Caerau, Community Support in the Cost-of-Living Crisis

Community groups across the village of Caerau in the Llynfi valley north of Bridgend are acutely aware of how the cost of living is affecting local residents.  

With no shortage of reports in recent months on how food and energy prices are soaring, many families in areas like Caerau have been planning for an extremely difficult Winter.  

The village is no stranger to social challenges and already has a number of local initiatives to address the impacts of poverty, but the current crisis has increased attendance at local projects and seen many more people being willing to talk about the stresses they are facing. 

Older people have stressed that rising food prices have made things worse when set alongside the massive rise in fuel costs and added to this the upper (and more hilly) parts of the village now have reduced bus services. People have been reduced to using heating less and turning it off hours before bedtime to keep bills manageable. 

Local organisations in Caerau are trying to step in to fill the breach. Working together, Churches, the Local Youth project, the Community Development trust and The Men's Shed are planning a series of “warm hubs” across the village to provide warm and friendly spaces for people to socialise (and get fed) across the week. They are being jointly planned to avoid duplication but will cover different parts of the village and be aimed at different age groups – from children to pensioners – to make sure there’s something on every day of the week, including several evenings. 

In addition, funds from the Lottery funded Invest Local Programme which has operated in Caerau since 2016, are being used to help make local clubs and activities affordable for children and young people across the winter. Small grants to clubs running activities ranging from Dance to biking and youth clubs have been made to allow them to keep membership fees down as prices rise for the clubs and incomes of parents are squeezed.  

It is hoped, that by keeping the costs of the clubs as low as possible more children will be able to keep attending their favourite activities across what may be a very difficult winter. 

And as the costs of essential goods are rising, additional funding has been given to two key initiatives which help to provide cheap food and key goods. The food pantry located at the Noddfa Community Project and the community shop located in Caerau Development Trust are being helped to stock up with more affordable goods. Both locations offer very cheap food and are now adding items like toiletries and baby products at a fraction of normal costs. Subsidised essentials are especially important in somewhere like Caerau, where the nearest supermarket is a £9 return bus ride away down the valley in Maesteg, making local shopping very affordable can help make stretched budgets go further. 

This winter, for residents in villages like Caerau, the impacts of the current crisis will be felt very keenly. The immediate needs that will present themselves are likely to be severe and with community organisations in these areas standing steadfastly as one of the main touch points for support to locals, it’s clear, that community organisations are now being asked to find extra resources and to forge even more creative and innovative ways to address those rising needs. 

In Caerau, the blueprint is clear for these groups, pull together and create a community-run network of support, but with the cost-of-living crisis coming in hot on the heels of the Covid Pandemic, community organisations are themselves now stretched and in need of extra support and better recognition of their integral role in guiding Welsh communities successfully through social and economic crisis.