Good Neighbours in North Cardiff – GNINC was established in 1981 by Llanishen Churches Together and for most of the time since then were known as “Llanishen Good Neighbours”, becoming a registered charity in 2000. During the early years the organisation was run by volunteers from the churches together with one of the local clergies acting as a chairperson.
In 2015, following the closure of many other good neighbour schemes in Cardiff, we changed our name to “Good Neighbours in North Cardiff” as this more correctly reflected the areas we cover – Thornhill, Llanishen, Lisvane, Heath, Roath Park, Lakeside and west Cyncoed. In 2024 we are expanding to include Rhiwbina in our service area.
Cardiff has grown significantly over the last 25 years. Although, population projections indicate a slowdown in growth over the next 25 years (2018-2043), there is still a projected increase of 24,642 residents, with those aged 65+ seeing the highest growth rate and particularly in the North Cardiff area.
We aim to match our community volunteers with people who need our help in our North Cardiff community. We also support our volunteers by ensuring they have the support and training to carry out the tasks requested.
We are members of the Council for the Third Sector in Cardiff (C3SC) who support voluntary organisations across the city. We also work closely with Age Connects who provide similar services across the rest of the city and into the Vale of Glamorgan. We are now part of the Age Friendly Cardiff Forum; which is hosted by Cardiff Council and chaired by the Older People’s Champion for Cardiff, Cllr Thomson. Consultation, information gathering and sharing is the main purpose of the Forum, with an overall aim of exploring how the lives of older people in Cardiff can be improved.
We do not have any core funding from the statutory bodies, so every penny we spend has to be raised.
We do this through donations from the people receiving our services, through fundraising events like our Christmas Concert and then we apply for money from Trusts who support the work we carry out. More details about our funding can be found in our Annual Report.
The charity provides just over 4000 hours of volunteering per year, and the organisation of matching clients and volunteers is carried out by a part time team of three people who are equivalent to 1.25 people working full time. We also have a granted funded post, a part time Community Volunteer Engagement Officer, until March 2025 to help promote our services and expand into Rhiwbina.
In 2015, following the closure of a lot of other good neighbour schemes in Cardiff, we changed our name to Good Neighbours in North Cardiff or GNINC. The areas we cover are Thornhill, Llanishen, Lisvane, Heath, Roath Park, Lakeside and Cyncoed.
In 2024 we received a grant from the Welsh Government administered by WCVA to modernise and expand our services to include Rhiwbina.
We hope to achieve this by the end of 2024.
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“Mae gwirfoddoli'n lleol yn ffordd wych o wneud gwahaniaeth a chysylltu ag eraill yn ein cymuned. Mae'n ymwneud â gwneud gwahaniaeth i fywydau pobl yn fy nghymuned. Maen nhw'n fy ysbrydoli i barhau i wirfoddoli. Ni ddylid tanbrisio'r effaith y mae gwirfoddolwyr yn ei chael ar bobl ac elusennau yn ein cymuned.”
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