Subway Project

Young people in Llwynhendy have been working hard on painting a subway to the new Parc Y Scarlets stadium in Llwynhendy. The subway is the VIP entrance to the new stadium. The walls had been sprayed with graffiti, making the entrance an unsightly welcome to the stadium. It also conveyed an unfavourable image of the local community.

Llwynhendy Communities First, supported by Parc Y Scarlets, Carmarthenshire County Council, Llwynhendy Neighbourhood Policing Team and the Integrated Children's Centre in Llwynhendy, has been leading on a project facilitating local young people to transform the subway into an inspiring entrance to Parc Y Scarlets and a welcoming first impression of Llwynhendy.

Using paint supplied by Carmarthenshire County Council, the young people have been painting super-size emblems of Welsh rugby on the subway walls. Through encouraging young people to take ownership of the subway, the project aims to foster a sense of pride in the subway that will reduce the chances of it being sprayed with graffiti.

As a reward for their efforts, members of the project have been given a tour of the Parc Y Scarlets stadium and were given free tickets to watch the Scarlets' first match in the new stadium against Munster last Friday. They have also been kept well-fed with meals from McDonald's, courtesy of Communities First, and picnic bags from Parc Y Scarlets.

The group also carried out a litter pick with Keep Wales Tidy on the day before Friday's match, so the area was looking spick-and-span for the stadium's second match, this time at a limited capacity of 9000 (of a total potential capacity of 15000).

Here are some of the photos the young people took using Carmarthenshire Connect's Sony Ericsson K810i:

And some videos recorded by the project members using Carmarthenshire Connect's Busbi camcorders:

Llwynhendy Volunteer Highly Commended at CAVS Volunteer Centre Awards Evening 2008

Llwynhendy volunteer Tina Miles' efforts have been recognised at the CAVS Volunteer Centre Awards Evening 2008 where she was Highly Commended for the WCVA Wales Volunteer of the Year Award.

Tina volunteers with a range of community groups in the Llwynhendy Communities First ward and helps out with Communities First activities and events. Tina was nominated by Michelle Batten, who used to work in the Llwynhendy Communities First team.

Tina's voluntary activities and the spirit with which she volunteers are encapsulated in her nomination testimony:

Tina is involved in a wide range of Communities First Llwynhendy activities. She helps out with a club for under 7’s, a day club for over 7’s, a food cooperative and plays in the Samba Band. They can always rely on her to be there whatever they are doing. Tina is a true star that they couldn’t do without. She is also the office cleaner and keeps all the staff in order! They have seen her grow in confidence over the last few years and they really appreciate her contribution.

Tina is a key volunteer within Llwynhendy Communities First. She gets everyone involved by telling them what’s going on. She’s always the first to help set up at events and the last to leave. She always gives 100% and cannot do enough to help.

Tina Miles is presented with her certificate by Hywel Gwynfryn

Tina with Llwynhendy Communities First Development Officers Lindy Butler (left) and Gillian Handscomb (right)

Tina, Lindy and Gillian with international rugby referee Nigel Owens (left) and Welsh TV and radio personality Hywel Gwynfryn (right), who were both presenting awards and certificates at the evening

Lindy tells us what groups Tina is involved with

Tina tells us about her evening at the Volunteer Awards

The 2008 Awards Evening was held on Tuesday at The Mountain Gate near Ammanford. The evening was a celebration of volunteering in Carmarthenshire. Certificates for four volunteering award schemes were presented at the event: CAVS Volunteering Awards 2008; WCVA Wales Volunteer of the Year; Millennium Volunteer programme; CAVS Volunteer Centre Training course.

This year's Awards Evening saw the first CAVS Volunteering Awards. Nominations were invited under four categories: Volunteer of the Year (over 25); Green Volunteer of the Year; Young Volunteer of the Year (under 25);and the Ray Gravell Memorial Award. The award winners were Vaughan Williams (volunteer Chairman for Llanelli Centre for the Deaf); Denys Smith (volunteer for The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales); Sian Edwards (volunteer for Carmarthen Youth Project - Dr Mz); and Barbara Louis (volunteer Parent Mentor for families of young offenders) respectively.

