The variety of what we get to do, have to do, and have the honour of doing during a work week at Pen y Cymoedd is amazing.
We started the week with a visit to the studio of the Our Space / Ein Lle Ni project for a sneak preview of Dolby Atmos recording of a brass band as part of an exciting project we have funded with a Vision Fund award of £81,458.80. Such was the quality and beauty of the sound we were brought to tears. It is an ambitious project working with lots of local ensembles, bands and groups but also NPT College and Coleg y Cymoedd Students and we can’t wait to see how the project progresses. You can read more about the project here: Pen y Cymoedd supports exciting new creative project – Our Space / Ein Lle Ni with grant award of £81,458.80 – Pen Y Cymoedd Community Fund (penycymoeddcic.cymru)
In preparation for the opening of Round 13 of the Micro Fund on December 1st, fund management duties resumed on Tuesday. The time since we launched Round 1 at the end of 2016 and granted £1.3 million to 392 neighbourhood organisations and businesses seems to have passed in the blink of an eye.
Yesterday we were excited to join The Coalfields Regeneration Trust Wales, The National Lottery Community Fund/ Cronfa Gymunedol y Loteri Genedlaethol, Newydd, RHA Wales and representatives from Rhondda Cynon Taf Council to host a webinar to 30 community groups with advice on capital funding and accessing funding and support. Thanks very much to Interlink RCT and The Coalfields Regeneration Trust Wales for arranging.
Straight after that we hosted an appointment day and met a rugby schools programme, a charity that provides affordable local charity, Citizens Advice RCT, a new local business in the Cynon valley and a new mental health support CIC.
Not quite done for the day we then headed to St Elvans for the UK Community Renewal Fund Project, Business Club Pilot Launch. There were around 40 local businesses and community organisations there along with a variety of funders and was an informal networking opportunity for businesses (including social enterprises) and people thinking of starting up. Was great to be part of event and we hope it will continue and be if use to local businesses and we met lots of people the fund may be able to support from pizza shops to a young person starting their own computer repair business, a social enterprise looking to reduce waste and create a ‘library of things’ and a oca golf club with big ambitions.
St Elvans Community Heritage Project is an incredible venue that has been transformed with an ambitious £2 million project that we were proud to be part of with funding from Pen y Cymoedd of just under half a million pounds. What they have achieved is fantastic and we were so pleased to attend an event there and see how the facility is being used by the wider community
Today we are working on new refreshed prospectus for the fund following 6 months of community engagement and an event to celebrate this in the New Year and then next week we start again with an appointment day in Blaengwynfi, meeting with NPTCVS and then Friday joining RCT CBC staff to discuss town centres and regeneration.