
Alongside this provision we put on a variety of events to engage both the community and further afield, where individuals and families can come and join in and find out more about the centre. In addition, we have a pre-loved community clothing shop, where items are sold on at an affordable price, helping us to pay the centre’s running costs, while supporting families to access low-cost clothing.
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Blaen-y-Maes is supported by Ben Greenaway.
Amdani (North Cornelly)
Founded in 2005, Amdani works across four key areas to improve the lives of people in North Cornelly. Initially focused on tackling unemployment and poverty, the organisation has evolved to meet the changing needs of the community. Today, its work includes enhancing the local environment and offering training opportunities that empower individuals to improve their living spaces. Community-led at its core, Amdani creates opportunities for impactful, sustainable change, helping local people shape their own future and develop inspiring places to live.
Contact: info@amdani.org.uk
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During the pandemic we played a crucial role in delivering food to those in need along with online employment and benefit support. Last year we established a warm space, offering support during the cost-of-living crisis and providing energy advice for the first time. Our proactive approach in introducing new ideas and projects to the area is equally important, as is our responsiveness to community needs, considering the myriad of issues that impact people both from a national and global level.
Our team is reflective of the local community, and equality and diversity are key words for us. The Trustees, staff and volunteers comprise all ages, genders, sexual orientations and abilities. We see equality as a "hand up" and not a "hand out" because we ask our clients/volunteers to improve their circumstances by helping others. No one is turned away when they seek help or advice from us, and we actively look for those who are marginalised and hidden within the community.
With the CADP grant we aim to create a local partnership board comprising residents, businesses, third sector and statutory bodies; offering a forum to discuss the issues that matter most, the help available, and creating a joined-up approach to dealing with them. The grant will also help us rent premises to grow our Refab project, supporting neurodiverse participants to improve their skills and opportunities in life.
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Cornelly Development Trust is supported by Sian Evans.
Brighter Futures (Rhyl)
We are a locally-led community charity located in Rhyl. Our charity exists to improve emotional and physical wellbeing of our beneficiaries by providing activities and services that reduce the effects of poverty, isolation and loneliness.
Our primary beneficiaries are those experiencing various economic and health challenges. We formed in 2008 and our vision was to reduce costs and ensure the sustainability of a number of small volunteer-led community groups through collaboration and sharing resources, while continuing to deliver on each group’s primary purpose.
Contact: hello@brighterfuturesrhyl.co.uk
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We spent our first three years focused on developing our shared facility from a derelict pub and refining elements of governance and management to appropriate levels; that enabled us to be proficient and robust without slipping down the slope of becoming bureaucratic, bloated and unable to rapidly adapt to local needs.
As a result of our development process, we now own a shared community building that is adaptable and able to cater for dynamic needs, while being cost-effective to run and maintain. We also have a fleet of vehicles and other resources that enable us to work offsite as required. We are continually evolving our resources and have already reduced the need for grants to cover our core running costs (everything excluding staff and potential large capital expenditure) in the medium term.
Our current priority is to focus on strengthening our future sustainability with younger employees and volunteers (training and developing them to take over) while also attempting to foster strong relations and opportunities for collaboration, and building the capacity of external groups in our town to improve our ability to change people’s lives without exhausting our own capacity. We run activities for themed groups ranging from toddlers to pensioners – about 100-150 people – we apply principles of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to every group to help people grow and develop at their own pace. We are focusing the CADP funding on developing our local network of organisations to support this.
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Brighter Futures is supported by Gwen Thirsk.
Cwmni Bro (Blaenau Ffestiniog)
Cwmni Bro is managed and led by the community, with local networks of strong community initiatives.
We operate as an anchor organisation for the network here in Bro Ffestiniog and our activity touches and responds to challenges and aspirations in order to foster ambition in our community.
