Barnardo's Stronger Families provides support across North Ayrshire to Kinship families. We have funding in place for core staff to facilitate groups, sessions and activities however we require funding to provide for resources, refreshments and if we wish to work with local artists. We worked with local artists recently on graffiti projects and creative arts groups with young people and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Those young people recommended that other young people and adults get to experience groups/sessions similar to those that they took part in. Benefits of creative arts sessions are socialisation, reducing isolation, positive communication, learning new skills and discovering artisitic talents. It can build confdence and self-esteem. For Kinship carers it will allow them to take some time for themselves, relax, spend time with other people in a similar situation to them and to build up positive peer relationships and supportive networks. For Kinship families to take part in sessions together, it will allow them to spend quality time as a family, having fun, communicating, supporting each other and relaxing together. Barnardo's will provide the staffing and promotional materials for these sessions.

Costs for 10 sessions:

Venue hire - £150 (2 hours per session)

Refreshments - £100

Creative arts resources - £450

Local artist time - £300

The PTA/PC have worked with the school and the parents/carers of the Glebe community to raise funds for a school trip each year. However due to the increased costs associated with this we may not be able to commit to this come the summer time.   

School trips are such a wonderful experience for the children. The whole school attends on the same day and makes each pupil feel valued. These trips outside of school are important for the children's Health and wellbeing. They have huge benefits in supporting their friendships and relationship building with their peers. 

Last school term we managed to fully fund various activities through the support of our parents/carers and we appreciate all of the support we have received to date. Some of these includes; playground markings around the whole school, Halloween party, Spring disco and a P7 leavers disco and year books.   

Coach travel estimated for June 2025 is £2,500

Our clubs mission is to the give people of irvine and surrounding areas a chance to get physically active and play the sport of table tennis. Alongside playing, our club brings people together from all from all backgrounds and creates an opportunity for social interaction and physical activity which can and does improve their health and wellbeing. Table tennis and sport is one of the best tools we have to improve mental and physical health and table tennis is a sport which can be played and enjoyed by all ages regardless of ages & abilitity. Irvine TT Club priortity is the keep our costs low and affordable for everyone who attends our club night and classes. We continue to offer a FREE first night for newcomers and we have no upfront membership fee. We also provide all relevant equipment at no extra cost such as bats, balls tables and barriers to seperate the playing space. 

We would like to apply for support to assist us to keep our costs low and affordable for players playing at our club sessions. We also want to create more opportunites to play table tennis throughout irvine during the daytime. Our plans is the start a FREE weekly classes outwith the portal in a selected community centres or local schools. This will give irvine locality more opportunities to be active, socialise and interact with people within their community. We aim to call these sesssions "Bat & Chat" as this is what it will do, give people a chance to chat to each other when playing. We also will be starting up a dedicated parkinsons table tennis class at the portal for people with parkinsons to attend.

Breakdown of Costs £350 - 2 tables at £175 each £150 - 5 nets at £30 each £80 - 2 boxes of training balls at £40 each £100 - 20 beginners bats at £5 each £200 - Hall hire subsidy - 40 hours £880 - Total

Irvine Clean Up Crew is looking to continue and even increase our engagement with local schools and other community groups as we continue to promote messages of being responsible with our rubbish to protect the environment for the future. We currently have one class-sized kit of litter pickers, but often receive requests for more than one class to be out using our equipment at the one time. We also receive requests for longer term loans for environmental projects that we are currently unable to support. We are always delighted when schools and community groups reach out to us for support with litter picking activities so we would like to increase our equipment capacity so that we can support as many requests as possible. Our volunteer school’s co-ordinator will continue to provide support for litter picks and also provides opportunities to talk about the impact of litter. Seeing 41year old crisp packets generally starts some lively discussions! We also have a story that was written by two of our volunteers that is already available for schools to use in pdf format. We would like to get some copies of "Sandy's Big Adventure" printed, so that we have copies accessible for others to use out of a school setting.

We would like to use funds from the participatory budget to help us purchase another class size kit of litter pickers, hi-vis vests, gloves and buckets. We also want to arrange a school tour of our rescued "Tiger" to help share messages of being responsible with items you no longer want or need and encouraging repair/reuse rather than throwing items in the bin. Tiger (who is about to be renamed in a community competition) was rescued from the River Irvine looking worse for wear. A good wash and tidy up later and he's back to being super cuddly again. We think offering him to schools with his story and an opportunity to contribute to his ongoing adventure will encourage more conversations and promote ideas about how we can all do more to create less waste.

To help us continue to inspire the local community to take more positive action for the environment we would ask for the following:

30 x child size litter pickers: £360

5 x adult pickers: £95

30 x buckets: £60

30 x child size hi-vis vests: £150

30 x child size gloves: £110

Stationery and delivery costs to help support Tiger's school tour: £75

Printing costs for "Sandy's Big Adventure": £150

Total: £1000

We are a community brass band organisation based in Dreghorn. We run 3 bands (a contest brass band, a community and a youth band) and we provide free or low cost after school music lessons for young people. We have over 100 members in our organisation and thousands of people are entertained by us each year at gala days, Christmas events and community concerts. We also support fundraising of other charities. People who participate in our bands and our audiences obtain mental well-being and educational benefits from musical activity. Each year we compete in several brass band contests and festivals all over Scotland. Any funding obtained would go towards our (2025) travel costs, entry costs, and other costs for competitions such as music, extra rehearsals etc. Participating in these event will inspires, motivates and develops our players, entertains audiences and we also represent North Ayrshire in an important cultural events.

