AFC has formed to maintain social connections and support for older people on Arran, following the cessation of the Well Being Café in September 2024. The group plans to run fortnightly café-style meetings to support the health and wellbeing of older people (and their carers/family) on Arran by reducing social isolation and loneliness and empowering members to build a supportive community. The meetings will be held in church /village halls and support will be delivered in a relaxed and supportive environment, both by peers, volunteers, individuals and organisations.

The new group aims to increase its impact and reach by working more broadly with organisations and services on Arran and is looking to address barriers that may prevent older people attending the cafes and encourage new members.

What do we need:

In this bid, we are seeking funding to enable us to hire a hall to run a café in an additional location and to provide resources to cover meeting costs (venue hire, a healthy soup and bread lunch, activities, external practitioners, photocopying and cleaning materials) in the short term (up to a year) whilst we move towards a self-funding position. Whilst opportunity to meet in a safe, warm space underpins these meetings, the provision of healthy refreshments and games and activities that promote mental and physical wellbeing, significantly enhance the benefit and impact of the cafes but are funding dependent in the short term. We are proposing a nutritious low-cost soup and bread light lunch on arrival to ensure our members have a hot meal in the middle of the day.  Previous sessions involving external practitioners have also proved very successful and we are keen to build on this success with a diverse and engaging programme of activities as funds permit moving forwards. 

 

Breakdown of costs: 

Based on 22 meetings per annum; we could hold the first 9 at our fixed base and then seek to hold the remainder in different locations and so support more members.

13 meetings p.a. @ 3hours hall hire at (typically) £14/hour = £546

Refreshments and snacks (22 meetings @£1/ head) @£20/ meeting = £440

Photocopying of games/ word searches etc (22 meetings @ £5) = £110

Board games and books = £70

Cleaning materials = £50

First aid kit = £30

External mental and physical health activity practitioners: musicians/physical activity teacher/holistic therapist (estimate) £120

Total estimated costs: £1366

We would spend the funding on the lunch. We expect 100 guests and the venue requires £22 per head so the £1000 would soon be swallowed up.In addition we also have to pay for invitations, postage, gifts ect which we hold funds for from our raffle at last years Senior Citizens Christmas Lunch.

We are a constituted voluntary body that has been providing outings and Christmas lunches for 50 years promoting local life and community wellbeing.