Contact: Ceri.C@CwmniBro.Cymru
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There is an understanding that Cwmni Bro owns the community through the representation of the different local enterprises within the network and then the management board, which in turn is ultimately responsive to the community: www.cwmnibro.cymru
Our work is multi-purpose and operates in various areas to support and create opportunities for our most vulnerable people, through the work of initiatives such as Seren, GISDA and the Green Town, cultural and artistic activities with young people through the work of initiatives such as CellB/Gwallgofiaid and Opra Cymru, and to develop community assets, the local economy and regenerative tourism through the work of initiatives such as Antur Stiniog, Pengwern Cymunedol and Tŷ'r Wern.
We as the Bro Ffestiniog network are committed to creating equal opportunities and activities for all parts of our community. Activities are diverse and include: running hotels, shops, restaurants, retail, a tourist centre, a leisure centre, a mountain bike centre and an art and craft centre. As well initiatives relating to gardening, growing local food and providing allotments, educational and cultural work, opera, community transport, environmental work, promoting energy saving, community energy, reducing food waste, recycling and river cleaning. We also work with adults with additional learning and physical needs, and work with youth, including on issues such as homelessness and providing accommodation and local homes.
Over the past few years, we have been sharing our work and learning regionally and nationally by establishing the networks Dolan (Gwynedd slate valleys), Llechi Glo and Cefn Gwlad (community initiatives across Wales), and Cymunedoli (Gwynedd Community initiatives). As well as working together closely with the BCT on a number of national consultations in promoting community assets and local economies.
Although over the next 5-10 years we want to focus on our core work and attract the resources to strengthen the Cwmni Bro network within our community. We are keen to continue sharing learning and learning from others and see this as central function and our vision for the future: joint strength.
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Cwmni Bro is supported by Chris Johnes.
FAN Community (Neath)
FAN started in a deprived street in Neath in 2008 as a residents association, but has since grown and evolved into a small, thriving charity with a community centre.
We have a committee of 18 people running the organisation, a core team of around 20-30 volunteers, and a network of people who volunteer on an ad hoc basis.
Contact: fancommunity@outlook.com
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We run community events from weekly bingo and exercise classes to monthly litter picks and kids crafts, to annual events like easter egg hunts, summer trips and fun days, Halloween pantos and an array of Christmas events.
Since the pandemic, we have worked more with food, including an emergency food bank, surplus food club parcels, open-access surplus food share, and a pop-up café that operates at most of our events and activities.
We manage three green spaces – a potted forest garden in the lane of a terraced street, a meadow that we hope will become a community orchard, and biodiversity and food growing spaces around our community centre. We have also adopted a gardening group that set up as an online support group through lockdown.
In 2019, we declared a climate and nature emergency and began to alter our activities to ensure that ecological sustainability was considered at the heart of everything we do. From this, we have run transition projects, opened a refill and eco-friendly product shop, a community EV transport service, and began retrofitting the community centre with a target of achieving net zero emissions by 2025.
We do a lot! As dedicated and determined as our team is, it takes its toll – especially on key volunteers. That’s what we will primarily be focusing on under the Community Anchor Development Programme – taking the pressure off fundraising, tightening our bonds, saving time and space, and engaging with youth to ensure the longevity of our organisation.
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FAN is supported by Chris Johnes.
Green Squirrel (Cardiff)
Green Squirrel is a social enterprise offering practical, creative, and inclusive opportunities for communities to explore solutions and take local action for climate and nature. We lead the Railway Gardens project, a community resilience hub in Splott, Cardiff.
Built on the derelict site of a former playground, Railway Gardens opened its gates in June 2022 after almost eight years of community visioning, planning, and fundraising.
Contact: hannah@greensquirrel.co.uk
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Our aim is to offer a welcoming greenspace for community action that serves Splott, Adamsdown and Tremorfa, as well as the wider Cardiff area. Our project includes community growing space, a seed library, a community room and kitchen, a Library of Things and a cosy outdoor learning space. We also offer space for independent businesses and organisations, including a cafe, bike workshop, ceramicist, jeweller, counsellor and a non-profit. We create space for nature too, including a pond, mini meadows, and log piles.
