AFC has formed to maintain social connections and support for older people on Arran, following the cessation of the Well Being Café in September 2024. The group plans to run fortnightly café-style meetings to support the health and wellbeing of older people (and their carers/family) on Arran by reducing social isolation and loneliness and empowering members to build a supportive community. The meetings will be held in church /village halls and support will be delivered in a relaxed and supportive environment, both by peers, volunteers, individuals and organisations.

The new group aims to increase its impact and reach by working more broadly with organisations and services on Arran and is looking to address barriers that may prevent older people attending the cafes and encourage new members.

What do we need:

In this bid, we are seeking funding to enable us to hire a hall to run a café in an additional location and to provide resources to cover meeting costs (venue hire, a healthy soup and bread lunch, activities, external practitioners, photocopying and cleaning materials) in the short term (up to a year) whilst we move towards a self-funding position. Whilst opportunity to meet in a safe, warm space underpins these meetings, the provision of healthy refreshments and games and activities that promote mental and physical wellbeing, significantly enhance the benefit and impact of the cafes but are funding dependent in the short term. We are proposing a nutritious low-cost soup and bread light lunch on arrival to ensure our members have a hot meal in the middle of the day.  Previous sessions involving external practitioners have also proved very successful and we are keen to build on this success with a diverse and engaging programme of activities as funds permit moving forwards. 

Breakdown of costs: 

Based on 22 meetings per annum; we could hold the first 9 at our fixed base and then seek to hold the remainder in different locations and so support more members.

13 meetings p.a. @ 3hours hall hire at (typically) £14/hour = £546

Refreshments and snacks (22 meetings @£1/ head) @£20/ meeting = £440

Photocopying of games/ word searches etc (22 meetings @ £5) = £110

Board games and books = £70

Cleaning materials = £50

First aid kit = £30

External mental and physical health activity practitioners: musicians/physical activity teacher/holistic therapist (estimate) £120

Total estimated costs: £1366

It has been proven that engaging with photography can have a dramatic and positive impact on one's mental health.  It encourages mindfullness and fulfilment.  It can be a solitary activity but it can also be practised in the company of others in a social setting.

Irvine Camera Club (ICC) has a proven record of working with vulnerable people to deliver positive mental health outcomes.  Our latest initiative was a collaboration with Ayrshire & Arran NHS to provide photography workshops for patients in recovery in order to give them a new focus in their lives.  This was very successful.  We are also an active contributor to the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival.  We work closely with NAC Arts & Culture Team team to support their wider activities and to provide photography services for their activities. Our proposal is that ICC will host a series of photowalks during the summer of 2025, on weekday evenings and at weekends.  These walks will be free for anyone to attend and will mainly take place North Ayrshire.  We intend to advertise the walks on social media.  We will use our regular pages in the Irvine Herald to advertise the photowalks, again at no cost.

The club has the facilities to gather the submissions and to evalutate them.  ICC will self fund modest prizes for their chosen overall winner and runners up.  

The costs of this project will be in the production of gallery edge-to-edge prints to be displayed at the HAC.  We estimate that this will be in the region of £20 for printed artwork on A2 foamex board.  We would aim to curate and exhibit 50 images at the HAC.

The overal funding required is therefore £1000. 

Once the exhibition at the HAC has finished the art work will be available to be exhibited at other venues across North Ayrshire.

This proposal will provide a fund to create professionally designed event boards, which will be displayed in the Largs Community Council Garden, adjacent to the A78. These will be in A1 size, and provide details in large font of:

• Event
• Date 
• Location
• Website 

It is clear that social media and even print media has limitations to reach, not least because we find that the older demographic do not engage social media, and the Largs and Millport News cannot provide endless free promotion. Many people do not find out about events on Social media until AFTER the event. 

The Largs Community Council successfully bid for grant funding for Tourist Information Notices boards which are now in place at the Seafront Car Park. We continue to receive feedback from the community that they 'didn't know that was on', whether for Yuletide, Community Cinema or other events and this proposal seeks to address a gap in providing information to those in the area. 

It is intended that this fund is used on a 'per event' basis, to allow non-profit groups the opportunity to promote their event to a large audience, without being burden with the cost. LCC are minded to engage with groups such as The Boys Brigade, Parent Councils, Mens Shed, Largs SWRI, Largs Community Development Trust, Dementia Friendly Largs, Food Larder, Access to Food, Largs Naz (Community events) and others to help them promote their events, increase footfall and drive success for their groups. 