The variety of volunteering activities undertaken by those at the evening and the range of volunteers' ages showed how active and diverse the volunteering sector in Carmarthenshire is. The bringing together of people with a like-minded sense of altruism made for a very enjoyable evening for all.

For more information on the CAVS Volunteer Centre see CAVS' website and click on 'Volunteering'. For a list of current volunteering opportunities registered with the CAVS Volunteer Centre, see their pages on the Volunteering Wales website.

New Luncheon Club in Llwynhendy

A new Luncheon Club is now in its second week at the Llwyn yr Ynys Residential Complex in Llwynhendy.

The club is for residents of the complex and senior citizens in local area. Warm wholesome meals are provided for a very reasonable price. It's also a good chance to catch up with friends.

Joan tells Ran about how she enjoys going the new luncheon club at Llwyn yr Ynys. Filmed by Bette

Bernice shares her thoughts on the club and explains how the system works

The fantastic lunch-serving team!

After today's lunch, Brian Jones from Dyfed Powys Police gave some useful advice in a presentation about home security.

Police Sponsor Llwynhendy Special Olympics Athletes

PC Jane Macdonald and Scarlets player Lou Reed with Rob Phibben (left) and Michael Charles (right)

Llwynhendy's local Neighbourhood Policing Team has sponsored Rob Phibben and Michael Charles to compete in the Special Olympics of Great Britain (http://www.sogb.org.uk/), a programme of sports training and athletic competition for children and adults with learning disabilities.

PC Jane Macdonald and Scarlets player Lou Reed met with Rob and Charles during Llwynhendy Youth Group's Wednesday Club yesterday, at Trallwm Hall, Llwynhendy. Rob will be participating in kayaking and Michael will be skiing in the Special Olympics.

The sponsorship money was raised from the Blue Light Discos that the Neighbourhood Policing Team has held at Trallwm Hall in Llwynhendy. Money has also been given to Llwynhendy Youth Group.

Healthy Eating Tuck Shop Launched at Wednesday Club

Llwynhendy Youth Group has launched a new healthy eating tuck shop at the group's Wednesday Club. The tuck shop is launched after a £500 grant from Llanelli Rural Council.

Replacing the chocolate, crisps and fizzy drinks of the old tuck shop are filled rolls, fruit, cereal bars, yogurts, milkshakes and smoothies. The new foods are a real hit with the many children who are members of Wednesday Club.

Llanelli Rural Council presents the grant cheque to members of the Youth Group.

Left to right: Ryan Jones; Cllr Gwynne Wooldridge (Chair of the Education and Childrens Service Scrutiny Committee); Cllr Dillwyn Bowen (also Treasurer of Trallwm Hall Management Committee); Cllr Clive Reynolds; Mohammad Ali

Wednesday Club members display some of the new healthy food on offer

Water Vole Action Group Clean Up

The Llanelli Water Vole action Group held a clean up of the Berwick Levels in Llwynhendy this morning, with support from Keep Wales Tidy.

A lot of litter was collected from the immediate areas and ditches at the last clean up in April. Today was a chance get deeper into the hedges, where rubbish had been fly-tipped.

The group alongside the rubbish retrieved from the hedges.

A busy team.

CAVS Volunteering Office Rachel Lovell with Owen Jones, CAVS Environment & Sustainabilty Manager.

Rachel finds an old paint pot on the levels.

So many items were gathered that Keep Wales Tidy's trailer was used to carry the rubbish to the collection point - here Jessica Lloyd (left) helps Water Vole Action Group Chair Isobel Macho load up the trailer.

Pulling and pushing the trailer - a top team effort!

Llwynhendy Carnival!

Once again it was that time of year for Llwynhendy Carnival! Organised and coordinated by Communities First Llwynhendy with lots of support for local groups, organisations and volunteers the day was a brilliant success!

