Medrwn Môn’s Place Shaping empowers Anglesey communities through community alliances to actively shape local services. Previously, traditional top-down service provision often overlooked unique community needs. This created a barrier to citizen participation, with citizens often feeling disengaged from the decisions that affected them.

Medrwn Môn’s Place Shaping was developed with Anglesey County Council to help find a solution. Supported by funding from the Welsh Government and using the principles of Wales’ Third Sector Scheme, the programme set up Community Alliances which create a map of community assets in their area, including physical facilities and the availability of local skills and experiences. They would then work with statutory services to develop services based on local assets and needs.

The benefits of Place Shaping have included an increase in attendance of community groups, use of community buildings, and more opportunities for volunteering. The Môn Community Link, a social prescribing programme for residents, has become the single point of access for early intervention and prevention services for statutory providers including the community mental health team, housing support providers, GPs, and the local police.

One of the Community Alliances, the Seiriol Alliance, is now a Charitable Incorporated Organisation employing its own staff, running its own community transport scheme and is generating its own money for small-scale community-led projects. This has improved government and civil society relationships by facilitating greater trust and a culture of shared responsibility.

Services, which are both devolved and reserved, have become more relevant and accessible, building stronger community resilience through active participation. Public sector partners remain committed to meaningful community planning, with Place Shaping now directly written into Anglesey Council executive job descriptions and duties and a commitment to ensure all council departments are aware of their responsibilities to sustain this way of working.