The explorer unit is based in the three towns and is made up of young people aged between 14 and 18 years of age. The unit leaders are unable to supply the adventurous activities that the young persons wish to take part in. These activities are available at the nation Scout Outdoor Activity centre at Lochgoilhead. They would be able to take part in activities like abseiling, climbing, mountain biking, burn run, sailing and kayaking . We plan to attend there in March 2025 which would allow us time to raise sufficient funds to attend. The total cost for this project is £2050. The cost includes accommodation, food, all activities and safety equipment. We plan to take a party of 12 persons to this event. Booking for the centre is £167 per head. Total of £2004. Transport by private cars is estimated at £46 to cover fuel costs.

The North Stevenston Community Association is dedicated to supporting the local community in North Stevenston. However, financial limitations are hindering our ability to provide free events to the community, especially to vulnerable groups such as children and those over 50 who are affected by financial challenges, food crises, and isolation.

Community Challenges: North Stevenson is a financially challenged area, making it difficult for many families to afford necessities, especially food and activities. This has led to an increased reliance on anti-poverty support and often isolation. Christmas is a special time of year and we would like to help people make positive memories of 2024.

Community Events: To address these challenges, we aim to provide festive events for the community. An all-the-trimmings Christmas lunch &  Free family event including a visit from Santa, a gift, and entertainment. 

Budget Requirements: To successfully organise these events, we require funding support totaling £1000, allocated as follows: - £450 for the Christmas Lunch 3 course 50+ for food and entertainment  - £550 for the Free  kids’ and family Santa event

Activity Costs: Over 50s Christmas lunch -We estimate a guest list of approximately 60 individuals for Christmas lunch and plan to utilise the funds towards 3-course Christmas meals, table settings, crackers, and entertainment. For the kids and family Santa event, we expect approximately 100 children to attend, and the budget will cover expenses for a photo booth, decorations, a disco and DJ, and small gifts or selection boxes.

Impact and Community Resilience: The funding to enable these events will provide temporary joy and enhance community interaction and resilience. Our hall venue allows for positive interactions and offers a supportive environment to strengthen social networks and general well-being within the community.  We would like to increase our services to support people locally and will use the opportunity to highlight our anti-poverty and activity-based program to provide support when needed. 

Conclusion: If the funding is successful, it will enable the Association to bring joy to kids and improve the lives of those in need. It will also encourage local engagement for the development of our service provision in line with local needs and wants.

This project will consist of three days of workshops with fifty 9–11-year-olds from Ardeer Primary School. The project will be in connection with the 'Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival', exploring the festival's theme of 'In/Visible' using Shaun Tan's beautiful picture book, 'The Red Tree'. The process will begin by using drama activities to explore these themes, then will delve into drama skills and confidence building, which will set the young people up to create a performance that will be shared with the rest of the school and wider community of parents, carers and guardians. This project will focus on the process to get to the performance, putting the young people’s learning and development in the forefront of the work. The project will allow young people to explore mental health themes, ensuring they are relevant for their ages, for example, friendships and belonging. We aim to engage the wider school community by getting other classes to help with prop making, so they can feel connected to the performance even if they aren’t onstage themselves. This prop making will use origami to create paper boats to be used within the performance; a motif from 'The Red Tree'.  The young people will then be asked to write on their boat what tools they use to 'stay above water'- what do they do to ensure they are maintaining their wellbeing? Drama is a brilliant tool to build community spirit, as each performer can present something they are proud of and share it with their audience of supporters who will come out of the event with a shared experience that can bring them together. This is why it is so important we bring this unique project to the Ardeer community.

Cost Breakdown

2 Theatre Facilitators delivery and planning:  £780

Travel: £100

Workshop materials: £40

Performance materials: £80

Total: £1,000

For a breakdown of the materials needed please see the attached document.

The group was set up after 3 men in their 40s got back into their teenage hobby of painting warhammer miniatures during the Covid Lockdowns and reconnected on social media.  Each of them suffered from social anxiety and found reintegrating extremely difficult.  After a few years of chatting together online the idea to set up a small gaming group to actually play the games was discussed.  After publishing the idea on social media 18 people showed interest so the group went ahead. Initially it was expected that it would be experienced players with their own miniatures that would be attending however the first meeting saw 9 people attend, 5 of which were new to the hobby and didnt own any of their own equipment.  The second meeting had 19 attendees with 8 of them having to use equipment supplied by the group.  

