At the beginning of December, Ffion, Nat, Hannah and Amy – supported by Christy – attended the ‘Showing Resilience Through the COVID 19 Pandemic’ conference at the University Of South Wales. Jenny from Cwm Taff People First opened the conference by sharing the agenda for the day. She was followed by Edward Oloidi from the University of South Wales who talked about the COVID research he did during the pandemic.

Caerphilly People First members Ffion, Amy, Nat and Hannah spoke individually about their experiences of COVID, including vaccines, lockdown and coming out of lockdown. They were followed by student nurses Laurie Wood and Jade Savage who talked about working in a vaccine centre. Attendees then took part in workshops titled ‘Living with COVID’ and ‘Loss & Bereavement’ (the latter was facilitated by Caerphilly People First). We then headed back into the main conference area where Cwm Taff People First talked about their work on the Health Champions project. Attendeed then took part in another workshop, where they talked about ‘What is good health care? What can I expect from health services? and How can I keep myself healthy?’

After lunch we headed back into the main conference area where Cwm Taff People First showed their ‘My Day My Way’ film and Ffion talked about the Caerphilly People First Reconnect Focus Group which we run every Tuesday.  The last workshop of the day was called ‘Hopes & Dreams for the Future’. The event closed with Martin and Sarah from the University Of Wales talking about the project they have recently been involved in with TRAC members. It was an amazing day and we were glad to be part of it.