Power in Community: launching our manifesto Thriving Welsh Communities

Today we launch Thriving Welsh Communities  a manifesto built by communities, for communities. It’s the result of months of conversations, workshops, and collaboration with hundreds of people involved in community action across Wales, from Llanhilleth to Llangefni and Narberth to Shotton. What emerged is a powerful vision for a Wales where community-led action is recognised, respected, and supported.

Why This Matters

Community groups across Wales play a vital role in supporting wellbeing, tackling inequality, building community cohesion and strengthening local economies. Yet, they often operate in a policy environment that offers limited support and inconsistent resourcing – with very varied experiences in the quality of partnership working with the public sector.

Despite this, their impact is profound and growing.

Thriving Welsh Communities calls on the next Welsh Government to unlock the true potential of community-led action by making it central to policy rather than a marginal concern.

Supporting community action is an essential investment in social and economic wellbeing, especially in more disadvantaged and peripheral areas.

Community action ensures that people can access support and opportunities in ways and places that are accessible and appropriate, and they provide vital preventative services that reduce pressures elsewhere on public services. 

While communities have responded and filled gaps where the formal public sector cannot, a sustained lack of investment and support risks these community organisations being overworked, stretched too thin and pushed to the point of collapse.

The choice for political parties in Wales is clear: either support and invest in community action now or face higher costs and deeper challenges in future.

Turning Vision into Reality

Thriving Welsh Communities sets out four key areas where the next Welsh Government must focus its efforts to support and sustain community-led action. These proposals are grounded in lived experience and practical insight from across Wales.

By embedding community action in policy, we can ensure that decisions made at national and local levels reflect the lived realities of people and the strengths of their communities. Securing fair, strategic, and long-term funding will allow community groups to plan confidently, retain staff and volunteers, and build on what already works—rather than constantly reinventing the wheel to meet short-term funding criteria.

Investing in community anchor organisations will help sustain the trusted relationships and local knowledge that underpin effective support and resilience. These organisations are often the first to respond in times of crisis and the last to leave, providing person-centred support in ways that statutory services cannot.

Protecting and enhancing community spaces, by championing community asset ownership is vital. These places are more than land and buildings—they are the social infrastructure that enables connection, creativity, and care. Without them, the ability of communities to come together, support one another, and build collective wellbeing is severely diminished.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing more evidence and detail on these priorities, including why they matter, what change is needed and the difference it could make.

We invite policymakers, partners and communities to join us in turning these proposals into reality. With the right support, community-led action can flourish, strengthening the social fabric of Wales and delivering lasting improvements in health, wellbeing, and economic resilience.