Overview

The Pen y Cymoedd Community Fund was established by energy company Vattenfall for the benefit of communities hosting the wind farm in and across the upper Neath, Afan, Rhondda and Cynon Valleys. The annual £1.8m fund is managed independently by the Pen Y Cymoedd Community Interest Company (CIC).

What we did

For the last few years, Grasshopper has worked with Vattenfall and the CIC to help raise awareness of the Community Fund at a local level to encourage engagement, as well as raising stakeholder and public awareness about the wider socio-economic impacts of the Fund and wind farm.

This has included coordinating content and production of a bilingual newsletter delivered to around 50,000 local residents, as well as providing media relations support.

Outcome

The CIC is currently undertaking a review of the fund’s focus and aims, the findings of which will be published later this year.

This involves:

• Keeping communities in the know
• Increasing community engagement with the fund
• Helping the community understand the link between the wind farm and the community fund benefit
• Informing the community about what the fund achieves