Communities First

Is a major, flagship Welsh Assembly Government programme aimed at cutting poverty and helping to improve the lives of people who live in the poorest areas. It is new and different in a number of ways:

 Local people themselves decide what is needed and are helped to make it happen.

 Communities First aims to:

•  Get local people involved in improving their areas and their own prospects;

• Bring in funding and support from a range of sources to make things happen;

• Make sure improvements last;

• Encourage flexibility, risk-taking and new ways of dealing with problems;

• Involve everyone together to identify and do something about their community's problems.

What will Communities First achieve?

Change will not happen overnight. There is much work that needs to be done before there will be a real change in our less well off communities. Each area included in the Communities First programme has its own particular set of problems.

Anything and everything that is funded or supported under Communities First should be aimed at:

• Building the confidence of local people 

• Involving people in making their communities better places in which to live and work; 

• Encouraging education and skills training for work;

• Creating jobs and increasing the income of local people;

• Improving housing and the surrounding area;

• Improving health and well being through an active and healthy lifestyle and by tackling a range of issues that affect people's health;

• Making communities safe in which people live, work and place

www.stilltydscommunitiesfirst.co.uk