LCC believe this proposal will:

Support Community Spirit - whilst larger events may have budget to publicity, smaller, voluntary organisations have limited finds, and we believe this proposal will help promote local, community based events, and bring the community together, whether through fairs, cinema screenings, workshops or speaking events. Participation in local events creates community cohesion and helps reduce Social Isolation and promotes feelings of physical & mental health wellbeing 

Health and Wellbeing - Our overall aim is to promote local events, and in doing so, we believe that we can help improve the Health And Wellbeing of the community. We know through our Community Cinema events how much people enjoy and the sense of community it bring about. Largs has a vibrant community sector and the more people engaged, the better for everyone. 

Cost of LIving - LCC Access to Food supports Community based Food Events and learning to cook projects and fundraising events ie "tea dances". This provides a sustainable way for individuals and families to prepare healthy but low cost food during the cost of living crisis. Whilst attendance has been increasing, the more people that are aware of events, the more who can benefit. Hard to reach families may not be aware of the events and this is a way they can find out without any stigma, quite the opposite. 

Green Projects -  As referenced above, amongst the groups we intend to engaged to support events are Largs Green Futures and future events to promote growing own produce. The LCC Anti Litter Campaign : plans further Seafront "litter Pick" events which can be promoted, along with other active groups in the area. 

Cost Breakdown:

Budgeted promotion of up to 9 events within 12 month period (if we can 

• A1 (594x841mm) sized print onto 5mm Foamex board £44.50 plus VAT.
• Design per event board expected 1 hour design £45+VAT
• 9 event boards £108inc VAT = £972

(Quotation provided by Largs Print Company. If 4 event boards are ordered at a time, the cost will reduce by £10 per units, which would go towards additional boards)

It should be noted that boards will be designed to be reuseable - where an event is recurring annually (for example, school fairs, Dementia Walk, Yuletide etc), the DATE section can be overlaid with this is it anticipated that the number of events that will be promoted will be at least three fold if not more. LCC will stored all boards to future reuse. 

The Kilmory Primary Parent Council are seeking funding to enable their P5 - P7 cohort of children to have swimming lessons for a term of their academic year. As an island school located very close to the shore, which the school regularly use for outdoor learning, and for the wider safety of our children outside the school setting, we feel that swimming lessons are a vital skill that should be obtained by all children as early on in life as possible.

For those of our children who are already swimmers, we are keen to provide any oppertunity for them to increase their confidence and proficiency in the water.

The costing for the swimming lessons is broken down as follows, please note, costs are estimated on prices for previous years:

£300 - coaching costs for the swimming instructor

£300 - hire of the pool

£300 - community bus hire 

Later this year, we hope to buy Kerelaw - a former country estate in Stevenston – which is a well-loved, well-used, biodiverse greenspace. As part of the supporting documents for the land purchase, we need to submit an environmental survey of the site to the landowner and funder. The survey and resulting report – an ‘extended Phase 1 Habitat survey’ – would map the site’s habitats, note important ecological features, flag the presence of protected species, and provide management advice for the site.

Once we acquire the land, we will improve it for both the local community and biodiversity and seek Local Nature Reserve status from the Council.

The funding we’re applying for (£1000) would part-fund the environmental survey and report, which in total would cost £4626.

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

As well as GVAA members the association encourages community participation with many young people who are engaged in projects in the allotment.  Some of the projects currently running are growing and harvesting produce for the Wee Pantry and Solace Cafe and young people involved in learning how to prepare areas for growing, how to sow, care and harvest produce. A primary and indispensable piece of equipment would be the installation of portable power stations in the allotment which would be used to energise various tools essential for gardening tasks. Portable power stations would ensure we have have the necessary electricity on demand. The members currently take the rechargeable batteries home to re-energise which often means that communial tools required by the members and young people are not always available to complete the task.  A portable power station capability would not only enhance efficiency but also provide the flexibility to maneuver and operate equipment throughout the plot without being tethered to fixed power sources.  The portable power stations would be charged from two solar panels thus reducing the carbon footprint of members travelling to and from the allotment to collect and deliver charged batteries and the personal costs to members associated with fuel and energy.

2 x portable power stations = Ecoflow River 2 Max + 110W portable solar panel =£1000 (GVAA will meet the costs beyond this amount)