Past Gweini Conferences
Archive (English and Welsh Versions)

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Counting for 'Our' communities

The Place of Faith and the Pursuit of Excellence

Tool Kit: The Nuts and Bolts of Community Work

Making the Essential Connection:

The Church and European Funding:

Objective 1, 2 and 3: Navigating the Funding Maze

May 11th (Rhyl) 18th (Swansea) 25th (Cardiff) 2001
Some 300 church leaders learned about Navigating Through the Maze of European funding, at three conferences organised by Gweini - the partnership of the Evangelical Alliance Wales, CARE for Wales, Cornerstone Church and Tearfund Wales. The conferences, held in May, helped churches and para-church organisations learn how to access some of the £2.4 billion of European money earmarked for social projects in Wales.

Under the current political climate, government leaders are increasingly looking to involve voluntary groups, including churches and Christian charities, in welfare provision. (The various issues surrounding 'faith-based welfare' were explored in the previous issue of idea magazine.) Gweini is the first body in the UK to be created specifically to address the political and economic possibilities of faith-based welfare.

The conferences were held at Sussex Street Baptist Church, Rhyl, Cornerstone Church, Swansea and Thornhill Church, Cardiff. The conferences were attended by leaders representing a wide variety of denominations, including charismatic, Pentecostal, Anglican, Salvationist and United Reformed churches, as well as para-church organisations. Some had projects up and running, some were in the process of setting up projects, and others had realised the need but were not sure how to get started.

Julian Richards, whose own church project is considered a successful model of faith-based welfare, led the Gweini conferences alongside Daniel Boucher, Assembly liaison officer for the Evangelical Alliance Wales. Richards says: 'The mood was very positive. People are encouraged by the possibilities of faith-based welfare, and there is a genuine interest in working through the implications. There was a sense that we were responding to and serving the felt needs of church leaders in Wales at this key time.'

Gweini is now evaluating how these meetings went as it plans its next series of follow-on conferences. Based on the response of those attending, Richards says there is a need to educate churches wanting to get involved in social and community work, about how they can go about it in practical ways. There is also a challenge for the Christian community to explore using more business and entrepreneurial skills in their practices, he adds.

Wales: A Community of Communities:

The Social Environment and the definition of the Sustainable Development Scheme

March 17th 2000, Cardiff
Gweini's first national conference was held on March 17th 2000 in the context of the National Assembly for Wales consultation on the definition of its Sustainable Development Scheme. The conference was attended by 150 delegates who came unusually in roughly equal numbers from the Christian and Wider Voluntary Sector. Chaired by Donald Anderson MP, the conference enjoyed a keynote address from Prof. Sir John Houghton Vice Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and member of the UK Sustainable Development Panel. Addresses were also given by:

Val Feld AM, Chair of the Economic Development Committee
Marjorie Dykins, Chair of the Wales Council for Voluntary Action
Sarah Richards, Co-ordinator of the GAP Project
John Osmond, Director of the Institute of Welsh Affairs
Janet Ryder AM, Shadow Local Government Minister
Dr Michael Schluter and John Ashcroft from the Relationships Foundation
Roger Smith of CARE

There was also a politicians panel including:
Dai Lloyd AM Plaid Cymru
Mike Bates AM Liberal Democrats
David Davies AM Conservative
The National Assembly Sustainable Development Unit, consisting of Charles Coombes and Lisa Dobbins, was also in attendance.