Mindful Makers brings together Three Towns adults to combat the adverse effects of loneliness and social isolation with mindfulness. This community group is run by four volunteers (no cost) and comprises weekly Crafting Sessions and a Book Group. Sessions are open to all and free of charge to users. Friday meetings are held in Saltcoats Library where the welcoming environment encourages regular attendance. Week 1: Crafting - a new skill tutored by an organiser; Week 3: Book Group; Weeks 2 and 4: crafting together. Crafting and mindfulness are beneficial and can alleviate the symptoms of anxiety, stress, depression, loneliness and even dementia (craftscouncil.org.uk and verywellmind.com). Sharing experiences can counter depression through a feeling of belonging. Feedback from participants will guide our work and shape our 2025 programme. We use WhatsApp group to share and communicate between meetings, and a new Instagram account will raise awareness.

Our bid for £800 will allow for increasing costs and will (a) continue the provision of free crafting resources so no one is excluded for economic reasons - £500 (b) enable us to continue to provide community and outreach work - £50 promotion, and (c) increase equality of access for disabled members - £250 towards transport. We need to keep our activities free of charge as it becomes harder to budget for activities to help us thrive. Our 2025 development plan calls for an occasional outside maker to lead a session for a reasonable fee. A 2023 field trip was successful, but transport costs suitable for disabled participants are prohibitive, yet because of the weather we need to plan to visit indoor venues relevant to our selected crafts.

We respect sustainability, recycling items wherever possible, and augment our funds through craft sales. We support an average of 14 members at any time - an optimum number given the donated time and effort for organisation.

To teach Scuba Diving we need a pool to provide a safe and contained area for try dives and training future divers.  Each year in The Three Towns we aim to support residents from all social economical demographics with the opportunity of learning to dive with North Ayrshire Divers.  In 2022 KA Lesure introduced a fee to clubs of £50.00 per night for 1 hours pool hire every Thursday Evening.  As a club we are forced to pass this cost on to the people who desperately want to experience this opportunity.  As a consequence we had to reduce our sessions from October to April which we originally had, down to January to April.  This halved the number of people we could reach within the Three Towns.  Getting funding to support these costs would hugely support the physical and mental benefits to new members learning to Scuba Dive.

For each 1 hour session use of the pool at Aucherharvie Swimming Pool we are charged £50.00 - Our pool use runs from October to April we use the pool a total of 6 months this equates total of 26 weeks thus our expenditure is £1300.00 for pool hire.