Welsh Government funding boost for Salem Community Project

PRESS RELEASE 13/11/24

Welsh Government funding boost for Salem’s Community Cafe Project

A voluntary group campaigning to bring the community together and breathe life back to their rural Welsh village are celebrating today after being awarded £10,000 to develop their project.  Dyfodol Salem aims to create a new community cafe and social hwb at Neuadd Goffa Heolgaled Salem Memorial Hall, on the outskirts of Salem, near Llandeilo in Carmarthenshire.  The group came together to save their village pub, and although factors outside their control meant that project was not to be - the community refused to lose hope.

'Our campaign this Spring demonstrated that people really want a social space back in Salem: said Aled Williams, project volunteer.  'We already have a small village hall so the natural thing was to refocus the project on improving and extending that - to offer somewhere for all generations to meet informally over a cuppa or a pint." 

Perthyn: Promoting Welsh Language

The grant awarded Dyfodol Salem £10,000 from Welsh Government's Perthyn fund, and is administered by Cwmpas, (formerly Wales Co-operative Centre) - a co-operative development agency working for positive change, in Wales and across the UK focussed on building a fairer, greener economy and a more equal society, where people and planet come first. The grant is aimed at Welsh speaking communities and supports the growth of the language in line with Welsh Governments Cymraeg 2050: Welsh Language Strategy Action Plan 2023-2050  - increasing daily usage of Welsh in the community and in business and the overall number of Welsh speakers to one million by 2050.  

The Perthyn grant is a huge vote of confidence in our project." said Peter Harries, chair of Salem Memorial Hall. "Our language is central to who we are – it’s our history and our heritage but we also want to see it grow here, for our future.  So we're really pleased to be able to kick off the project with a grant aimed at protecting and growing Cymraeg here." 

Connecting the Community

The group are consulting the community on what they'd like from the project and what improved and extended facilities the village hall could provide. While the hall is well used by groups such as WI and Salem’s award-winning Short Mat Bowls club, there's no room for a permanent social space open to the public - leading to a loss of social cohesion, and nowhere for visitors and tourists to eat and drink and connect with the community.

"This grant is wonderful news" said Caroline Welch, project volunteer. "It will enable us to build capacity and deliver bilingual research, development and engagement which in turn will help us raise funds for the project and evidence need in the planning process. People have told us how much they miss the pub – and our pledge campaign this Spring raised £28,000 in just four weeks. So we know there is a real need for the project – and we believe we can make a difference."

Improved facilities could offer affordable food and drink, a permanent cafe or social club and wi fi daytime space, with a small shop, parcel collection and improved space for clubs and societies to meet and socialise. It could provide a tourism offer, jobs for local people and a warm space for the community to connect, meet old friends and make new ones.  Sustainability is key to the project and the ongoing survey work demonstrates how important this is to the community.

New Pop-Up Cafe

This coming Saturday 16th November 10am-2pm Salem Memorial Hall will host its first pop-up ‘Community Café’ at which will run monthly until the new permanent facilities can be built. This is being organised in tandem with a new programme of events, including live music, designed to reach a wider audience and begin to bring the community back together – so that the new community space has strong support when it opens. 

Find out More

To find out more about events, to get involved and support the project visit www.salemgar.org or follow progress on Facebook - Cymuned Salem Community.  

Contact for press - salemgarltd@gmail.com

Image - an artists impression of how the scheme could look.