Equality and Inclusion Grant programme: grants awarded

Alzheimer’s Society

Across West Wales and Powys, the project will embed 4.2 full-time equivalent (FTE) Hospital Dementia Advisers (“HDAs”) to develop dementia-informed hospital discharge pathways. 

The role of HDAs builds on the organisation’s community-based dementia advisers and will be adapted to work collaboratively with hospital teams, patients, and carers to ensure timely and appropriate person-centred transitions from hospital to home or community care. 

By embedding dementia expertise within discharge planning, the pilot aims to reduce readmissions, enhance patient wellbeing, and support carers through tailored advice and resources. The pilot addresses gaps in dementia care during discharge planning and aims to reach around 300 people living with dementia.

Bridges Centre

Quest Busters (QB) will deliver an innovative, collaborative project for children with additional needs across Monmouthshire. Two co-production workshops with children and families will design Settle-In Planners/Journals and Sensory Kits, including mindfulness exercises, feelings check-ins, games, and sensory supports. These tools will enhance holiday and one-off activities (sports, arts, cooking, and outdoor play) helping children settle, self-regulate, and participate fully. A Learning Pack will be produced to capture QB’s six years of creative, members-led practice, offering insights for other organisations if useful, while focusing primarily on benefiting children and families directly.

LGBT+ Cymru Helpline (Progress Cymru Counselling)

This project will pilot an Integrative Conflict Resolution Therapy (ICRT) across South Wales.

ICRT is a proactive model that moves beyond crisis management, equipping individuals with lifelong skills to navigate challenges and build resilience. 

The project will create a sustainable blueprint for therapeutic support, contributing directly to a more equal, resilient, and healthier Wales.

Rhyl City Strategy

This project will co‑design, develop and test a dedicated bi‑lingual accessible employment platform to support inclusive recruitment and improve access to work for disabled and neurodivergent jobseekers across North Wales.

The Royal National Institute of Blind People

This project aims to ensure that everyone in Wales can live their lives through the medium of Welsh, no matter their accessible communication needs. Through an e-learning module RNIB Cymru will provide an overview of the issues arising from inaccessible communication and outline best practices for organisations to produce accessible communication bilingually. 

Offering insight from Wales’ largest sight loss charity, this modular course will be appropriate for a range of organisations who function bilingually in Wales. This resource will be developed in Welsh and English and will encompass guidance on print, digital and in-person communication streams.

SEF Cymru

This project will establish a new collaborative model for tackling inequality and promoting inclusion among Somali and wider ethnic minority communities in Cardiff and Newport.

Led by Himilo, The Somali Cymru Alliance, and delivered with 11 grassroots partners, the project will pilot innovative approaches to leadership development, inclusive service access, co-production with public bodies, and community-led problem solving. 

Activities will strengthen representation, build confidence, and create structured pathways for participation in civic life, education, employment, and wellbeing services. 

By combining lived experience with collective leadership, this project will generate sustainable learning, new partnerships, and a replicable equality model for Wales.

The project will provide:

• training for 50 lived-experience community leaders (minimum 50% women)
• structured participation pathways for youth, elders, and families
• peer-led support groups addressing gender, wellbeing, and mental health
• inclusive information sessions with public bodies to address access barriers
• co-design processes ensuring service adaptations reflect community needs

Brecon and District Mind

This project will train and support a group of volunteers, many with lived experience, as mental health ambassadors giving talks to community groups across south Powys. It will focus on individual stories and mental health journeys to reduce stigma and the importance of connection and early help, promoting pathways to support.

Community Cooperation Wales CIC

This project will create a Community Inclusion and Employability Hub in Cardiff, reducing exclusion by equipping disadvantaged groups such as ethnic minorities, disabled people and LGBTQ+ communities with skills, rights awareness, and resilience against discrimination. Through workshops, mentoring, and campaigns, participants will gain confidence, opportunities, and employability pathways, delivering lasting impact across Wales’ equality objectives.

Cymunedau’n Ymlaen Môn Communities Forward

This project will raise awareness of the barriers faced by people with protected characteristics in Anglesey. The project will directly engage residents with lived experience, ensuring their voices shape activities and outcomes. 

Through community engagement / employer engagement / digital inclusion, it will build public understanding, influence local services and employers, and empower underrepresented groups. The work will contribute to the National Equality Objectives by promoting inclusion, tackling inequality, and strengthening community cohesion across Anglesey.

Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Anti-Violence and Policing Group (Galop)

This project will set up two parallel online psychosocial group programmes for LGBTQ+ adults across Wales who have experienced either domestic abuse or hate crime and identity-based violence/abuse. Each group will run for 12 weeks (2 hours per week), offering trauma-informed support and awareness education. 

The Domestic Abuse Recovery Group (DARG) will focus on healing from relationship-based harm, while Repairing the Rainbow will support survivors of hate crime and harassment. 

Both will build resilience, promote inclusion, and strengthen understanding of rights, equality, and community belonging in Wales. These recovery groups will be delivered online to provide extensive geographical reach.

