In the past, Cymru’s natural resources, labour and wealth were extracted through coal mining; now sources of renewable energy are privately owned. Communities in the north of Cymru have a glue that binds them – the Welsh language – which cymunedoli can build upon. In the south there was once the glue of industry: mines, steelworks, working men’s clubs and trade unions. Two former politicians from different political traditions, we recently came together for a series of community meetings to facilitate villages and towns in the valleys of South Wales to find that glue themselves. We began in the Three Valleys communities in South Wales – Merthyr Tydfil, Cynon Valley and the Rhondda – to talk with and listen to people’s concerns and priorities, and work alongside them, drawing upon the cymunedoli vision.