During 2018/19 Menter Môn arranged for interested Anglesey based social enterprises and community organisations to participate in the Development Trusts Association in Wales “Enterprising Solutions” programme. This programme, designed to help community organisations set up and run successful community enterprises, brought together a group of social enterprises six of whom decided that combining their collective skills, talents and experience would be of significant benefit in helping  individuals and groups on Anglesey who had either just set up or were thinking of setting up a community enterprise. This was the genesis of what was to become Bro Môn.

The latter mentioned group acknowledged that Anglesey is changing. Community ventures, local initiatives, and social enterprises are proliferating across the island, at the same time as publicly-funded services and facilities are undergoing continuing funding cuts. This state of affairs is most likely to continue and exacerbated by the adverse impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy. Hence the significance of initiatives flowing from within communities themselves – new social businesses, local activity groups, associations, hubs, recreational facilities – is growing. What’s more, with the contraction of conventional employment opportunities on the island – for example the recent loss of firms like Rehau and suspension of the Wylfa Newydd power station – such new social enterprises are taking on a real economic significance. Yet at the same time, the demands on grant-giving bodies and their programmes mean that grant-aid is increasingly hard to access for grass-roots groups lacking specialist expertise.

The group decided to carry out further research to test the practicality of formally setting up a collective. A visit was made to Cwmni Bro Ffestiniog, a well-established similar collective set up to promote, help and support community initiatives. The visit provided information as to how a collective, despite the Cwmni Bro Ffestiniog model not being entirely the same model as envisaged for Anglesey, can successfully operate for the well-being of the community. To further test the interest in the burgeoning Bro Môn concept it was decided to hold a meeting with Senior Executives and the Leader of Anglesey County Council. The concept was positively received and provided the impetus to formally establish a company in response to all of the challenges identified above. Bro Môn was incorporated as a social enterprise company limited by guarantee in February 2020 and is set help and support community initiatives, enterprises and organisations across Anglesey, in ways that improve their effectiveness and advance the aims and policy intentions of the Well-Being and Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, as well as local policy where relevant.