The Wrexham ESF Partnership

Cyfartal - EQUAL Community Initiative

EQUAL is an ESF (European Social Fund) Community Initiative Programme (CIP). The Scheme is an innovative and exciting programme that tests out new practices and contributes to long-term policy development across Europe.

EQUAL in Wales is part of a UK and European-wide initiative with devolved management and multi-agency involvement. It covers 5 main areas:

Employability
Entrepreneurship
Adaptability
Equal Opportunities
Asylum Seekers

EQUAL brings together key players geographically or in a specific sector; Public administration, non-governmental organisations, social partners, and the business sector form ‘Development Partnerships’, pooling their diverse expertise and experience.

EQUAL Development Partnerships have a variety of different strategies within which they develop and trial new ways of dealing with discrimination and inequality.

Who are we?

As the only Equal Programme in North Wales for the first round, and with the theme of ‘Employability’, Cyfartal has been actively involved in changing the attitudes and perceptions of key service deliverers and employers since November 2001.

Cyfartal’s main focus is ‘Empowerment’; we have already made significant progress towards promoting attitudinal change within North-East Wales. This brochure highlights our successes, and will be continually updated until the conclusion of the project, in May 2005.

Following the resignation of the administrator in May 2004 and the Co-ordinator in September 2004, the North-East Wales Development Partnership, Cyfartal had to be closed earlier than intended in March 2005. Although activities have been halted, the Partnership can still pride itself on achieving some promising outcomes. These include the changing of attitudes and working practices within service delivery agents and local employers.