We wish to build a community/memorial garden in a vacant area of land within the community recreation ground. The garden will include a memorial wall and will be a profound way to acknowledge and honour the life of a loved one, a historical event, or a significant achievement. These plaques will also play a crucial role in preserving history and act as a bridge between the past and the present, providing a tangible link to our heritage. By commemorating individuals or events, they help us understand our local roots and the journey taken.

The garden will also serve as a space for personal reflection and for educating the public about the person or event being commemorated whilst being a general meeting place for community members.  Our community Partners Ardrossan Community Sports Hub will add a page to their website and we will direct people to it, the page will include a bio for every plaque on the wall. The design/planning and building of the garden will involve both the Local Communtiy Shed, AWR Extra Time Crew, AWR CIC, and Ardrossan Communtiy Sports Hub. We will also partner with The Three Town Growers who will provide asisstance with planting.

We will charge an additional amount to cost of plaque and that will be used to maintain and improve the garden. It will also improve joint working as the Community Shed and AWR/ACSH Extra Time Crew will maintian the garden/

Cost:

Wood for seating/plant beds/boundary  £900, lean to wood & roof sheeting £ 450, stone base £200, plants £150, solar lighting £100, total £1,800.00

The group was set up after 3 men in their 40s got back into their teenage hobby of painting warhammer miniatures during the Covid Lockdown and reconnected on social media.  Each of them suffered from social anxiety and found reintegrating extremely difficult. Now in our 2nd year we have gone from 9 members in our first week to 40 regular members, with an average of 20 attending each week. Our fortnightly group quickly became weekly due to demand and has become a very busy and lively social gathering. Our members build miniature models, paint them at our painting station, and play games including Warhammer 40k, Age of Sigmar, Killteam and Warcry.

Many of our members are new to the games when they first begin attending and do not have their own equipment and we have been extremely pleased to be able to provide all of the required equipment to allow people to play and attend who may not have the financial means to purchase their own equipment. However as the group continues to grow so does the demand for equipment.  At our AGM our members expressed an interest in trying new games alongside the regular Warhammer games and we now have a list of requests which we would love to be able to provide for our members to play.

The Games we would like to provide include: Humblewood Tales, Pathfinder adventure, Dungeons & Dragons, Magic The Gathering, Azul, Everdell, Destinies, Cascadia, Ticket to Ride, Mysterium, Arkham Horror, Masters of the Universe, Dominion, Star Realms, Hero Realms, Fallout, Aliens, Catan, Bristol 1350, Salem 1692, Deadwood 1876 Total Cost £849

Providing these games would open the group up to more people who may not enjoy Wargames but would love a social group to sit and relax while playing a fun game. We also provide free refreshments so would like to apply for £150 towards drinks and snacks for our members to help ensure nobody goes home hungry.

The Dementia Project provides one-to-one befriending for people living with dementia, offering companionship at home and support to access their local community. It also gives unpaid carers vital respite through our carers’ peer support.

In addition, our Dementia Wellbeing Cafes in Saltcoats and Irvine provide a welcoming space where people with dementia and their loved ones/unpaid carer can come together to enjoy social activities, entertainment, chair yoga, or simply connect over a game of pool, a cuppa, and a chat. The cafes play a key role in tackling social isolation while supporting positive mental health and wellbeing.

Both the befriending service and the cafés are free, ensuring that cost is never a barrier to anyone attending. A dedicated volunteer fundraising committee organises events to raise funds for days out for people living with dementia, their unpaid carers, and volunteers.

Any funding received would help us keep the cafés free and support the delivery of activities, themed events, and entertainment, ensuring they remain a fun and inclusive spaces for all.

Everyone an Artist has been running from the North Ayrshire Foodbank in Ardrossan for two years. Our group aims to offer a safe, judgment free space to be creative, learn new skills and combat social isolation by offering community. Facilitated by a local participatory artist and the Trussell Trust's North Ayrshire Community Campaigner, participants will unlock and develop new skills, such as printmaking, textiles, sculpture, drawing etc alongside having the opportunity to use these skills to address local issues that matter to them. We know from research that taking part in arts based activities has numerous benefits including that on mental and physical health and wellbeing. This funding would allow our group to continue running that little bit longer. 

costs: £540 artist fee (3hrs a week for 12 weeks , £360 materials, £100 food and drinks budget)

We are a yoga and support group who have been going for almost 20 years.  Many of our members and now into their 70's and 80's but  are still actively involved in yoga practice.  Yoga helps enormously with strength, balance and flexibility as well as mindfulness. This is important in our advancing years.  We have social outings such as  coffee meetups, lunch or an outing to combat the feeling of loneliness and isolation incurred when people have ailing partners or indeed become widowed. Being sensory impaired also causes much loneliness and isolation.We have one member who is registered blind and several who are registgered as hearing impaired.  We would love to arrange a theatre trip early in 2026 to help conbat winter blues.

theatre tickets 25x30 = £750

Bus home  from Ayr = £250

Total   =  £1000

The project involves planting 15 new fruit trees at the community orchard we've been creating over the past few years at Holm Plantation in Ardrossan, and 26 new fruit trees in the two community orchards we've been creating at Ardeer Quarry in Stevenston. The ground is compacted at one of the Ardeer Quarry orchard sites and so it very challenging for volunteers to dig into to plant trees. So we plan to hire a mini digger and driver to dig large holes there to bypass the need for volunteers to dig there and to provide the trees with the best chance of establishing. All of these orchards will provide the local community with free fresh fruit during late summer and autumn.

Fruit trees - c.£1327

Mini digger and driver to dig holes - c.£708

The project will see 60 apple, pear and plum trees planted in Holm Green. The public will be free to pick the fruit each year for their own use. This project is part of a wider movement of planting community orchards across the local area. The trees will cost approximately £2300. We are seeking £1000 from the Participatory Budgeting fund.

Lunches £450

Tea & Coffee £50

Buscuits £50

Hall hire £450

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 organisers (no cost) and comprises weekly Crafting Sessions and a Book Group. Sessions are open to all and are mainly free of charge to users although a £1 charge applies for tutored sessions. 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 2026 programme. We use WhatsApp group to share and communicate between meetings, and a new Instagram account will raise awareness.

Our bid for £900 will allow for increasing costs expanding membership, and will (a) continue the provision of free / minimally priced 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 - £350 towards transport. We need to keep our activities as minimally priced as possible as it becomes harder to budget for activities to help us thrive.

In 2025 we arranged a very successful group visit to the Dick Institute in Kilmarnock which we would love to do again in future.  However transport costs are prohibitive (costing £300 for a small minibus to take the group) and therefore funding is necessary to allow for future trips.

We respect sustainability, recycling items wherever possible, and augment our funds through craft sales and donations. We support an average of 15-20 members at any time - an optimum number given the donated time and effort for organisation.