Our goal is to continue providing community lunches and providing catering services, working in partnership with other local groups and  bringing all members of our local community together regularly with a focus on alleviating poverty, reducing social isolation and enhancing mental health and well-being. 

Our community group offers  free  lunches,or takes small donations, to all residents within Irvine, many of whom are affected by poverty, poor mental health, and social isolation and these lunches provide a vital lifeline, offering not only nourishment but also a sense of belonging and connection. These meals foster social interaction, breaking the cycle of isolation and helping improve their mental well-being.

In addition to the lunches, having a trained chef as a volunteer the group now offers an external catering service to partner organisations at cost which generates income, enhancing the sustainability of the group and allowing the group to continue supporting the community. Volunteers who help run the lunches and catering service will receive essential training in areas such as REHIS (food safety), hospitality, barista skills, first aid, and customer service. These skills not only equip volunteers to support the efforts but also enhance their employability and confidence, empowering them to make a meaningful difference in their community and benefiting them in other areas of their lives.

In order to achieve this the money provided would help with running costs for the lunches and provide external training for volunteers.

Breakdown:

Running Costs, including food and caretakers costs                         £500.00

Training and admin costs                                                                   £500.00

Total applied for                                                                                £1000.00

In conjunction with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) and North Ayrshire Council Music Services, Music@Wellwood would organise a Vocal Masterclass with staff from the RCS who can provide guidance, technical advice and possible progression pathways into music for the young people taking part which may include encouragement to join local choirs. 

Opportunities such as this have proven to strengthen access to music within North Ayrshire with young musicians supporting community groups and continuing to work within the community and schools promoting music as a career path and as an important educational tool which can continue to be a lifetime benefit. 

In addition to an afternoon Masterclass in the Wellwood Burns Centre & Museum, the young people would be invited to attend an evening performance in Wellwood. 

Provision of the afternoon Masterclass would cost £350.    Attendance of 10 young people (approx. number) at the evening performance in Wellwood would be £100.

Afternoon refreshments for the young people attending the afternoon Masterclass £25.  Any costs associated with the use of the Wellwood Burns Centre & Music would be met by Music@Wellwood.

If successful, we will use the funding to buy a new shed for our community garden. The last shed was destroyed by vandals a number of months ago and we have been unable to undertake any work in the community garden as we don't have anywhere to store tools and other resources. 

Trindlemoss use the shed whilst working on the garden, they will learn about gardening skills and the new shed will give us space to keep tools in. They learn about how to grow vegetables, grow flowers and generally take care of a garden.

Children from Castlepark primary will come over and take part in the community garden learning the same skills. 

Volunteers from the centre take part in ad hoc garden maintenance to help tackle social isolation, improving their mental wellbeing and bringing the community together.

New shed - £880 (Keter Factor 8ft x 6ft from B&Q)

Bourtreehill and Broomlands Community Association (BABCA) would like to get some new decorations for Santa's home at their annual Christmas Fayre the Grotto needs a makeover and this year they would like to make it a free grotto so every boy and girl who has been good gets a gift if they visit Santa at the Christmas Fayre. Santa loves to see all the children and this event is always popular at the Christmas Fayre.

Holding the Christmas Fayre yearly brings the community together the fayre attracts a lot of local craft people as well as it brings all the organisations who use the centre on a weekly basis like So Lovely, Veterans, Brownies, pipe band, Children's First etc an opportunity to fund raise for their individual groups it brings them all together to create a positive change in their local community. The Christmas Fayre also allows BABCA the opportunity to enlist new committee members and volunteers for the food larder (Farm Basket) whilst engaging with the general public.

BABCA would also like to organise a Valentine sixties and seventies night held in the Towerlands Community Centre with a live band to encourage people into Towerlands Community Centre to see what is happening in the centre. The Adults would have the option to come in fancy dress. A wee trip back in time with hits from musical artists from the sixties and seventies like the Beatles, Elvis, Buddy Holly, Diana Ross to name a few.

We also want to use this opportunity to see what community events the community want to see happen in the centre throughout the year. Holding a yearly social engagement helps us as a committee gauge what the community want to see happening in the centre when we organise events.

The criteria we hit are health and wellbeing that address social isolation, social wellbeing of people with learning disabilities, build confidence as people from the Community farm basket shop attend social events it brings people from an intergenerational groups together with social events such as the Christmas Fayre and social event.

We also hit building Community Spirit as the projects and both events will bring people from all walks of life together, old and young. BABCA are all volunteers on the committee who run the centre and look forward to holding events for the community. We would like the following if possible

Entertainment £400

Food pies  times 80 = £80

Hall Hire - £115.50

Santa's decorations £50

presents for Santa  -£300

Total funding    £945.50