Vision of Project - Create a Wellbeing Corner and Volunteer Programme of Activities at Lunch time and Afterschool. 

We are House Captains of Mayfiled Primary School.  We applied to be house captains to lead and support children and young people, to listen to children's views, to work with teachers to help with learning and to encourage volunteering in and outside our school.  As school captains, monitors and buddy's we would like the funding to help us grow as leaders.  - (House Captain Application and video link to see our ideas)

Project 1 - Volunteer Programme to support Lunch Time and Afterschool Activities (Theme - Health & Wellbeing, Building Community Spirit and Cost of Living).

Our school does not have any lunch time or afterschool clubs.  We want to lead on lunch time and afterschool activities and with the help of our teachers and parent council who can help by volunteering their time and help us bring in funding for resources.  We would like money from PB to purchase 2 new adjustable basketball stands so the big and wee ones can play.  We asked our houses what we needed and went a walk around our school playground.  We only have 1 basketball net and its older than Mr Faulds so the JANNIE SAID.  We did our research and found these for 249.99 each and we need 2.

Project 2 - Our Wellbeing Corner (Theme - Health & Wellbeing, Community Spirit, Cost of Living and Green Projects)

Part of our walk around we noticed that there is not anywhere for young people to sit together outdoors.  We would like to turn a corner of our playground into a wellbeing corner.  We would like money for picnic benches and planters.  We called a local men's shed.  They said if we got the PB money they would make them for us and would only charge us for the wood - We thought this was an absolute BARGAIN!!! The space we looked at you can see the fields behind us and the cows - we thought this area would make the ideal spot.  We as Mayfields House Captains want to introduce FUN, FRIENDLY FRIDAYS where pupils will give at least 1 comliment to someone during our lunch time activity.  We would also like to use the space when we are volunteering as buddy's and mentors as this is an ideal space to put our planters and we can help the wee people grow vegetable and their confidence.  This space would allow us as House Captains to develop our leadership skills using a space that is not used and hopefully recruit more wellbeing wizzards as part of our fun and friendly Friday's.

Basketball Stands 249.99 x 2 = 499.98

3 x Picnic Benches 2 x Planters = 580

Total = 1039.98 (We planning on fundraising for the rest if successful)

Any funding received will help to purchase overheads, ensuring that we can deliver the best She Shed possible, whilst supporting mental health and wellbeing. This will enable us to continue to provide a safe space, with the opportunity for our members to get involved in group activities.   

- Crafting materials £350

- Branded items £50

- Food and drink £100

- Mindfulness class £150

- Room Hire £350

Our voluntary group aims to promote social inclusion, mental health and wellbeing, physical activity and community service. We promote these aims within the group and, through our activities, to improve accessibility Eglinton Park's core pathways for all users.

Our work is in addition to, and  goes above and beyond, the routine maintenance and repairs of the park as provided by Streetscene and North Ayrshire Ranger Service.

Our aim is to continue to improve the work that we are doing around Eglinton Park and also to grow our group. To be able to do this we need to replace existing worn out tools and upgrade our toolset to improve our offering to all users of Eglinton Park's core pathways and the community of North Ayrshire.

We are applying for funding to help us to promote the aims of the group as noted.

Tools that would help us to achieve our aims, with associated costings:-

Galvanised Wheelbarrow (x3) £270

Cordless Chainsaw (x1) £200

Ratchet Lopper Shears (x5) £150

Digging Spades (x5) £90

Round Spades (x5)  £90

Extendable Tree Lopper (x1) £60

Heavy Duty Brushes (x3) £75

PPE, Gloves/Goggles (x12) £60

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

Irvine Clean Up Crew is looking to continue and even increase our engagement with local schools and other community groups as we continue to promote messages of being responsible with our rubbish to protect the environment for the future. We currently have one class-sized kit of litter pickers, but often receive requests for more than one class to be out using our equipment at the one time. We also receive requests for longer term loans for environmental projects that we are currently unable to support. We are always delighted when schools and community groups reach out to us for support with litter picking activities so we would like to increase our equipment capacity so that we can support as many requests as possible. Our volunteer school’s co-ordinator will continue to provide support for litter picks and also provides opportunities to talk about the impact of litter. Seeing 41year old crisp packets generally starts some lively discussions! We also have a story that was written by two of our volunteers that is already available for schools to use in pdf format. We would like to get some copies of "Sandy's Big Adventure" printed, so that we have copies accessible for others to use out of a school setting.

We would like to use funds from the participatory budget to help us purchase another class size kit of litter pickers, hi-vis vests, gloves and buckets. We also want to arrange a school tour of our rescued "Tiger" to help share messages of being responsible with items you no longer want or need and encouraging repair/reuse rather than throwing items in the bin. Tiger (who is about to be renamed in a community competition) was rescued from the River Irvine looking worse for wear. A good wash and tidy up later and he's back to being super cuddly again. We think offering him to schools with his story and an opportunity to contribute to his ongoing adventure will encourage more conversations and promote ideas about how we can all do more to create less waste.

To help us continue to inspire the local community to take more positive action for the environment we would ask for the following:

30 x child size litter pickers: £360

5 x adult pickers: £95

30 x buckets: £60

30 x child size hi-vis vests: £150

30 x child size gloves: £110

Stationery and delivery costs to help support Tiger's school tour: £75

Printing costs for "Sandy's Big Adventure": £150

Total: £1000

Expansion of the facilities of the Community Corner - £200

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

As a result, community sessions have been developed through the season to include children and young people (40 taking part weekly) in which they have been very involved at games and lifted the league trophy with the team at the presentation. The club has provided a platform for Irvines first competitive basketball team and inspiring the next generation. 

We are applying for approximatley 50% of the cost of hall hire (£690 based on 2023-24 costs) for the upcoming season and referees costs (£310 based on 2023-24 costs however the referee fees have been increased for the new season). 

This would really help support our members by decreasing our membership fees during the current financial climate and support them to continue to take part in their sport and continue to increase their physical health and mental well-being.

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.