We are applying for £1,000 for our adult groups competing costs

Cost breakdown would be:

• Travel cost subsidies – bus hire £600
• Entry fees - £200
• Music, extra rehearsal costs - £200

Each year we compete at the Scottish Brass Band Championships in Perth (March 2025) and for this contest alone a bus costs c. £700 and other costs (music, entry, rehearsals) c. £500. As we attend 3 - 4 contests per year the costs incurred for all competitions is c. £3,000. Contests / festivals are important for our groups development and the band would fundraise or meet the gap from reserves.  

Our voluntary group aims to promote social inclusion, mental health and wellbeing, physical activity and community service. We promote these aims within the group and, through our activities, to improve accessibility Eglinton Park's core pathways for all users.

Our work is in addition to, and  goes above and beyond, the routine maintenance and repairs of the park as provided by Streetscene and North Ayrshire Ranger Service.

Our aim is to continue to improve the work that we are doing around Eglinton Park and also to grow our group. To be able to do this we need to replace existing worn out tools and upgrade our toolset to improve our offering to all users of Eglinton Park's core pathways and the community of North Ayrshire.

We are applying for funding to help us to promote the aims of the group as noted.

Tools that would help us to achieve our aims, with associated costings:-

Galvanised Wheelbarrow (x3) £270

Cordless Chainsaw (x1) £200

Ratchet Lopper Shears (x5) £150

Digging Spades (x5) £90

Round Spades (x5)  £90

Extendable Tree Lopper (x1) £60

Heavy Duty Brushes (x3) £75

PPE, Gloves/Goggles (x12) £60

In March our cricket square and cricket wickets are fully refurbished after our end of season repairs and regrowing and replenishment project. In April we cut and manicure them to allow cricket matches to take place for both juniors and seniors. The area is also used for training and game development. As the season progresses we are maintaining, reparing every wicket used through the methods mentioned above. After the work is complete we use our cricket covers to help speed up the process of germination, keep it dry and free of wind. After this has happenned we then start the same process on the next cricket wiicket, that has been used for games, to allow us to constantly maintain and repair and cause as less damage to the land as possbile. This process lasts until the end of August. In September we then do an overall deep scarify, re-dress the whole area reseed and fertilise the whole area in preperation for the next season.

The members of the club are heavily involved in this project with us, regenerating, regrowing and maximising the area we have, doing as much as we can by hand, labour and to be as green as we possibly can. The cricket wicket covers are in 3 sections that cost £2000 brand new. These last the club 10+ years. These covers are a key part of the work we are able to do on the ground and allow us to continue to play the sport and keep the area workable, renewable and fit for purpose. These covers have been badly damaged in recent high winds, the wheels are buckled and broken, the tops have become ripped, perished and the waterproof tops are no longer doing their job. These covers can be split into 3 areas for growth and regeneration or together as one to protect cricket wickets for matches. We currently have £1100 towards this project and the £900 would allow us to replace in February 2025 for the new season.

With the funding, we hope to host 2 networking events to attract members to join the community council. The community council works in partnership with several other voluntary organisations across Irvine such as Friends of Redburn, Fullarton Community Association, Marymass Festival Committee and others to run events in the locality and generally foster good relations between groups. By hosting these network meetings, we hope to attract new committee members who can increase our capacity to put on events and build community spirit between voluntary organisations.

The community council previously hosted the Irvine Yuletide event in 2023 which attracted around 10,000 people to Irvine moor. This gave families a chance to take part in free festive activities at a time of year when the cost of living hits hardest. If we can attract new volunteers to the community council, we will be able to put on more events similar to this, bringing people together and creating positive change in the community.

Costing as follows: 2 events 6 months apart

Rent of venue - £200

Promotion, including paid for advertising social media £100

Catering £700 (2 events, 70 people, £5 a head.)

TOTAL - £1000

Our group comes together once per week during term time where we enjoy each other’s company over a cuppa and blether. We also often take part in activities like flower planting, walking outdoors, being creative with arts and crafts. We have also previously connected with different organisations and partners such as Megan Space, NEST and Breathing Space, this has giving us tools to support each other and our families.

We would like the opportunity to bring our families together during the holiday periods, to help reduce any financial strain during this time. It also reduces isolation as it encourages us to get out and mix with other families. If we were successful in getting the funds, we would use the money for 1 family trip to heads of Ayr farm park and 1 family fun day at the Children 1st space. While it’s important to spend time together as families, we are also looking for money to support our weekly coffee and chat meet ups to help us to sustain and build on the group. We would spend the remaining money on 1 therapeutic experience and 2 breakfast morning.  This financial support will build our confidence within our local community, support our emotional health and wellbeing, and reduce the impact of the cost-of-living crisis has on us.

Weekly Coffee and Connect

£120 – x1 Therapeutic Experience (like a sound bath, meditation etc)

£67.50 – x2 food provisions for a breakfast morning

Family Easter Day in Boutreehill x1

£240 – Artist fees for crafts and resources

£80 – Lunch

Family Summer Heads of Ayr Farm Park x1

£212.50 – 17 children’s tickets

£80 – Adult tickets (carers go free)

£200 – Transport