2 people side by side on a dancefloor enthusiastically dancing and playing air guitar

Our story

While we do not know the exact founding date of Innovate Trust, we do know that our incredible journey began in the early academic year of 1967. Every year, on July 13th, we celebrate our birthday.  On this day in 1974, we established the first supported living home in the UK, forever changing the way Learning Disabled people receive care and support.

In 2017, to mark our 50-year anniversary, thanks to funding from Heritage Lottery Fund, Kieran Vass and Georgia Oliver, with support from colleagues and the people we support, researched documents, filmed stories and established permanent records with local archives and museums to preserve our important history for future generations.

2 people side by side on a dancefloor enthusiastically dancing and playing air guitar

2019 – Skills and wellbeing

Up until this point we had ran a few outdoor projects, such as Green Days and Venture Out, but decided it was time to set up a department to offer opportunities to develop new skills and improve wellbeing full-time.

Our Skills and Wellbeing department offers various activities and training opportunities for adults with Learning Disabilities and other additional needs living in Southeast Wales. Our projects provide opportunities for people to gain employment and life skills through gardening, first aid training, confidence courses and more.

2019 – Mark Drakeford visits smart house in Cardiff

As the first supported living provider in the UK, we are passionate about our work.

In 2018, we began driving forward the use of ‘Intelligent Personal Assistants’ and mainstream devices to promote independence and wellbeing for the people we support.

Working in partnership with Cardiff University Psychology department, we undertook extensive research into independence and well-being before and after the introduction of assistive smart devices and smart speaker technology.

CUSS Untold story exhibition invitation

2019 – Innovate Trust heritage exhibition

Following on from our 50th Anniversary and the yearlong Heritage Project with funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with Cardiff People First; a Heritage Exhibition and History Roadshow toured Cardiff and surrounding areas. Our volunteers created a history exhibition to share our story with the world in a range of multi-media formats, including a documentary, volunteer artwork, exhibition boards and interactive pieces. 

The exhibition was opened with a Ceremony at the Senedd sponsored by Mark Drakeford MS and was seen by over 22,000 people. The yearlong showing of the exhibition featured at Glamorgan Archives, The Senedd, Cardiff Story Museum, Innovate Trust RCT Office and Special Collections and Archives at Cardiff University.  

2020 – Insight by Innovate Trust

Our Insight app was created by Innovate Trust in 2019. We created the app to serve as a digital diary for the people we support, a chance for families to check in and have a visual account of their loved ones and the activities they take part in.

When the pandemic hit, Insight took on a whole new vital purpose of keeping the community together. Today, Insight is a free community app for adults with disabilities across the UK, offering 100s of activities online.

We continue our online activities to this day, as so many more people we support were able to access them. Those who face physical and social barriers or require more support, who had previously been unable to get involved, are now tuning in regularly.

 The community app also has over 100 partnering organisations sharing resources to benefit members.

2021 – Equality, diversity, and inclusion

In 2021 we started setting the foundations of our work on Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI). As an organisation that supports people with Learning Disabilities, EDI is at the core of everything we do in line with our values of ensuring everyone is treated with dignity and respect.

We made statements as an organisation to demonstrate our commitment to implementing EDI across the organisation. Find out more about our organisational statements.  

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