Llantwit Major Community Wellbeing and Enterprise Hub
Llantwit Major
Llantwit Major Community Wellbeing and Enterprise Hub comprises two buildings next to St Illtyd’s Primary School in the centre of the town. Most of the capital grant has gone towards refurbishing Ty Illtyd building at the Hub.
Having been empty for five years, Glamorgan Voluntary Services (GVS) has taken out a 99-year lease on the building.
CF61 has been transformed into a space with a wide range of support and services for the community including regular food sharing opportunities, a clothing bank and a range of activities like tai chi, parent and child groups, children’s drama and a chatty cafe. There is on onsite nursery and sensory room and it is available for use by the school and community groups.
Illtud House is now a base for Glamorgan Voluntary Services and office space can be hired by self-employed lone workers, third sector organisations needing a base or health professionals needing a space to practice. The rentals from workspaces provide valuable income for the Third Sector.
“The Wellbeing Hub will provide a central location for a wide range of community services in health, social care and wellbeing. There is nothing similar currently operating in Llantwit Major.
“The workspaces for around 40 to 50 people will be a real asset for Llantwit Major and improve work/life balance whereby people could drop their children off at the school nearby before working remotely at the hub avoiding the need to travel into work. Shops are nearby and they could also attend a class on site before returning home. This will reduce their carbon footprint and improve their well-being.”
Rachel Connor, Director Glamorgan Voluntary Services
The Llantwit Hub works with nearly two dozen organisations that provide a service to the Vale community at any given time. Vale People First is a local charity that supports adults with learning difficulties to run a café. Llantwit Dementia Friends organise coffee mornings and Age Connect put on dance and exercise classes for the elderly. Motion Control lead dementia-friendly activities.
Llantwit Major has significant areas of social and economic deprivation making the hub a prime site for wellbeing and specialist activities. Food Share is a successful intervention.
It meets a community need exacerbated by the pandemic, tackling food poverty and avoiding food waste.
A ten-week programme of events for young people with mental health difficulties included gardening, creative sessions and mentoring and group skills with State of Mind.
They opened a weekly drop-in Wellbeing café run by volunteers using Fareshare Go produce. The Wellbeing Café is an effective mechanism to draw in a wide range of people from the community.
Reduced levels of engagement when the Wellbeing Café moved online highlighted:
- People feeling isolated typically wanted in-person engagement beyond their homes
- Some people did not feel comfortable with technology regardless of training being offered
- Conversely, there were a minority of participants for whom an online community represented an attractive option when in-person engagement was not possible.
Benefits of the project:
- People access services seamlessly without repeated referrals, interfaces and hand offs between services
- A more complete approach to healthy living
- People are healthy and active
- People have a sense of belonging and of being part of a family and community
- Reduction in people reporting overall, emotional and social isolation and loneliness
- Reduction in attendance at GP surgeries
View some more of our Transforming spaces in Cardiff and Vale
CRI Chapel
East Cardiff
The former Chapel at CRI is being refurbished into a vibrant community hub for the residents in the south and east of Cardiff.
Ty Gwyn Project
West Cardiff
This project improved an existing building (formerly known as Trelai Youth Centre) and created five classrooms for Ty Gwyn School, part of the Western Learning Federation in West Cardiff.
Trysor O Le
Barry
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Our Priorities
DECHRAU’N DDA
STARTING WELL
We want every child in Cardiff and Vale to have the opportunity to thrive. Our work focuses on children in vulnerable situations and the services that support them.
HENEIDDIO’N DDA
AGEING WELL
We know how hard it can be to find help when people need it the most. We want to make sure there is community support to help people stay as healthy as possible so they can carry on doing the things that matter most to them.
BYW’N DDA
LIVING WELL
As a Partnership we have worked together with people with a learning disability, their families, carers and the third and independent sector to produce a clear direction for the planning and delivery of adult learning disability services across the region over the next five years.
Case Studies
Alison Law
Improvement and Development Manager, Joint Commissioning
- Project management across the partnership to enable the alignment and joint commissioning of services, which includes shaping the market, regional commissioning strategies, contracting and quality assurance.
- Programme manager for ICF Capital fund