As an organisation, Green Squirrel has been working in Cardiff since 2012, becoming a CIC (Community Interest Company) in 2018. It is led by Becca Clark and Hannah Garcia. At the heart of our work are three aims:
• building connected, resilient communities,
• nurturing visions of a positive and fair low-carbon future for all,
• inspire sustainable choices and habits.
The CADP funding will allow the employment of 2 staff members, allowing us to develop our volunteer base and volunteer skills. We hope to expand our reach to more diverse communities, particularly refugee and asylum seeker community. This will be done through increasing training, marketing, promotion and events. Ultimately creating a more resilient project that serves the whole community, that is well trusted, and has local people in leadership and decision-making roles.
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Green Squirrel is supported by Zunaira Hassan.
Gwynfi Miners Hall (Afan Valley)
Gwynfi Miners Community Hall (GMCH) is a thriving community enterprise and hub located at the most northwestern point of Neath Port Talbot, on the main street of the small ex-mining village of Blaengwynfi in the Afan Valley.
Contact: simongmch@gmail.com
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Nestled in the shadow of the stunning beauty of the hills of the Upper Afan, the area has many natural assets but also faces high levels of deprivation, with some of the worst educational and health outcomes in Wales. Additionally, Gwynfi has a low level of car ownership and is served by a very poor public transport infrastructure, which means that most households can only readily access services and facilities that are based in the community.
The community hall opened as a miner's institute and welfare hall in 1901. It was built and sustained by miners' contributions until the last local colliery closed in 1969. It was then passed to local authority ownership until, in 2011, it was listed for closure due to austerity and cutbacks. The community of Aber-Blaengwynfi launched a campaign to keep the facility open and took over the running of the building back in April 2013.
The community hall exists to contribute to the social, physical, economic, educational and wellbeing of the community. We consciously cater for the needs and interests of people of all ages and backgrounds in Aber-Blaengwynfi and the wider communities.
We have had to change from being a traditional village hall to becoming a community hub that hosts multiple agencies, services and activities. We have been fortunate to be able to enhance our capacity and expand our offerings through collaborative working with outside organisations such as local schools, colleges, universities, the NHS, local authorities, voluntary councils, local businesses and sports clubs, that have all helped to breathe new life into the building.
We express our gratitude for the support provided by Building Communities Trust (BCT) and remain committed to sustaining the benefits of our project for the local community. The grant is more than just a financial contribution, it represents a commitment to the well-being and prosperity of our community. Receiving the grant serves as a source of motivation for us to continue in our efforts to create a vibrant and inclusive building and space for all, that will be fit for purpose for future generations. We are honoured to have BCT as a valued partner in our endeavour to strengthen our communities.
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Gwynfi Miners’ Hall is supported by Ben Greenaway.
Lee Gardens Pool (Penrhiwceiber)
Lee Gardens Pool Committee was formed in 2015, when local people got together to bring an outdoor children’s swimming pool, which closed in 2013 owing to local authority austerity cuts, back into use.
Contact: leegardenspool@yahoo.co.uk
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The pool reopened in 2016 and in 2017 our group became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). A Community Asset Transfer (CAT) placed responsibility for the pool with the committee.
Phase 1 of our development began in 2019 with a planned refurbishment of the pool and a new building on site to act as a tuck shop and meeting room. However, when the pandemic hit, the project was delayed until 2021. We were aware that people needed support during this time, so we hired Penrhiwceiber Old Age Centre. The centre closed when the pandemic took hold, and the lease holders were not able to do the work necessary to bring the building back into use. Working closely with them, we took over the day-to-day management of the building on their behalf and we began to run our activities from the centre, including weekly groups, drop-in and a warm hub, as well as a table sale selling pre-loved items.
When we were then asked if we would take over full responsibility of the building and we entered into another Community Asset Transfer and launched Phase 2. We approached two housing associations and applied for Shared Prosperity Funding. Working together, contractors began refurbishing the building in January 2024.
