THE new trust appointed to take over the role offered by the Communities First Programme in North Abergavenny is expected to be supported by Monmouthshire County Council during its first year of operation.

The authority's cabinet members are expected to approve funding totaling £18,203 during 2013/14 to Abergavenny Community Enterprise Trust at their meeting next week.

In the report distributed to members it states that North Abergavenny is the most deprived area of Monmouthshire and is an acknowledged 'hot spot' for a range of challenges such as unemployment, anti-social behaviour and substance misuse.

Originally the Communities First Programme was set up in 2002 and five years later the operation relocated to a resource centre in Hillcrest Road to extend the approach and service available to the community from a building more suited to the growing amount of work undertaken.

Under the Communities First Programme initiative there were a range of achievements including the setting up of a food co-op, supporting access to higher education and providing the infrastructure for services to be delivered in one the county's most deprived communities.

The programme engaged with and involved community members to increase their knowledge, skills and capacity to make informed decisions about the services that affected them directly.

However in 2012 the Communities First framework was revised after which the requirements for the programme were changed to target the most deprived across Wales.

But as Monmouthshire is perceived as an affluent area the criteria no longer applied to Abergavenny, even though many communities still needed help with the planned changes to welfare reform and other issues.

And so the Gwent Association of Voluntary Organisations decided to take out a new five-year lease in June 2012 on the centre so that a trust could take on the role previously undertaken by the Communities First Programme as it was anticipated that the area would still suffer from deprivation and poverty.

The new Abergavenny Community Enterprise Trust, which will operate as a partnership, aims to help young people develop to their full potential in education, by tackling the attainment gap between young people from disadvantaged communities and the rest of the school population.

The partnership aims to create a greater community voice and extend the legacy of the past programme of activity and has identified one of its key aims as that 'Nobody is Left Behind'.

The group is still in its formative stages and is meeting to determine its business plan. The movement from a central government funded programme to self-sustaining self-funding programme will be a real challenge and test the new partnership.

The cabinet members will be told that investing in the scheme will have a positive effect as the Abergavenny Community Enterprise Trust proposals are likely to have a real impact on some of those groups with protected characteristics.

The anticipated value of funding required is £39,203 however the trust has secured partnership funding of £21,000, leaving a shortfall of funding of £18,203.

Sassy Hicks, former Communities First development officer and now a stakeholder in the ACE partnership, said the new initiative will benefit the whole of Abergavenny and surrounding areas.

"We were really sad when Communities First was pulled from north Abergavenny but, instead of seeing it as the loss of a brilliant programme, we are taking the positive view that this is a new opportunity and a new start for the town and that the ACE partnership will be continuing some of the good work that has been done.

"The programme will be community-owned and community-led and everyone is looking forward to the future."

Councillor Phil Hobson, deputy leader and cabinet member for Community Development, said: "I'm very pleased that Monmouthshire County Council is looking to contribute to the package of Local Service Board support that is being put in place to help the establishment of the new Abergavenny Community Enterprise Trust.

"It is a great example of how the public services and the community can work together to address the challenges that exist in our communities.

"The withdrawal of Communities First funding from the north Abergavenny area put at risk a range of services that have been put in place to help reduce the economic, social and health challenges that the area faced – however, working as a partnership we have been able to put in place a package of support that gives the new community trust a real chance of extending the great work that takes place from the Community Resource Centre.

" I look forward to working with the trust in the future and hopefully extending this type of model across Monmouthshire."