Our History
In 1979 Penygraig Community Project was established, a community development initiative with 2 staff on jobshare and a small group of volunteers, working predominantly with disaffected teenagers in a whitewashed coal cellar of the local Probation office. The local community were keen to develop activites for younger children and approached the Project for support. Together they learned how to make bouncy castles and began to run Play and Afterschool sessions. This developed into a wide range of support services run by and for the local community.
The congregation of Soar Baptist Chapel which was suffering from dry rot and a leaky roof offered it as a gift to the Project in 1980. The hard work and commitment of local volunteer labour and 7 years of fundraising later, Prince Charles opened Soar as a community and arts resource. The Project became known for its grassroots up approach to community development and was invited into other challenging communies in the Rhondda. In 1999 the Project became Valleys Kids to better reflect its geographic spread and its growth. In each of the communities in which we work a key factor is working in partnership with each community to identify specific needs and to address them together.