Funding from BCT launched Phase 3 of our project, which is to acquire a commercial premises. This will enable us to set up a charity shop on the ground floor and run a food panty and counselling facility on the first floor. The income from the charity shop will enable our group to become more sustainable and less reliant on grant funding.
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Lee Gardens Pool is supported by Ben Greenaway.
Llanhilleth Miners Institute (Blaenau Gwent)
The Institute is an iconic Grade II* listed building, built by the miners of Llanhilleth and surrounding areas in 1906, and sympathetically refurbished in 2003-2007. A source of local pride, there is nothing similar in the locality. It is situated in one of the most deprived areas of Wales.
Contact: enquiries@llanhillethinstitute.com
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Our mission is: ‘To create a more resilient and less socially isolated community, meeting the changing needs of the people we serve, and reflecting the vision of the miners who built the Institute.’
As a registered charity, the Institute operates as both a physical and strategic hub, promoting and delivering coordinated community engagement. We are implementing a Community Engagement Strategy which is delivering impressive results and has the potential to deliver much more. We work with children, youths, adults and old people, many of whom are vulnerable.
We aim to improve health and well-being, and tackle poverty, by enhancing self-belief and capability and boosting aspiration and skills. Supporting over 650 individuals annually, in addition to traditional activities such as Lunch Club, Knit and Natter, Tea Dance, Heritage Society etc, the Institute runs and facilitates a number of high-profile projects, unique in the area, addressing unmet needs: ‘Clwb Llan’, our children’s centre; volunteering; adult literacy and numeracy. Our food hub includes a ‘Slow Cooker’ Club, a ‘Cook Fresh’ Club and adult, youth and family cookery sessions.
We currently generate insufficient commercial revenue to sustain us and rely on significant external funding, increasingly difficult to obtain. We attempt to achieve financial sustainability by staging weddings, conferences, meetings, events etc. and we house several third sector and welfare tenants. We currently generate insufficient commercial revenue to sustain us and rely on significant external funding, increasingly difficult to obtain. The CADP funding is providing operations management and marketing support to develop our income to help ensure that, in time, we can be financially self-sustaining.
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Llanhilleth Miners Institute is supported by Zunaira Hassan.
VC Gallery (Pembroke Dock)
The VC Gallery Hub is in the heart of Pembroke Dock, and also provides outreach to the socially isolated. It is managed by local residents who have complete control over the direction of the day-to-day running.
Contact: admin@thevcgallery.com
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The VC Gallery uses its community hub in Pembroke Dock for the integration of veterans and the community. We have always had strong local connections and networks, but our learning from the COVID-19 pandemic was that these networks were even more important and made our communities resilient to support each other. Having these networks in place allowed us to react quickly for everyone’s benefit and local needs.
The VC Gallery Hub is in the heart of Pembroke Dock, and also provides outreach to the socially isolated. It is managed by local residents who have complete control over the direction of the day-to-day running. The hub acts as a place for people to come together for an engagement-based itinerary of activities, centred around cooking food for each other, growing sustainable crops, creating new networks for people to cut isolation and to gain social, mental, and economic support via a dynamic daily events calendar.
We have local authority and health board support, who use the hub, with police and crime prevention teams, young carers, dementia support, advocacy, legal, drug and alcohol support, food banks and even care for carers. Local veteran (armed forces) and elderly support packages and learning disability projects all access the hub on a day-to-day basis.
What we plan to do under CADP:
• We have employed a volunteer coordinator and peer mentor to meet the growing and complex social needs of Pembroke Dock walk-ins and referrals, and to directly challenge the high need we are facing;
• We will also look to invest in events and to create more sustainable opportunities – community voices will lead the focus for our hub, all of which we will factor in for future sustainability including sustainable funding;
• We will also invest in the development of our members and create a more effective space for a boat club, community cinema, gaming room and art studios on the premises, all with a view to creating financial sustainability and social enterprise by learning new transferable skills.
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VC Gallery is supported by Sian Evans.