RDC(3) P&D13
Rural Development Sub-Committee
Inquiry into Poverty and Deprivation in Rural Wales
Response from Conwyn County Borough Council, Rural Community Action
The following points highlighted from the Rural Community Action initiative is to contribute to your consultation as we cannot specifically answer your questions but feel our points contribute to the consultation.
The Conwy Rural Community Action initiative, contracted from the Welsh Assembly, is now in its 5th year of operation supporting locally led community regeneration. The Conwy RCA team work across the 14 rural wards of Conwy.
Over the last 4 years the RCA team has worked with many community groups. A number of these have completed Community Appraisals and through these we have gathered the communities wants and needs.
The programme has also set up the Conwy Rural Community Network which represents each RCA group in Conwy. The group is an overarching rurally focused community group looking at countywide issues e.g. policies effecting rural communities and project ideas.
Health & Well Being study
During 2007 this network have been heavily involved in a 'Health and Well Being study of Upper Conwy and Lleder Valley.’
The importance of Health and Well Being cannot be underestimated and is of great interest in the rural communities. These issues have been highlighted in a number of studies conducted recently in the area, not least a number of participatory village appraisals communities groups have conducted using funding from Rural Community Action. Access to services was also highlighted as an issue in the recently RCA funded study by Conwy Community Transport especially amongst the less mobile residents.
The initial stages of the Health & Well Being Study currently being developed in Rural Conwy indicate significant problems with emotional health across the population but in particular with young people. The network group with RCA support are just about to develop a rural stress programme for young people. This could be a totally pioneering programme and an all Wales pilot for rural areas - namely a community identifying its own solutions to an extremely common problem.
Health professionals interviewed also confirmed that young people in particular have problems:
"The instances of child & adolescent depression is high”.
"Because people live in small knit communities bullying can carry on in the community after people leave school”.
"People are generally unhappy”.
"The poverty I have seen in pockets of the rural area is worse than in some areas of an inner city.”
Emotional Health covers a variety of issues including alcohol and drug abuse, mental health issues, such as depression and risk of suicide. The majority of respondents view this as an issue of high priority. The feeling being that these may be aspects of isolation.
In summary the Health & Well Being study is highlighting issues which contribute to the poverty/ deprivation within the rural area.
RCA is part of the Community Regeneration team in Conwy along with Communities First. It is interesting to note that none of the Communities First areas are in the 14 rural wards. The Health and Well Being study has highlighted areas of deprivation, which would be best tackled by a Communities First programme as it concentrates on the needs as RCA concentrates on the wider community focus. We would like the Assembly to keep supporting initiatives like RCA which is building capacity of groups to change things for the better in their own community. Any further questions regarding the Rural Community Action programme in Conwy please contact Lisa Walchester on 01492 643161. Any statistics for Conwy are available on our website or alternatively contact Janine Edwards on 01492 575291.
Observations made by
Ann Carroll- Principle Officer -Community Regeneration
Lisa Walchester- Rural Community Action Officer
