The Parents Wellbeing and Health Event will be open to parents of young children and will be inclusive of the following activities to promote physical and mental wellbeing; introduction to yoga and mindfulness, introduction to PT for mental health, havening session an how to increase the resilence of Parents and their Children. A breakdown of the costs below 

- introduction to yoga and milndfullness £250 

- Havening session £250 

- Intro to PT for mental health benifits £250 

- Resilence session £100

- Refreshments £100

- Hall hire £50

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

The ongoing increase to food is making it harder for Choices Community Shop to maintain a full range of produce. The grant will allow for the current range of products to be continued, especially through the depth of winter, when people have to choose whether to heat or eat. 

Our older community of people are reliant on Choices Community Matters and we want to ensure that can have at least 3 good meals from what they purchase so this funding will go on the purchase of food to ensure that choice, value and dignity are preserved. Tackling food insecurity is our way of reducing poverty in our immediate community.

Food (tinned, frozen and fresh) £1000 made up of:

Ambient Food (soups, hotdogs, potatoes, peas, sweetcorn,tea, coffee, sugar, juice, stews, curry, pasta, pasta sauce, rice) - £500

Frozen Food (Veg, ready meals, chips, pizza, fish, sausages etc) £250

Fresh (milk, eggs, cheese, mince, chicken. yoghurt, ) £250

Prices in supermarkets vary so an exact order is difficult to price until the day of the order. However, tinned and long life products will make up the main purchase of the foods.

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 

An afternoon tea with entertainment would be provided for our senior citizen members. This would allow them to meet others and help with their wellbeing and cost of living.

£600 for food and drinks 

£100 for entertainment 

£50 for hire of hall

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

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 project for the School is to promote outdoor relaxation and wellness within the community. We currently have tables and benches for the senior end.

This space gives the children somewhere to sit and relax. This has also proved beneficial in allowing the seniors within our community to share any worries or concerns they may have. As there is always an adult within the vicinity this be can reacted to appropriately to ensure they get proper support.

We now want to Mirror this in the infant area to give every child the chance to have a safe relaxing space to promote wellness across our community.  We are also looking to add umbrellas to the senior end tables and benches. In addition adding umbrellas to the new infant end benches; this would help keep the children safer on the warmer days. 

Some of the positive feedback from the children from the infant and senior end.

• Colourful

• Restful 

• Fun

• Great for chatting in privacy away from class

• Durable

• Chill out area

• Comfortable

• Nice to read books

Junior 3 seated bench -£ 299.99

Grounds Fixtures - £ 17.45

Fitted by NAC - £ 300.00

Umbrellas  & Stand X6 -£371.88

Total - £989.32

To reinforce the annual school visits it is intended to produce a workbook for each pupil take away with them as a reminder of their visit.

In relation to the verse speaking “Champion of Champion” event funding is sought to provide trophies for those pupils nominated to represent their schools and performing their chosen poem.

It is intended that there will be three categories, Primaries 1-2, Primaries 3-4 and Primaries 5-7.

There are 11/12 Primary Schools in the Irvine Area, and it is hoped that all would participate.

Those nominated by their schools are also eligible to compete in the Ayrshire Association of Burns Clubs Schools’ Competition held later in the year.

We seek funding towards the printing costs of the workbooks (£500) and the purchase of 36 trophies at a cost of £20 each (£720) a total of £1220.