Gypsies and Travellers Wales Limited

The scheme will expand the W.E.S.T (Wellbeing, Employment, Skills and Training) model into Mid and West Wales, providing engagement, learning support and community development activities for Gypsy and Traveller families. 

It will deliver weekly outreach led by an Engagement Officer, supported by sessional workers for children’s activities, civic participation, digital skills and women’s wellbeing sessions. 

The project will improve confidence, digital access, education, health awareness and involvement in community life. It will also strengthen relationships between families and local services to reduce inequality, increase participation and provide practical support that meets the needs identified by the community.

Menter Iaith Sir Caerfilli

This is a Welsh-medium creative community project for local LGBTQIA+ communities that offers LGBTQIA+ people opportunities to participate in artistic activities in Welsh. The aim of the project is to nurture identity, confidence and creativity in a safe, inclusive and supportive space. The highlight of the project will be community events as part of Ffiliffest.

The National Autistic Society Cymru

National Autistic Society Cymru will deliver ‘Understanding Autism’ sessions across 22 Welsh local authorities through their volunteer branches network. This programme tackles gaps in autism awareness, helping reduce discrimination and improve access to public services for autistic people.

A Senior Branch Volunteer Engagement Officer will support branches delivering in-person sessions and coordinate online sessions for those who prefer joining remotely.

Sessions are led by trained autistic and non-autistic volunteers. Target audiences include employers, education staff, public service workers, and community groups. 

By building understanding, they will create inclusive communities where autistic people can participate fully and face fewer barriers to equality.

NoFit State

This project will build a safe, creative, alcohol free, community space for young LGBTQ+ adults (18 to 30) with a particular focus on engaging with refugees and asylum seekers. 

Working in partnership with TGP Cymru, NoFit State will create a place for connection, friendship, creative expression, for people experiencing inter-sectional discrimination and marginalisation.

Ready Steady Go

This project will pilot an all-round support project for autistic adults aged between 18 and 25 years, specifically supporting those with more complex care and support needs. 

This builds on the existing support services currently provided for the under 18s within the Ready Steady Go project in Monmouthshire.

Rekindle

Two key local organisations for 13 to 25 year olds will come together to research and consult with minoritised communities and develop their practice to enable young people from all minority ethnic groups in Powys to access support and services.

Renew Mind Centre

Families First Fun! is a youth-led project supporting families from diverse backgrounds in financial hardship, especially those from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities (80% of participants), through inclusive activities. It offers a summer 2026 day trip to Heatherton and six-monthly Youth Arts Days in Swansea, aiming to boost wellbeing, creativity, and community connection among young people and their families.

Show Racism the Red Card

Show Racism the Red Card will deliver “How to Talk About Anti-Racism”, a series of regional roadshows across Wales to build adults’ confidence in discussing race/racism. 

Each event will feature a locally tailored keynote panel and interactive workshops such as “How to Talk About Immigration” and “How to Talk About Allyship in Times of Adversity”. 

Designed in partnership with public/community sectors, the programme supports delivery of the Anti-racist Wales Action Plan (ArWAP) by raising awareness, promoting open dialogue, and equipping participants with practical tools and resources (including a How to Talk About….. toolkit) to embed anti-racist practice within their workplaces and communities.

Swansea Bay University Local Health Board Charitable Fund and Other related Charities

The project ‘Visible Voices: Co-Creating and Amplifying Inclusive Maternity Experiences in Swansea Bay’ promotes equality, inclusion, and belonging in Maternity services by co-producing art that authentically represents the diverse families and staff of Swansea Bay University Health Board. The project ensures all communities feel seen, represented, and valued, creating a more inclusive and welcoming care environment.

The Community Impact Initiative CIC

The Progression Initiative is a project designed to help disadvantaged women access employment. The project will provide women with the wraparound support required to attend interviews and maintain new employment opportunities.

UCAN Productions

The UCAN Collective is a peer-led group of blind and partially sighted young people using creative performances and presentations to challenge barriers, promote inclusion and equality, and change perceptions within the wider community.

The project will formalise and facilitate the structure of a group of older (over 18) members who will use their lived experiences to create and devise performances and presentations to be shared with public, private, and third sector organisations in Wales, as well as Schools, Colleges, and Universities. The collective will deliver awareness training sessions along with creative performances and formal presentations.

Welsh Islamic Cultural Association Swansea (WICAS)

The Welsh Islamic Cultural Association Swansea (WICAS) will expand its successful Sketty Mosque schools programme into an immersive cultural learning experience. 

Visits will be enhanced with interactive displays that highlight the global diversity of Muslim cultures, alongside a mobile exhibition for schools unable to travel. 

Free during the grant period, the project will use artefacts, clothing, food and dialogue to build understanding, challenge prejudice and strengthen community cohesion. 

This initiative will help pupils and teachers explore difference with confidence. As the first project of its kind in Wales, learning will be shared nationally.