The Venture is an Integrated Children's Centre in the Wynnstay ward of Caia Park, Wrexham. 

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Established in 1978 as an adventure playground, over the last 40+ years The Venture has developed a range of services and provisions to support the needs of the local community. 

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The adventure playground remains at the heart of our organisation, including the Playwork Principles. We also endorse and support children's rights as outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). 

 

In addition to the adventure playground, we are home to:

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• an Early Years Centre

• The Venture Alternative Learning (VAL) Project

• The Venture Inclusion Project (VIP)

• the North East Wales Meddwl Ymlaen Mind Our Future Project

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Our near 2-acre site hosts a variety of community events and groups throughout the year, and our children's centre building has a number of facilities - including commercial-grade kitchen and meeting rooms - that enable meetings and services to be right where the community needs them. 

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The Venture is the Welsh Government's flagship model for Integrated Children's Centres, and the model has also been adopted in Scotland and England.

 

The Venture is both a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee, and funded from a mixture of sources - see more information on our Governance page. 

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Key challenges

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The Venture continues to face a number of key challenges in supporting local children, young people and families, including:

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• According to the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) (2005) two of The Venture's catchment are wards are ranked as 1st (Queenway) and 3rd (Wynnstay) for educational deprivation in Wales.

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• According to the End Child Poverty Campaign (2008), the same two wards are ranked 1st (Queensway) and 2nd (Wynnstay) for child poverty in Wales.

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• According to international polling research company, CACI, Queensway was ranked as the least affluent ward in the UK (2013).