About Us

From championing local community causes to managing multi-million pound projects, we are proud to support vibrant communities and brighter futures for the people who live and work in Wiltshire and Swindon. Find out more about our charity and its work.

About Us

From championing local community causes to managing multi-million pound projects, we are proud to support vibrant communities and brighter futures for the people who live and work in Wiltshire and Swindon.

Vibrant Communities, Brighter Futures

Community First is a registered charity (288117) based in Devizes. As a member of Action with Communities in Rural England, we support communities across Wiltshire and Swindon. Our Patron is Her Majesty The Queen.

Brighter Futures

Community First works tirelessly to help people overcome challenges in their lives and we are passionate about brighter futures for the diverse range of people who live in the communities we serve. We support young people through our national award-winning ‘youth arm’ Youth Action Wiltshire, including Wiltshire Young Carers Service, Splash, Project Inspire and youth club support. Many of our activities for young people take place at our dedicated outdoor education centres at Oxenwood and Linkenholt.

As the managing partner for the Building Bridges and Inspire Swindon programmes, Community First is leading a partnership of organisations in Swindon and Wiltshire, who are working together to help people overcome their barriers to employment and education. The programmes are funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and The National Lottery Community Fund.

Vibrant Communities

We are passionate about helping people work together to identify and find solutions to things that matter to them. From championing local grassroots causes to managing multi-million-pound projects, we are proud to support people and places in the vibrant communities we have served for over 50 years.

We support communities across Wiltshire and Swindon through advisory services for village halls and local councils. We envisage, create and manage projects to support people and places including community transport schemes, community led housing and community organising. Alongside our community development and engagement programmes, we also work with local landfill operators to distribute grant funding for community projects through the Landfill Communities Fund.

Inspiring Ideas

We are a champion for local enterprise and we love fresh ideas that make local communities better places to live and work. We think outside the box to develop new ideas through consultancy, trading and creative services. This includes Community Insurance and Minibus Driver Awareness (MiDAS) training.

Approx volunteers supported directly or through our services

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Annual Review 23/24

Our Annual Review and Celebration Publication is now available to view or download, with a summary of updates from across our programmes and services.

Our Vision

Vibrant communities, brighter futures

Our Aims

Connecting Communities

We strengthen local communities by offering award winning services for people and places across Wiltshire and Swindon. Including community transport schemes, support for village halls and local councils and other community development initiatives.

Tackling Disadvantage

We tackle disadvantage by supporting young people through Youth Action Wiltshire. We also manage the Building Bridges and Inspire Swindon programmes which help people overcome their barriers to employment and education.

Encouraging Enterprise

We aim to encourage rural enterprise by supporting local community initiatives. We offer grants to organisations under various grant schemes, support to village halls and parish councils looking for village hall, community building and local council insurance.

Inspiring Ideas

We aim to innovate and inspire ideas through our consultancy services, engaging with local people and our creative agency service which offers affordable, professional creative design and website development services for the sector.
Our values are to be:
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Effective

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Encouraging

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Pioneering

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Trustworthy

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Supportive

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Enthusiastic