To continue the group and allow it to grow a lot more equipment will be required to allow everyone a chance to take part, especially the youngsters who have joined who dont have the ability to purchase their own kits.  Each starter box which allows 2 participants to play costs £110 and the club needs a minimum of 4 boxes to allow everyone to take part.  The other side of the hobby which most partipants find really aids their mental health is building and painting the miniatures so a space is being planned that will be fully stocked to allow the beginners to learn and enjoy that side of the hobby too.  Modelling tools and paints for this will cost.about £200. The group also provides tea, coffee and soft drinks for the attendees.

The let fees for the room at the Argyle Centre are £175 for the first year.

The Pantomime with Livingstone Players has really grown this year and we have doubled the number of young people involved since we reopened after Covid shutdown. The microphones will ensure that actors and singers are heard by everyone in the audience. We have the technology to control the feedback and audio interference but ideally the more microphones we have the less are shared and it avoids errors that can happen when one is shared with a few people as may have different functions for each user which puts stress on sound team so ideally we need more so that we can be as professional as possible. 

We have added another performance to offering so 6 shows this year rather than 5 so equipment used more and we want to be the first choice of Pantomime for local people.

Microphones are called Sennheiser XSW 2-ME2 GB Band lapel set at £333 including VAT. We want to have 3

If we were to be sussessful with the funding the money would help us offer the community the free meal & hot drink 3 times per week so they are able to come along sit in the heat get a hot meal and a wee chat with friends or just to see some friendly faces in the cafe. We would love to offer this throughtout the day from morning to later afternoon as we know people have different circumstances in life and may not be able to get out early and also we want to encourage parents to come in before the school pick up as we know with the cost of living parents may skip a meal and this way they have had something warm to eat before heading home. Also we encourage anyone coming along to the cafe to charge any devices they may have including mobility scooters to try help them save some of their own electricity. We are here to help with any calls that may need to be made regarding any home issues they have, for exmaple if they have any issues with gas or electric and they are unsure how to call for help or advise. 

Cost for running over 3 days per week for 12 weeks

Food cost per week £120

£100 per week for hot drinks

We are a group of retirees who enjoy yoga instruction, with a registered tutor, every Tuesday morning in Saltcoats Town Hall. We have 25 members, all over 60, most over 70 and several over 80 years of age. Our current hall cannot accommodate any more than 25 and this is a sufficient number for our tutor to oversee safely. We operate a waiting list and we are inclusive of all retirees. Our group has been going for almost 20 years. Yoga keeps us physically active and improves our strength,flexibility, stamina and balance, which is imperative as we age to keep us from falling. Yoga also helps us menally, by coping with stress, when we do our breathing exercises and relaxation at the end of each class.

Many of our members are now widowed or dealing with the illness of a partner and  have consequently lost much of their social life.  We have one member who is registered blind and several who are hearing impaired. This all leads to isolation and lonliness. Covid has had a massive effect on many of us but we set up a WhatsApp group to enable us to keep in touch via phone calls and messages and to offer support when we need a shoulder to lean on.  We like to have coffee meet ups and/or lunches which allows us the time to talk together and find out if anyone is going through a rough time and perhaps needs some support.  We also try to have a day trip and a Christmas Dinner each year.  This allows us to the have the time to just enjoy a day or an evening out together to have fun. As we all know the cost of living is increasing rapidly and we live in an area of deprivation, so to be able to fund some get togethers and outings means a great deal to those who are no longer able to work.

We are all finding that technology is moving too fast for us, but as a group, we are there to offer assistance, if possible, and try to figure things out between us.  We struggle sometimes with so many things having to be done online i.e. applying for funding, making bookings, accessing menus or information and even at times trying to make a GP  appintment or order prescriptions. It's getting more difficult to access hard copies of forms and menus etc. Even when shopping ' It's all online' we hear them say.  A laptop of our own would make things much easier .as phone screens are too small for to see and are difficult for those with arthritic fingers.  We could hopefully learn together, and from one another, how to use a laptop effectively and erase the need for paper copies to be printed thereby helping the environment too. 

