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Community and togetherness were the themes at the official opening of a refurbished computer room at Senghenydd Youth Drop In Centre.

For more than a quarter of a century, SYDIC has been providing vital support to youngsters, their families, and the wider community.

But during that time, various funding challenges have seen it close to shutting its doors for good. While its future is looking brighter these days thanks to potential funding from a planned nearby wind farm, it remains a sad fact that such services across the country are chronically underfunded.

The newly refurbished room, with up-to-date computers, podcasting equipment and games machines, has been funded largely through donations from the private sector.

TV company Sky, through its ‘Sky Up’ funding programme, civil engineering firm Prichards, Bond Demolition, and others have all contributed to the project, which was opened on Thursday April 11 by His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Gwent, Brigadier Robert Aitken CBE.

SYDIC’s Dave Brunton said the computer room would be a way of bringing people together to socialise, but also to help older members of the community do things like online banking.

While the pandemic is no longer with us, the effects of being told to stay indoors still linger.

He explained: “We have found since Covid it has been harder to engage with youngsters – the whole landscape has changed and we needed to do something to change that.

“It’s a chicken and egg thing. If you’ve got something, people will come, but you need people through the door to be eligible for things.

“It’s become more and more difficult to get funding – especially the support for staff.”

Bute Energy, the company behind the proposed Twyn Hywel wind farm, introduced Dave to several other firms who could help with the computer room and volunteer their staff for future projects.

He added: “It has been really important to do that. Public money is not going to be available to help us further engage with the community, and for the community to tell us what the priorities are and where help is needed.”

While SYDIC’s focus is on the youth – it currently has around 100 members – its support extends further than that particular demographic.

But the difficulty can often lie in the aims of a particular pot of funding. Quite often bodies and organisations granting funds want the focus on particular subjects – a top-down rather than a bottom-up approach.

Laurie Lazenby, a support officer at SYDIC (and Dave’s daughter) explained: “Each individual has their own story – that’s what we link with. They’ve got a need, or a want, and it’s quite hard sometimes with project funding that the focus is not on them.

“Are they being helped with the project? Are they making friends? Developing confidence and self-belief? These are the most important things, not how many people we get through the door.”

The new computer room can offer flexibility to help a wider range of people. Youngsters can use it for gaming while older people can get help accessing services that have moved online.

With new podcasting equipment, there is also scope for other initiatives – such as a recent project to record people’s recollections of Senghenydd and the Aber Valley.

SYDIC’s work was praised by His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Gwent, Brigadier Robert Aitken CBE, who undertook ribbon cutting duties.

He said: “The King is on record as saying that volunteers are the glue that keeps communities together. If we didn’t have volunteers, people who give up their time for others, then our communities would be very much poorer places than they are at the moment.”