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A Caerphilly-based gaming club has been given a £20,000 grant – part of which will go towards helping upskill unemployed young adults.

Caerphilly Table-Top Gamers Society (CTG), has welcomed hundreds of children and adults to its gaming hubs across Caerphilly County Borough over the years.

Thanks to support from the National Lottery Community Fund, it can now expand several of its community engagement projects.

The project is headed-up by Vik Yadh, who spoke to Caerphilly Observer ahead of the launch at Caerphilly Library on Saturday February 15, running from 10am to 3.30pm.

Vik said: “We’ve timed the presentation of the cheque with our free Pokemon swap-meet, which is always a popular event in Caerphilly Library.

“This money is going to be huge for us. Originally we had 11 gaming clubs a year – one every month other than August. Now though, thanks to this grant, we’ll be increasing that to 33 clubs for at least the next two years.”

The clubs, which will be held every other Monday in Caerphilly Library between 2pm and 4.45pm, will offer all sorts of games and be a welcoming social event.

As well as expanding on the gaming clubs, the community interest company (CIC) has also been awarded money to develop ‘GamEmploy’, an upskilling workshop aimed at adults aged between 19 and 25.

“We want to try and develop skills needed in the modern workplace. This will involve using InDesign to create a new board game for example.

“We’re working with Caerphilly Employment Services who are providing eight attendees to attend Caerphilly Library once a week for eight weeks.”

Vik has also hosted Caerphilly Comic Cons in the past, and said he’s hoping to restart it soon.

For more details and to get involved, contact Vik at ctgcaerphilly@yahoo.com

Vik recently spoke to Caerphilly MS Hefin David as part of the ‘Caerphilly Heroes’ podcast.