We would like to apply for funding to provide a Christmas Lunch and Party for residents, and fund a bus trip to a local shopping centre. We would also like to bring residents together for social events by providing some live entertainment afternoons. 

Christmas Lunch and Party £500

Bus Trip to Shopping Centre £340

Entertainer Fees £160

Expansion of the facilities of the Community Corner - £200

Provision of hot beverages, soup, sandwiches and biscuits- £800

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.

We've created a Suicide Prevention Information Directory to act as a lifeline for anyone having thoughts of self-harm and/or suicide.  We distribute as many booklets as we can along with posters with a QR Code link to the online version. 

The funding we're applying for would allow the group to:

• Distribute more booklets and posters across the community
• Reach more mental health organisations, local businesses, and education centres
• Reach more people living with poor mental health and wellbeing due to isolation, bereavement, addiction, food insecurity, and the cost of living crisis
• Reach those who have fallen through the net, the hardest to reach, the most marginalised
• Build community spirit by attending mental health and public networking events and coordinating training and holding events

The funding we're applying for would be spent as follows:

• Poster Production costs (printing and laminating)
• Travel, Event and Training costs
• Promotional Materials for networking and public events including:

• Branded Pens
• Branded Keyrings/Trolley Tokens
• Branded Tops
• Branded Banner

Building on the tree planting work we have undertaken in Holm Plantation over the past two years, we plan to plant several hundred Bluebell bulbs in the woodland areas at the site and plant an additional 20 apple trees in the community orchard we recently planted there. This would be the latest part of our ongoing attempts to make this greenspace more diverse, interesting and attractive.

The funding we are applying for would be spent as follows:

- £250 for Bluebell bulbs.

- £706 for 20 apple trees, inlcuding delivery.

At our get togethers every second Sunday we do crafts along with providing refreshments for everyone who attends and this is free of charge. We also have a planned activity for everyone to take part in if they wish too, these range from mini pamper treatments, to meditation and even a starter class in hypnosis.  we are looking to get some funding to help towards the events that we have planned for the rest of this year these are taking families to pantomime, hold Christmas/Halloween/Family nights with games, food n movies, stocking up our food bank, buying Christmas gifts for families or offering a respite day for parents who need it and all this without the financial burden.

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