With the sun shining, hundreds of Llwynhendy residents took to the street for the largest parade the community has yet to see, followed by a packed out afternoon of FUN at Trallwm Hall.

With stalls, displays, face painting, pottery workshops, circus skills workshops, a full fun fair, bouncy castles, and fair games there was plenty to entertain all throughout the day.

(Pottery Workshops)

(Twistypix Stall)

The days displays included The Llwynhendy Samba Band, Circusdayze fire display and a Karate display.

(Sianne from Circusdayze)

As if you couldn't get more into one day there was a raffle/Prize Draw and the judging of the parade groups and the best fancy dressed.

The results were:

Group parade:

1st place went to ICC Butterflies & Pink Ladies (pictured below)

2nd place went to Ty Enfys Wild West (pictured below)

3rd place went to Back to basic Clowns

Best fancy dressed:

1st Laura Batty from Last of the Summer Wine
2nd The Skeleton Kid

3rd Hannah the Winged Princess

(The carnivals Glamorous Gran Christine)

(Some more fancy dress!)

(Our on-duty policeman for the afternoon)

(Lloyd the compere for the day)

(A fluffy stall with raffle)

Aled and the rest of the team at Communities First wishes to send a BIG thank you to all the residents who turned out and support the event and looks forward to next years carnival!

Back to Basics - Inbetweenies Club

Every Monday, parents and their children get together at the Trallwm Hall, Llwynhendy for the Inbetweenies parents group.

The group was set up to give parents an opportunity to meet up with other parents and their children with support from Back to Basics.

Yesterday the children were taken down to the local play area to meet Auntie Batty (pictured above). All the kids thoroughly enjoyed the session in the lovely sunshine and after went back to the hall for biscuits, cakes music and some more fun!

The group has now finished for the summer term but will be back again in October. The group is open to all parents and children and in a great chance to meet others in your community.

BACK TO BASICS HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL AT THE CLUB AGAIN IN OCTOBER!

Llwynhendy Fun Day

As a taster session for the local Carnival next month, Llwynhendy Communities First organised an exciting fun day for all the local children, parents and residents of Llwynhendy on Saturday.

The day was organised in partnership with Carmarthenshire County Council, Back to Basics, Trallwm Forum and Llwynhendy Events Committee.

With lots of familiar faces turning out to show their support the day was a great success and used to pick this years Carnival King and Queens, Prince's and Princesses and of course the glamorous grandma and greatest grandad.

(This years chosen Kings & Queens)

Back to Basics had their chocolate fountain in the hall serving a healthy but chocolaty combination of fresh fruit and melted chocolate which i'm sure everyone would agree was delicious!

(Back 2 Basics chocolate fountains)

A number of community stalls were also on site with jumble sales, cakes stands and the local food-coop helping raise money for this years Carnival.

(Llys Caradog Childrens Centre Stall)

(Artwork and jewellery from Sonia at TwistyPix)

The Llwynhendy Events Committee had their marquee with arts, crafts and pottery lessons from Yoka Kilkelly (http://www.siramik.co.uk/).

(Pottery classes from Yoka)

Children had plenty to do over the course of the afternoon with two bouncy castles, pony rides, the above arts and crafts and not forgetting the ice cream van!

(Guy Smith from Circusdayze)

Circusdayze provided a circus workshops for the afternoon with plenty of activities including, juggling, spinning plates, stilts and much more. Please see http://www.circusdayze.co.uk/ for more information.

And not forgetting the brilliant Llwynhendy Samba Band who provided some of the musical entertainment for the afternoon with a march into the hall grounds.

ZooLab Visit Llwynhendy

The Back to Basics group in Llwynhendy arranged a hands-on exotic animal workshop for children in the area. The workshop, delivered by ZooLab, featured a variety of animals - some were furry, some were scaly and some were scary! See some of them in the photos below -they were taken by the Llwynhendy Communities First Team using their digital camera.

