New research identifies additional challenges faced by communities at the margins. Following the publication of the Wales Community Assets Index and the Wales Community Resilience Index, Building Communities Trust’s (BCT) Policy Officer, Eleri Williams, explores what these linked but separate…
Hidden poverty in Welsh communities
Poverty is sometimes depicted as a primarily urban phenomenon but there is financial hardship in all regions and geographies in Wales. One in five (21%) of the Welsh population are living in relative income poverty; an even greater proportion are…
Why Wales needs a new approach to tackling loneliness
Loneliness is bad for us. It’s so detrimental that in 2023 the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared loneliness a pressing global health threat because of the growing, and startling, body of evidence demonstrating just how bad loneliness is for human…
Let’s talk about poverty stigma
Poverty stigma – what is it, where does it come from and why are we working on it? “Having no money, having no food, it goes onto your mental health then makes that bad because you’re always constantly worrying about…
Q and A with Kathryn Williams, PhD intern
We caught up with Kathryn Williams who has recently spent three months as a PhD intern with WCPP. Kathryn is an ESRC funded PhD student in the School of Social Science at Cardiff University. 1. Overall, how have you found…
Working together to tackle loneliness and isolation
In February 2020, the Welsh Government published its first ever strategy to tackle loneliness and social isolation – “Connected Communities”. We have probably all experienced these feelings at some point in our lives, but when they become long-term and entrenched,…
It’s time to talk about loneliness inequalities
In this blog, Josh Coles-Riley explains why the Wales Centre for Public Policy has commissioned a major new review of research on loneliness inequalities – and why WCPP is now planning an event to bring together policymakers, practitioners, researchers and…
What does ‘blended’ digital and face-to-face provision mean for access to services during the cost-of-living crisis?
The cost-of-living crisis is making access to community-based wellbeing services ever more important for an increasing number of people. These services – from advice, advocacy and support services to leisure and cultural organisations – are critical in supporting our immediate…
‘Blending’ online and offline provision in community wellbeing services: what does it mean and why does it matter?
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, public and third sector organisations supporting community wellbeing have relied on a mixture of remote and face-to-face methods for delivering services and engaging with the people they support. These have been delivered in different combinations at…
New insight into loneliness in Wales
New analysis by the Wales Centre for Public Policy gives important new insights into how different characteristics can multiply people’s risk of loneliness. Until now, we have had a good understanding of how one characteristic or another, such as disability,…
