Community Assets, Participation and Integration: Taking Action Locally (CAPITAL) Public Health Wales

There is evidence that social housing tenants and people seeking sanctuary (asylum seekers and refugees) more commonly suffer from mental health issues, financial and economic deprivation, and isolation than other groups of people.

This project brought together people from these groups in the Morriston area of Swansea and empowered them to work together to use and build on their assets to tackle shared barriers to integration.

Through facilitating asset-based workshops, an action group was developed. Over the course of the project, 16 people participated in the group. With the outbreak of COVID-19, nine participants left the group. The remaining seven participants developed and implemented their community project, ‘We love Morriston’. The group met weekly (via Zoom during lockdown) and kept in touch through a WhatsApp group. They made a collective decision to focus on the delivery of a newsletter to highlight activities in the local area and to share their skills.

Through this project, the group members were able get to know others with very different backgrounds and life experience to their own. Working together, on everything from sharing traditional recipes from their country of origin to taking the first steps in using social media, helped the group to bond and feel empowered. 

This collaboration and building of new friendships resulted in participants scoring more highly on a number of measures on the Home Office’s Indicators for Integration. These included self-efficacy, confidence and resilience.

Using learning from the project, an interactive roadmap was produced, aimed at policy and decision-makers to help them involve communities who are often underrepresented.

A series of webinars disseminated the learning and a video was shared through social media, highlighting the impact of the project on participants’ lives.

The Welsh government is creating a framework for integration for migrants, and it is looking to incorporate learning from this project.

Contact information

For more information about this project, please contact Helen Green, Programme Manager, Public Health Wales.