M&S Merthyr Tydfil

Who we are, where we work from and who we help: We bring together our neighbours at the Ty Gwaunfarren older people’s social housing scheme, Merthyr Tydfil, through our Pantry and by cooking healthy meals in our communal kitchen and eating them together in our communal lounge. We collect surplus food from M&S and Lidl, which we share out amongst our neighbours. We also cook meals most days, including Christmas Day. Most of the residents here live alone so the meals bring us together to eat healthy food together as a community and it helps reduce loneliness and isolation.

The Willows Centre Troedyrhiw exists to support social, educational and recreational activities for all community members in Troedyrhiw and surrounding areas. The centre aims to promote and actively encourage equality for all community members in order to fulfil their potential as empowered individuals and as members of groups. The Willows Youth Club a project who is run by the Willows Centre Committee through a contract with the local authority on a commissioned basis works with over 200 members annually, achieving up to 50 accredited outcomes,

Gellideg is a social housing estate to the north of Merthyr Tydfil which ranks amongst the 10% most deprived areas in Wales. Already starting from a poor baseline, it is increasingly apparent that residents of Gellideg are being adversely affected by the economic down turn, experiencing cuts in public services and benefits, redundancy and reduced opportunities for employment. 'Gellideg, a self sustaining community' is an empowerment programme, which seeks to galvanise the resources, commitment and potential of local people to provide for themselves and for others. Residents manage and deliver activities across the spectrum of themes including improving health and wellbeing, accessing the outdoors, promoting community cohesion and championing education and life long learning. The ultimate goal of this project is to affirm Gellideg as a vibrant, cohesive community, inclusive of all its residents who work together to deliver and enjoy life enhancing opportunities during a time of potential economic and social uncertainty