About us

Strong Communities, Healthier People is one of five flagship engagement projects, collectively known as Transforming Communities, supported by the Vice Chancellor.

The project aims to develop a sustainable model of collaborative research, education, engagement, knowledge exchange and impact between the University and communities that are currently party of the Welsh Government's anti-poverty programme, Communities First. It will help empower communities to have influence over decision making processes that affect their lives.

Through the Communities First structure, we will work with the partnerships to increase community resilience and build the confidence and skills of residents and stakeholders through four work packages. This will lead to improvements in mental health and wellbeing and enhance relations between Cardiff University and local communities; creating a sustainable engagement approach which in the long term can be applied to other forms of University-community engagement.

The project is piloting this approach with two Communities First clusters .The engagement approach will listen to and work with communities; enabling them to become involved in research and evaluation and providing resources to identify and find ways to address community issues. The project will ensure that communities and Cardiff University are equal partners; contributing towards building community resilience, raising local aspirations and achieving positive mental health outcomes.