Arts Factory

Description & History

Arts Factory is an independent development trust, situated at the heart of disadvantaged communities, in Ferndale at the top of the Rhondda Valleys .

Through a range of community building initiatives and projects, the trust creates life-changing opportunities for extraordinary individuals who feel written-off by society.

It is a deep-rooted organisation that we, and our many volunteers, have worked hard to build. Many of the people we work with have nowhere else to turn and are likely to need our support throughout their lifetime; so we will continue to strive and thrive to be here for all individuals to depend on, for as long as they need it.

Location and Area of Benefit

Arts Factory is based in the Rhondda Valley in South Wales, an area of considerable deprivation.

Arts Factory has one simple aim and that’s to create life-changing opportunities for people who feel marginalised and think that they no longer matter. We believe, more than anything, that no one should be written off and that everyone has something positive to contribute to our community.

What we do – our strap-line, which has been with us from the very beginning says it all “No more throw away people”. This means that we work tirelessly every day to give people the support, motivation and opportunity they need to show what they can really do.

Main services, Enterprises and Activities

Run from our community building (Trerhondda) in the heart of Ferndale, the business has overall operational responsibility for the day to day management of itself and oversees the following social enterprises and in response to the needs of the community:

• Arts Factory Design Studio

An award-winning creative design agency supporting responsible businesses to get their message across

• Factory Books

An online store supplying collectable books to customers from all over the world and which creates volunteering opportunities for at least thirty people every week

• Trerhondda Community Hub

A beautiful stone-built rentable busy community hub, based in the town centre of Ferndale in the Rhondda Fach, which provides flexible business workspace and houses a variety of groups and services

Developing People – Arts Factory provides a service for preschool children and their carers called ‘Fun Factory’, alongside a range of activities for the local community. We offer a very successful volunteering programme to upskill local people.

Arts Factory is currently changing its registration and Company structure to incorporate Charitable Status. Arts Factory is not a large organisation and employs 3 staff and engages with over 40 volunteers.

Emerging & Proposed Future Developments

Their volunteers contribute to a range of team-based projects that:

• provide valued services that meet needs in the wider community;
• create opportunities to learn and develop invaluable skills; and
• develop social enterprises that will fund our work in the future.

Through these projects volunteers develop confidence, improve self-esteem and gain new skills, as well as becoming part of supportive social networks. They give back even more than they gain. They provide valued services to the wider community, they feed into and support social enterprises to fund the work of the organisation and they then go on to help create opportunities for others.

Arts Factory is planning on securing funding alongside its businesses to work with the community to provide a larger volunteering offer and to expand our businesses further.