Building Community Resilience

Content Accordions

• North Wales Children's University (NWCU)

  The North Wales Children’s University aims to encourage children and young people to actively engage in extracurricular activities, with the aim of building confidence, aspirations and achievement.

  Within the NWCU 2023/24 pilot, a total of 1,272 children and young people engaged in the programme of activities. Overall, 51 schools and 9 community groups across 6 local authority areas participated in the programme.

  

  Through the project, we facilitated over 27,108 hours of extracurricular learning hours across the region.

  When CYP had completed 30 hours of extracurricular activity, they achieved a bronze award and became eligible for certification at a graduation ceremony. Furthermore, higher-level CU Silver and Gold certificates were awarded to CYP who completed 65 hours (Silver) and 100 hours (Gold) of validated CU activity. A total of 669 children and young people achieved certification across five university graduation ceremonies.

  

   

• Project in a Box

  We developed a number of 'Projects in a Box' which were delivered throughout the community, and provided resources and activities on a variety of topics:

  • Eisteddfod
  • Gresford Colliery Disaster
  • TrACE – Navigating the Storm
  • Making Medicine
  • Space Pizza

  

  Since the inception of Projects in a Box we have engaged with 25 schools and 3 care homes. As well as this, the Gresford project boxes were showcased to all generations at the National Eisteddfod in Wrexham in August 2025. This project was also featured on the Welsh language television show ‘Heno’.

  

  Partners worked with on this project include: Wrexham Miners Project, ACE Hub Wales, North East Wales Archives, Wrexham Archives,  Ipsen Global, and  GroZen.

  

   

• Bob Talks

  The Bob Talks project supports CYP in developing public speaking skills and confidence through the delivery of ‘Public Narrative’ training and support from the Civic Mission team.

  In 2024, we supported 7 schools to deliver TEDx-style talks (‘Bob Talks’) on the topic of mental health and well-being.

  In April 2025 we supported 5 schools and 1 community group to deliver Bob Talks on the topic of ‘Belonging’.

  The actions and asks of the young people during their Bob Talks are shared with leaders across the region and have direct impact on the future projects we and our partners run.

  The Bob Talks project continues to grow, with pupils being given the opportunity to speak in front of large groups of influential changemakers across the region, such as at Future Vision leadership event, and alongside the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, Rocío Cifuentes. In 2026 the project continues to grow, with pupils from North Wales presenting their narratives at a major ACE Hub Wales event this spring.

  

• Tomorrow's Changemakers Programme

  We have worked with South-Wales based organisation, Cymbrogi, to develop and pilot the ‘Tomorrows Changemakers Project’ (TCM) in North Wales. We have piloted the project across 2 Welsh-medium secondary schools in 2025.

  TCM focuses on Year 8 pupils- encouraging them to explore ideas about the circular economy and sustainability within a project-based learning model. After completing a number of key modules on these topics, learners were provided with a choice of areas in which to build a business and develop an innovative idea to support their local area.

  Research has been embedded throughout this project, to find out more about its impact on young people’s future subject choices for GCSE.

  

• Storytelling as a Method for Change (Wales Innovation Network)

  Alongside partners from Swansea University, Cardiff University (SPARK) and Durham University, we hosted a storytelling sandpit for over 60 attendees- learning, networking and storyboarding to develop new ideas around how storytelling can be used as a method for progress and change in health, care and well-being services in Wales.

  

• 100 Stories

  We worked in partnership with BCUHB on the Bevan Commission exemplar, 100 Stories project- which supported young people to tell their stories of transitioning from children's to adult health services. We delivered an impact report and championed the findings of this work to develop and change the ways we engage with citizens voices within the Wrexham and Flintshire PSB.