When 4Winds was in its infancy, it shared premises with the Cardiff and Vale Mental Health Development Project (now Cavamh) and operated, through a management agreement, firstly as part of Intervol (now Cardiff Third Sector Council, C3SC) and then the Vale Council for Voluntary Services (now Glamorgan Voluntary Services, GVS). The Manager worked closely with the 4Winds steering group and interested service users across Cardiff and the Vale in developing the work of 4Winds. Suitable premises proved difficult to find and took several months of hard work. Establishing the work of the Association without a building meant that extensive networking and publicity was necessary in order to inform and encourage service users to get involved and to maintain the interest of service users and service providers. Prior to the centre opening the Manager facilitated twice weekly evening drop-in sessions at two Local Authority Mental Health Day Services (Ty Canna and Meteor Street). This was welcomed and well used by service users; it was the first ‘out of hours’ support of its kind in Cardiff and many discussions on how the resource centre service would be developed took place in these sessions. Suitable premises were identified in Clare Road, Grangetown, Cardiff; within walking distance of the central rail station, on-street parking availability and on the route of many buses. It also had the advantage of being based in a diverse community which has evidence of disadvantage and high needs relating to mental health and other health problems. It is a culturally diverse area with a long standing Black, Asisan and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Community and is in close proximity to a range of community and health services which we have now developed strong working relationships with. Following the ensuing planning applications for our centre to become a reality, a series of networking meetings, training for service users to encourage further involvement, recruitment of staff and development of operational procedures, the centre opened in March 1997 (full independence was achieved in September 1998 when we registered as a charitable company).