The Craufurd Simson Park charity will be developing a piece of land acquired from the council for an outdoor play park for use by the residents in West Kilbride.  

In order to develop the park, the children will be invited to contribute to their vision of the park at an event. The event will provide an afternoon of fun, to build community awareness about the project and to make sure that the children are able to play a role in developing the park and feel included in the development.

The event will be hosted in the space the park will be built on (subject to the relevant approvals and insurance).

The event is aimed to be fun for the children, build community spirit, and gather the input we need for the next big step.  We hope that this will build excitement give the children something to look forward to.

We will provide entertainment for the children and an area for the children to build their vision for the park and choose the equipment they would want.

The park will ultimately deliver the proven health and wellbeing benefits of an open space with play equipment for children to engage in physical activity, build social skills and feel part of a community.

Funding for the park will be sought through other funding avenues once the land is transferred through a Community Asset Transfer.

This initiative is championed by the Community Roots and orgnaisation well established in the West Kilbride community. Community Roots is set up to help people live their best healthiest lives with food security and outlets that improve mental and physical well-being. Community Roots runs the Village Larder, SHED & a community garden.

Just before Easter 2024, we conducted workshops with young people and children in West Kilbride to explain and encourage them to use photographs as a means to tell stories and impart information. The children and young people then submitted their images on the theme of "Oor Hame", telling what made their home, home. These images were then exhibited in the windows of the shops and other businesses along Main Street and Ritchie Street in the village, creating an open air gallery which residents and visitors to the village could enjoy.

We wish to repeat this project during the same Easter holidays for 2025, but this time we will be running the workshops with the cooperation of West Kilbride Primary School and other youth groups (Brownies, Boys' Brigade etc). In 2024 we held the workshops at what we later realised was not an ideal time, and did not get the level of involvement of young people we believe the project has the potential to engage; that said, we did receive nearly 50 images, and the exhibition was a success, but we believe that with more targeted workshops we could easily receive 10 times the number of images, making the open air gallery that much larger and spreading the collected images around more of West Kilbride's streets.

The project in 2024 looked at what "Hame" means, as it was triggered by Mandy Edwards' documentary project of the same name. For 2025 we have yet to identify a theme (we intend to consult with the school, groups and, most importantly the children) but believe that "Oor Hame" is a good name for the ongoing project, whatever theme is adopted, as it emphasises the community nature of the project.

Funding is required for workshop facilitation (£200), purchase of single use cameras (£250) printing and presentation of images (£150), publicity material (£100)

What The Trust is about

Largs Community Development Trust (Largs CDT) has secured premises in Boyd Street, Largs to use as a base for the organisation's work, to be called 'The Space'.  Part of that work will be working alongside other organisations, such as offering access to benefit advice services and a credit union. 

Largs CDT is a local organisation set up and run by local volunteers. We aim to work for the benefit of the community in Largs by addressing a range of economic, social, environmental and cultural issues.

The launch will have several aims:

This application is to help launch our activities and raise awareness of the new facility, and help us sign up the community of Largs as 'Friends', improve awareness and recognition of the Trust and the work we do.

We want the launch to:

• Create momentum and encourage people to join as Friends
• Help us create a register of volunteer's skills within in the community
• Capture the ideas and opinions of Largs people
• Commmunicate the Trust's aims and objectives using eg, leaflets, posters, banners, signboards, events
• "The Trust is for people like me" — speak to the community across all ages and experiences of life
• Gather feedback and create interest in current and future projects

We plan to have a number of days where we distribute leaflets and goodies promoting the Trust on and around Largs Main Street, and at The Space community hub. The objective is to encourage the people of Largs to engage with the Trust, see The Space as a place and the Trust as an organisation that supports them, their aspirations and the well-being of the community.

Proposed marketing materials we are seeking funding for: 

• 10x XL t-shirts, pinted front and back £210
• 2x 2.5m feather flags £240
• 300x window cling vinyls £150
• 1,000x A4 DL (99x210mm) Friends joining forms £145
• 1,000x A4 DL (99x210mm) flyers about Largs CDT and its aims/objectives £145
• Posters, social media boosting and targetting £100

We have obtained the help of professional designers to help us with communications, design and a website which will go live with the events. We also anticipate creating other communications eg, press releases, photoshoots, digital media to publicise the event.

Largs CDT is registered as a Scottish charity (SCIO SC053580)

We are a local, volunteer run club that provides instruction in the Martial Art of Shotokan Karate to adults, youth and children. Karate teaches self respect, discipline, respect for others and the importance of healthy exercise. We have run various courses bringing world class instructors to the local area as well as taking part in local, national and international events and competitions. Any money taken in fees helps fund our courses and subsidise our students competition entry fees and or travelling costs.

As a local sports club we are keen to promote positive mental wellbeing as well as physical health, we encourage our members to participate at their own level of fitness whilst providing a variety of exercises to work towards improving their overall fitness and skill level. We have a code of conduct which ensures our members are supported and have polices in place to ensure our club is an inclusive space where participants feel welcome and respected. 

The provision of t-shirts with the club logo will help to raise the profile of the local area and also instil a sense of pride and connection to the area in our students. This will help our members to develop community spirit through a sense of belonging. We hope this will also encourage new members to join enhancing our community. 

The ability to provide these t-shirts at no or little cost to the students also prevents anyone feeling  marginalised in this current difficult financial climate. This will ensure equality and finacial inclusion during the cost of living crisis. This will make joining the Karate club more accessable for those who may not have the finacial resources to access similar activites that require equipment or clothing to participate. 

As a club we are passionate about the enviromental impact. We encourage our members to walk or wheel to the club training sessions where possible as a way to promote positive change to reduce our carbon footprint and encourage enviromental awarness, to this end we are looking at ecologically sound t-shirts utilising organic and recycled materials where possible..

We would seek to purchase around 60 t-shirts as this would allow us to distribute them to our current members as well as encouraging new members to join. 

Purchase of 30 Adult T shirts with logo, including set up cost for logo £400 

Purchase of 30 Kids T shirts with logo: £300.00