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Wales Co-operative Centre is a non-profit co-operative development agency in Wales. It is the largest co-operative development body in the UK, [1] managing several major initiatives in Wales.
It delivers a range of projects to promote social, financial inclusion and digital inclusion. Its team of advisors work across the country, helping co-operatives, social enterprises, community groups and voluntary organisations. [2]
The Centre was originally an industrial and provident society, which in 2014 became a community benefit society. It is funded through the Welsh Government, Europe, some local authorities and some earned income. The centre has over 80 staff members working across Wales at offices in Caerphilly, Bangor, Carmarthen and Swansea, including its head office in the Y Borth building. Its membership elect a management board, who appoint the executive committee.[ citation needed ]
The Centre was established in 1982 by the Wales TUC to provide business support to co-operatives in Wales. Two years later the Centre published the first list of co-operatives in Wales and launched its first programme of training courses. It helped establish the first credit union in Wales in Rhydfelin (now called Dragonsavers [3] ) in 1988, and also began providing advice to trade unions and their members about employee ownership.
In 1992 the Wales Co-operative Centre was the largest co-operative development agency in England and Wales. (As of 2018 the UK's largest co-operatives included John Lewis Partnership [4] and the Co-operative Group.) The Centre's support helped Tower Colliery to become the largest employee-owned company in the country in 1995. [5] [6] The Centre also helped to set up the UK's first credit union based on an NHS Trust, in Bridgend. In 1998 the Centre merged with Cardiff and Vale Co-operative Development Agency and took over the Enterprise Rehearsal Project which helped benefit claimants into self-employment (examples [7] [8] ). It began working with social enterprises in Wales in 1999 and became the first Chair of the All Wales Social Enterprise Network. [9]
The Wales Co-operative Centre gained support from the Welsh Assembly Government in 2000 for a significant credit union development and grant fund initiative, which then became a flagship project under the new European structural funds Programme. [10] In 2001, the Wales Co-operative Centre brought together the Communities First Support Network to support the work of the Communities First Programme. [11] The Coalfields Regeneration Trust provided further funding in 2002 for the Centre to administer the Debt Redemption and Money Advice Scheme to protect those most at risk from doorstep lenders. In 2004 it secured European Objective One funding to continue work in developing co-operatives and that led to a major expansion of the Centre. The Welsh Assembly Government's 'Social Enterprise Strategy for Wales' formally recognised the role which social enterprises and co-operatives play in economic development in 2005. [12] Communities@One was launched by the Communities Directorate of the Welsh Assembly Government in 2006, and the Wales Co-operative Centre won the contract to deliver this digital inclusion initiative. 2007 saw the Centre launch a Fair Trade project working with businesses across Wales to show them the benefits of adopting a fair trade policy, following funding from the Welsh Assembly Government. [13] In 2009, the Centre won contracts to deliver the Social Enterprise Support Project [14] and the Welsh Assembly Government's digital inclusion project, Communities 2.0. [15]
2010 saw a change of Chief Executive. After a total of 18 years with the Centre, Simon Harris left to become Director of Wales at Business in the Community. He was replaced by Derek Walker, coming from Director of External Affairs at the Big Lottery Fund. [16] [17] In 2015, the Centre began delivery of the Social Business Wales project [18] which provides online and face-to-face support to social businesses seeking to expand and increase employment. It also won the contract to deliver Digital Communities Wales, [19] the Welsh Government's digital inclusion programme to get people in Wales online. 2016 saw the start of two new projects, Care to Co-operate (which supports the development of social care and well-being co-ops) and Community Shares Wales, which helps communities raise investment to save or create amenities and services.
Abertillery is a town and a community of the Ebbw Fach valley in the historic county of Monmouthshire, Wales. Following local government reorganisation it became part of the Blaenau Gwent County Borough administrative area.
A cooperative is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-controlled enterprise". Cooperatives are democratically controlled by their members, with each member having one vote in electing the board of directors. Cooperatives may include:
Communities First was a Welsh Government programme aimed at reducing poverty. The programme was community focused and supported the most disadvantaged people in the most deprived areas of Wales with the aim of contributing to alleviating persistent poverty.
The National Lottery Community Fund, legally named the Big Lottery Fund, is a non-departmental public body responsible for distributing funds raised by the National Lottery for "good causes". Since 2004 it has awarded over £9 billion to more than 130,000 projects in the UK.
A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being. This may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for co-owners.
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Edwina Hart, MBE is a Welsh Labour politician who represented the constituency of Gower from the establishment of the National Assembly for Wales (Senedd) in 1999 until 2016. Hart served in the Welsh Government as a cabinet minister for the full 17 years she was an AM including as Minister for Health and Social Services from 2007 to 2011 and as Minister for Business, Enterprise, Technology and Science from 2011 to 2016.
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Community Archives Wales (CAW) is a website of digital content created and maintained by a number of community heritage groups from across Wales. The initiative for the project came from a partnership between lead partner Culturenet Cymru, a not-for-profit enterprise arm of the National Library of Wales and Glamorgan Archives, Swansea University Archives, South Wales Miners' Library and West Glamorgan Archive Service. The original project ran from 2007 to 2008 with funding from Communities@One, an initiative of the Communities First programme in Wales.
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Jeremy Miles MS is a Welsh Labour and Co-operative Party politician, serving as Minister for Education and Welsh Language in the Welsh Government since 2021. Miles has been the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Neath since 2016. He previously served in the Welsh Government as Counsel General for Wales from 2017 to 2021, Brexit Minister from 2018 to 2021, and the Minister for coordinating Wales’ recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2021.
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Citizens Online is a UK basic digital skills and digital inclusion charity that was founded in 2000 by Mark Adams and CEO John Fisher. Its aim is to ensure this switch to online doesn't exclude people, and help to bridge the digital divide. The group works to help other organisations with the impacts of the switch to online services. The main service offered by Citizens Online is called Switch, which won "Best Digital Inclusion Product or Service" in the Digital Leaders Award for best product in 2015.
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