We have the opportunity to provide our 16 pupils in the P4 and P5 class with 8 weekly swimming lessons. These lessons are offered during school time as an extra opportunity beyond what the school can offer for their PE lessons. 

Learning to swim is a vital life skill that helps to keep children safe, and it is also a fantastic opportunity for our children to learn a new sport, increase their physical acitivity and gain new skills and confidence. Our students told us that swimming lessons are often their "favourite PE lessons" and that they "hope that everyone get a chance to have swimming lessons with Sally, because she's really good and really fun". They said that swimming lessons gave them the chance to learn and try new things and that they were really pleased because they surprised themselves with how good they were at it. Parents told us that learning to swim and being safe in the water felt especially important for children growing up in a coastal setting, but that there are limited opportunities to access proper swimming lessons on the island. They also told us that swimming lessons and/or taking your children swimming is one of the most expensive acitivites available to children and families, and the cost is often what prevents them from doing so more regularly. As such, these lessons are a mechanism to make learning to swim accessible to more of our children.

Whilst we have worked with the facilities provider to keep costs to a minimum, the cost of providing swmmming lessons has had to increase this year. The parent council will be funding the cost of the first swimming instructor separately, and we are applying to cover the additional costs of hiring the pool facilities, a second swimming instructor necessary to meet safety requirements, and transport for the children. These costs amount to:

Pool hire ( 8 sessions for 16 pupils): £512

Second instructor: £200

Transport hire (Kilmory Community Bus): £280

Total: £992

Thank you for considering us

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)

We would spend the funding on the lunch. We expect 100 guests and the venue requires £22 per head so the £1000 would soon be swallowed up.In addition we also have to pay for invitations, postage, gifts ect which we hold funds for from our raffle at last years Senior Citizens Christmas Lunch.

We are a constituted voluntary body that has been providing outings and Christmas lunches for 50 years promoting local life and community wellbeing.

Dalry Community Sports Club was founded in 2007 as a constituted group and has been a registered charity since 2014. Initially, our key aims were to advance public participation in sport in Dalry and the surrounding area by promoting and providing opportunities for a wide range of sporting and leisure activities in an accessible manner to all groups of people, and to improve the fitness and health of the persons for whom the activities are intended. Through these initiatives we have worked to generate an environment to live in which strengthens our community, recreating the levels of inclusion enjoyed by previous generations. Over recent years we have built on this and looked for additional opportunities to help address other key issues within our community, including, social isolation, food deprivation, mental health & wellbeing and cost of living issues.  We are looking to extent some of the benefits we have realised from these initiatives by launching free regular Community Cinema events with complimentary refreshments. We ran a successful trial night in the Community Centre last Christmas and have had a number of requests to repeat this. To help us realise this, we would work in partnership with Dalry Community Centre Association to deliver these free events.

Community Cinema events

Breakdown of costs:

Purchase of Equipment - £300

We would seek to purchase a DVD Player (approx. £100) and a Large Projector Screen (£200). DCSC already have a projector and speakers, Dalry Community Centre would purchase the annual film licence at a cost of around £400.

Community Centre Hall Let - £14.70 per hour x 3 hours = £44.10 (1 x 90min film plus setup/pack away time – 3 hours required for event)

Cost of living – NIL cost entry– tickets only

Food deprivation – look to provide free soft drinks/tea/coffee/biscuits ahead of the film (cost £50 per event)

Attendance – maximum 100

Total costs per event = £94.10

1 event per month = 12 x £94.10 = £1,129.20 plus equipment cost of £300.

Total cost of project - £1,429.20

We are applying for funding to allow us to promote and increase group membership and to help increase ways for participants to share their art. The art of photography is a skill that can be learned and  applied by nearly everyone. The group has already undertaken a successful exhibition, and produced postcards to raise funds. We want to have a further exhibition, to produce more postcards of members photography and sell these to raise funds for local charities.  We feel that participants sharing their photography will raise their confidence and promote wellness and postive mental health. The postcard and exhibition aspect of the project will showcase what is good about the Three Towns rather than 'buy into' negative views and opinions, thereby promoting community spirit and appreciation. costs will be as follows, print cartridges - £200, Mounting Boards - £80, Postcard printing £100, Banner/flag £200, Craft knifes/tape/backing card £100, travel costs £200.

Honey extraction, although a rewarding process, is also physically demanding and often leads beginner beekeepers to give up the hobby after just a few seasons.

Mechanical means of extraction are available in the form of electrically powered spinners, however, they are an expensive investment beyond the means of most amateur beekeepers.

Arran Bee Group members are non-commercial beekeepers who, although they may sell their harvested honey, this is more often than not at a financial loss. Any monies recouped may even be donated to charity, for example, one of our North End members supports the charity Mary's Meals.

A grant for the purchase of an electric spinner would increase the supply of affordable, locally produced honey to the island community and beyond, delivering the health benefits of this delicious natural superfood, while contributing to the health and wellbeing of this growing group with all its environmental benefits.

We as a group support ech other and our children to explore our emotions and feelings. Many of our group members share collective experiences, this has made it easier to be honest with each other and creaate relationships. This allows us to build toolkits that support each indiviual family. This group hs become a safe space for many of us and has had such a positive impact on our mental health and wellbeing. This group supports people from all over North Ayrshire to come together, meet likeminded individuals and support mental health whilst focussing on topics such as anxiety and resilience.  We have been able to bring alot of people in to speak to our group members that include First Aid, Nest and other information sessions. This has allowed us to build our own knowledge in promoting positive mental health for people within our community.

We hope to use this money to continue to support our group members by providing added resources that will benefit the families within our group. We hope to buy more visual representations of emotions that will allow us to create a more inclusive environment meaning all children will learn more about their own wellbeing.

We also hope to use this money to allow us to celebrate our groups and provide opportunities to share new experiences. We hope to be able to go on a group trip where we can have fun and spend time with each other outwith our usual environment. This money would help us minimse costs and again encourage inclusivity. We hope that this money wil cover the cost so everyone in the group can get involved and no one is left behind due to finiancial constraints.

This group has been a lifeline to many people, and we have successfully run over the last two years. Applying for funding will allow us to enrich the experience of our members and continue to build the knowledge of our families.

Break down of costs -

£400 trip - venue tbc

£300 - resources

£200 - visitors

£100 - food