About Dove: Introduction and background

VIEW(DOVE) Ltd is a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity within the voluntary sector. The workshop was established during the Miner's Strike 1984 - 85 by a group of women from the Miners' Support Group in the Dulais Valley. The role of the dove workshop is to identify adults in the community seeking education, training and advice on business start-up.

The workshop is a grass roots organisation that has a thorough knowledge of the community, in particular the economic and social factors affecting a mining community; the employment needs in a changing industrial environment; the aspirations of the women and men who live and work in a traditional mining community.

The workshop's catchment area covers the Neath, Dulais and upper Swansea valleys. Within this area there are few large employers and in the Dulais valley, in particular, there are no large employers.

DOVE is situated in the Onllwyn ward within the Neath Port Talbot County Borough and is the 34th ward in the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (2000), and is a designated Communities First ward. The workshop is based at the Banwen Community Centre, previously known as the National Coal Board Open Cast Executive Offices.

The workshop established a Community Co-operative in 1989 to further develop the child care provision, training and office services including Desk Top Publishing. In 1992 it commenced its holistic programme of embedding guidance within all provision, across all sectors offering education and training at the centre.

Principle Aims

DOVE Workshop's role has been and continues to be that of an agent for change and has, as a result of its proactive presence in the community, brought many organisations and agencies together to provide community based education and training facilities. Undoubtedly this initiative has raised the aspirations of adults to seek skills that would regenerate the economic, social and cultural base in the community.

To quantify the outcomes of this work is not easy, however in an attempt to do so, DOVE has participated in two research projects in partnership with the Community University of the Valleys, nevertheless the overwhelming evidence is obvious. The DOVE Workshop has become a thriving example of community enterprise that has grown from the following mission:

• The setting up of a community enterprise to provide a programme to enable participants to realise their full potential. Every education and training course enables adults to learn skills in confidence building, study skills as well as skills relating to the labour market.
  
  
• The four identifiable exit routes are related to tangible outcomes, i.e. every participant achieves something and indicates a high level of achievement. These outcomes are as follows:
  
  
1. Progression to further education or training
2. Progression to higher education provision
3. To evaluate personal development
4. To compete effectively in the labour market
   
   
• Since 1984, when the DOVE Workshop was established, the aims of the organisation have developed and progressed alongside and in conjunction with the social and economic development of the community. To such an extent the progress has coincided with the raised expectations of the community and has attempted to provide the necessary skills training and education provision for adults seeking new opportunities. For this reason the following specific aims will seek to further develop the dove workshop's education, training and community development role in the community.

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