Arts Factory has one simple aim and that’s to create life-changing opportunities for people who feel marginalised and think that they no longer matter. They believe, more than anything, that no one should be written off and that everyone has something positive to contribute to the community.

What they do – the strap-line, which has been with us from the very beginning says it all “No more throw away people”. This means that they work tirelessly every day to give people the support, motivation and opportunity they need to show what they can really do.

Picture this. It’s 1990 in the Rhondda Valleys and a group of local people is growing increasingly tired of being excluded and labelled as “problems”. Instead of accepting that judgement, this group committed to actively doing something about it. They decided to work together to improve the quality of their lives by creating Arts Factory – the independent development trust that is still going strong today.

Literally thousands of people have benefited since they started.