Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, and we are one of the Welsh organisations who have pledged to create better places here in Wales, signing up to the Wales’ Placemaking Charter. By taking a Placemaking approach to development we are aiming to create safer, happier communities that our customers can feel proud to live in.
With each of our developments, we consider how we can contribute to building a better Wales, and in particular how we can help to regenerate Bridgend. As a long term social landlord in the County, we are ambitious for our communities, we want to attract investment, build confidence, create opportunities and build lasting social value.
So we will make sure that our future developments involve the community, prioritise walking, cycling and public transport, create well defined, safe and welcoming streets and spaces, and promote a sustainable mix of uses to make places vibrant.
We also want to support our residents to enhance their employability skills, so we are working with others to develop opportunities. We work in partnership with Bridgend College with the Kick Start Programme and have launched a partnership with Cyfle Building Skills to create more apprenticeship, work experience and employment opportunities for our communities, supported by our supply chain partners. We are also part of the newly formed Bridgend Employability Network.
We continue to support and signpost community groups, lending skills to sustain projects, establish priorities and identify solutions. We aim to maximise the impact we have in our communities by working closely with our supply chain and contractors so that our investments improve social, economic and environmental wellbeing, and support the Bridgend pound.
Recent projects include: working with SERS to help the Bridgend Food Bank to relocate and provide a Well Being Cafe for Service Providers; working with Digital Communities Wales and Bridgend College to launch a pilot digital project, which used Facebook portals to connect customers in our sheltered schemes with students at the college; working with residents of Heol Y Cyw to raise funding to bring broadband and wi-fi to the village hall in Heol Y Cyw so they can offer digital workshops, IT hot-desking, online shopping and more.