We have included a video below.

Yoga lessons £550, Coffee/lunch £250, refurbished laptop £200 = £1000

Our group has grown from three members into double digits and we have recieved support from Councillors, MSP's and MP's, not to mention local business throughout Ardrossan.  Our current project is focused on Ardrossan Harbour. The situation at the harbour has lingered on for years and years and with little to no information being announced and quite frankly the town of Ardrossan is being forgotten.

The Ardrossan to Brodick sailing not only provides the shortest, most efficient, and cheapest lifeline to Arran it is a vital heartbeat of community life on both the mainland and the island. There is constant talk of ferries and crossings and tourism. However, the human factor is rarely discussed and how Ardrossan Harbour plays a big part in the day to day to life of people in the community.

The foundation stone of Ardrossan Harbour was laid on 31st June 1806 and completed in 1864, initially proposed by the 12th Earl of Eglinton. The harbour has been a hive of industry in the town from its early days exporting coal, stone and pig iron to Europe. Contrast that with the situation we see today when the Harbour has been left in a perilous state with its very future on the line.

It may not be the main exporter these days but there is plenty of businesses that are drawn to the harbour and as a result into the town of Ardrossan itself. Businesses on both sides of the crossing suffer the ebb and flow of customers in direct proportion to the number of sailings. These are hard working locals who have chosen to support their town and invest here while providing a service for the community. Without these businesses we will have higher local unemployment, reduced facilities, and abandoned units. Businesses need to be able to plan and a timely process regarding the business case for Ardrossan Harbour would have afforded them option.

The harbour has many more links to the town and communities surrounding it than business. Healthcare plays it role as many islanders attend dentists, doctors, opticians, clinics and hospitals on the mainland. The Ardrossan to Brodick sailing allows this vital healthcare network to function. The infrastructure is there from boat to train to destination in easy, tried and tested ways.

We ask all stakeholders involved; Peel Ports, Calmac, CMAL, North Ayrshire Council and the Scottish Government to plainly lay out all relevant information pertaining to Ardrossan Harbour. The long-delayed business case for the work to be carried delayed time and again with a variety of explanations only serve to sow confusion. There is urgent action needed to save Ardrossan harbour and that needs to be discussed publicly and the route forward needs to be clearly marked out giving everyone in the community an opportunity to plan.

Mistakes have certainly been made along the way and that is inevitable, and nothing is irreversible, however, we at Save Ardrossan Harbour ask clearly for all involved to show respect to the towns and people of the communities affected by the ongoing harbour issues. This can be achieved through open truthful discussion and transparency through every stage of the process.

We aim to ensure that everyone can raise their voice in this matter and our funding will be used to increase our community engagement by organising information/fun days, advertising through leaflets and posters and hiring local venues that will allow us to interact with the public.

Costings:

Hall hire for Civic centre in Ardrossan, Small hall £7.70 per hour = 3 hour booking £23.10

Large hall £15.45 per hour = 3 hour booking £46.35

We would be hiring the hall out to host public meetings and community information and drop in sessions.

We are also planning a fun day to generate interest and buil the groups profile. Inflatables cost £180.80 for 3 hour booking and there would be a DJ at £180 and a buffet in the region of £200.

For these events we would also purchase some pop up banners at a cost of £65 plus vat, two banners roughly £156 including vat.

The remaining funds would be used to purchase leaflets to hand out at these sessions.

The ongoing cost of liviing crisis is continueing to have a significant impact on households ability to eat, heat and survive. We are looking to continue to support our community be being able to offer the range of foods that we currently have. Due to ongoing price rises, the community shop will not be able to provide the same choice and range of products if we are unable to secure funding to achieve this. Having access to a range of foods, provides a dignified support for families when they are at their most vulnerable.

£1000 would allow us to purchase food over a 3 month period, which will take us over the depth of winter when energy bills are highest for families. This equates to £83.33 per week and we support approx 65 household each week which is only £1.28 per household per week for food.