Llwynhendy Youth Group's New Garden Project

Llwynhendy Youth Group started on new garden project this week. Members of the group are improving the garden in Llwyn yr Ynys Residential Complex. The project is supported by Llwynhendy Communities First and BTCV.

It's a bit windy, but watch the video below, recorded by a Youth Group member, to hear Ryan Keenan, Senior Project Officer with BTCV explain about this garden project.

Today's activities included de-turfing around pathways ready for flower planting, building bird houses (which was a good test of everybody's assembly skills!) and sawing wood ready for the flower beds.

The team

Digging around the paths ready for a flower bed

A bit of the bird box kit

Putting the boxes together

To find out more about the work of BTCV, visit their website at http://www.btcv.org.uk/

Wednesday Club

Wednesday Club is a weekly after school club run by Llwynhendy Youth Group and Llwynhendy Communities First. The club offers young people in Llwynhendy the chance to get together, have some fun and enjoy various activities and facilities.

First, a welcome from club members...

Over three Wednesday Club sessions, club members took 134 photos and 39 videos on Carmarthenshire Connect's mobile phones. Here are some of them.

Llanelli's Scarlets' Lou Reed drops in...

Wednesday Club is the community project that Llanelli Scarlets' Lou Reed supports. He had his photo taken with some club members. Also, watch the video below to see Amy interview Lou.

New Llwynhendy CF Offices

The Communities First Llwynhendy offices have moved!

(Aled Davies - Llwynhendy Communities First co-ordinator - outside their new offices)

The team and staff on Llwynhendy Communities First are enjoy their new, spacious and more practical offices after being re-located a few yards from their old office on Pemberton Road, Llwynhendy.

The new offices are next to Labrokes betting shop and consists of more office space, larger storage area, a kitchen, a large meeting room and a room for their new school uniform exchange project they will be launching soon.

They also plan to have an information room where local residents can call in for a cup of tea and a chat as well to keep up with their area's latest developments.

Upstairs will eventually have an computer and telephone for community groups to use to gain access to the Internet an make phone calls.

If you're in the area then why not call in and see the new office.

Llwynhendy Dads Visit Picton Castle

The Llwynhendy Dad's Group enjoyed a superb (although damp!) visit to Picton Castle in Pembrokeshire with The Gateway Gardens Trust last Wednesday. After making the coach journey from Ty Enfys Family Centre in Llwynhendy, the day started with a tour of the woodland gardens and the walled gardens.

Enjoying the plants. Taken by Gary.

Taken by Paul.

Taken by David.

Taken by Jeanette.

The walled garden. Taken by Cerub.

This trip was part of The Gateway Gardens Trust's Bittersweet programme of visits. The Bittersweet project looks at the links between the salve trade and historic gardens - it was interesting to learn about the links that Picton Castle had with the slave trade.

Taken by Cerub.

Jeanette from The Gateway Gardens Trust explains about the different types of mint that grow in the walled garden. We then had a mint tea tasting session.

After a bowl of hearty Leek & Potato soup and sandwiches, it was time to take a look around the castle shop and enjoy some of the artwork on display that school pupils had painted on their trips to the castle. Then an excellent tour of the castle was enjoyed.

In front of the art wall.

Picton Castle. Taken by Gary.

The group just before we leave. Taken by Paul.

The Gateway Gardens Trust creates and pays for special tailor-made visits to historic parks and gardens in Wales and the West Midlands for a diverse range of community groups, schoolchildren and Lifelong Learners. Find out more about the Trust on their website at www.gatewaygardenstrust.org.

Llwynhendy Dads Group was started up in July 2007 by NCH Cymru and is supported by a variety of partner organisations including Communities First Llwynhendy and Ty Enfys Family Centre.

Llwynhendy Litter Pick

Llwynhendy Dads Group held a litter pick today. The event was organised by NCH Cymru in partnership with Keep Wales Tidy, Llwynhendy Communities First and the Back to Basics Group. As the big pile of black bags shows, a lot of litter was picked up in an hour and a half!