We currently run sessions in Irvine and Kilwinning, as a club we are looking to build and branch out over North Ayrshire having more sessions across the local authority. We currently stuggle with storage at our sites. We'd like to purchase two storage units where we can store all our equipment. This would prevent us losing any of our equipment or equipment getting mixed into other groups resources. We are always looking to promote our club at community events and need some merchaniseing materials such as banners, poster pop ups, tshirts and flyers with our logo and information. This would help us get our publicity out and reach the wider community.  At the moment we are a mens and over 18 club. We are currently aiming to diversify our club by holding more sessions and having womens basketball, under 18, under 16 & under 14 basketball. 

 2 Storage Cages - £640 x 2 = £1280

4 New Basketballs - £80 x 4= £320

New Marketing material (Pop up banners,Posters, Merchandise) - £150

One off hall hires for new pilots (womens basketball, under 18, under 16 & under 14 basketball) - £250

We are looking for £1000 to contribute towards these costs.

Growing and cultivating our own produce at home presents challenges for some families in terms of cost of equipment, the time required to tend to the plants, lack of space and knowledge.

With the wealth of skills and experience GVAA members can offer there is a desire to pass this onto the young people of the Garnock Valley.

GVAA members are in the process of erecting a polytunnel on site which will be available to be exclusively used by young people. We aim to increase their awareness of where their food comes from, promote skills in gardening and horticulture, increase their knowledge of their environment and encourage teamwork.

The project will be led by a member of GVAA and it is aimed that by passing on their knowledge, skills and experience to the young people taking part in the project, that it may lead to pathways in volunteering, and further training or employment in horticulture.

The additiional benefit of working outside and in the environment is well documented to improve mental health.

In order for the polytunnel to be complete and equipped for growing the following equipment is required. It is intended that the young people will be involved with getting the polytunnel ready for the next growing season.

Raised beds and shelving =£400                                                 

 Lightweight strimmer x 2= £300                                                   

Strimmer helmet & visor x 2 = £40                                                  

Bosch water pump and rechargeable battery = £150                 

Gloves = £60                                                                                   

  Seeds and plants = £50

Festive Celebration for People Affected by Substance Use

Cafe Solace in collaboration with Fullarton Connexions

We are applying for funding to deliver a festive meal and celebration for people in our community who are affected by substance use and/or lonlieness. Many of our service users face stigma, poverty and social isolation, particularly over the festive period when most services are closed. We have facilitated an event over the past 2 years with great success. This project will provide an inclusive, welcoming space where individuals can enjoy a freshly prepared meal, participate in activities and celebrate together with dignity and respect. Ideally, the meal would be held on Christmas Day, however, due to the limitations of availability of payment on time, the event can be held anytime throughout the festive period up until 4th January.

Aims & Objectives

• To provide a safe, stigma-free environment where people affected by substance use can come together and celebrate the festive season.

• To reduce isolation and loneliness by creating opportunities for social connection and shared experience.

• To promote dignity, inclusion and wellbeing by ensuring everyone has access to a festive meal and celebration.

• To strengthen community partnerships through collaboration with Fullarton Connexions Church who are allowing us to use their facility for this event 

• We are hoping that the event will be attended by approx 40 enjoying a high-quality festive meal and activities.

• Attendees will report feeling less isolated and more connected to their community.

• The event will help challenge stigma by creating a positive, welcoming space where people can be valued and included.

• Stronger links will be built between service users, local community, our organisation and community partners.  

The event will be hosted at Fullarton Connexions, who have generously offered the use of their facilities. Our volunteers, will prepare and serve a festive meal, with entertainment, music and activities to create a celebration. Transport support will be provided for those who would otherwise struggle to attend. Each guest will also receive a small festive gift to take away.

Budget Breakdown

• Food & refreshments: £450 

• Decorations & festive items: £150

• Entertainment & activities: £150

• Small festive gifts / wellbeing packs: £100

• Venue hire: £100 

• Essential Travel Costs £50

Total funding requested: £1,000

Firth of Clyde Coastal Rowing Club is a community-based rowing club founded in 2012. We are based at Largs Yacht Haven and row two self-built St Ayles skiffs, 'Saltire' and 'Thistle'. We strongly adhere to The Scottish Coastal Rowing Association (SCRA) ethos of community spirit and inclusiveness. We provide an outlet for people of a wide age range (youngest currently 14 yrs, oldest >80 yrs) to partake in outdoor exercise in a socially beneficial, friendly environment. We are a welcoming and inclusive club, and no previous rowing experience is needed to join, and we have a particularly strong youth membership. We believe participation in Coastal Rowing is wholly beneficial to our membership's physical and mental health. Additionally, we have participated in environmental monitoring of micro-plastics in our seas locally, results being collated by the SCRA.

If we are successful in our bid, the funds will help us secure a desperately needed all-weather gazebo style shelter for attending rowing, fundraising and recruitment events. We try to attend as many events of this nature throughout the season, where our gazebo is used both as a welcoming area for existing and new members, as well as a storage location for any equipment we might need during the event we are attending. Depending on the event, we also sell home-made baking and sell raffle tickets from the gazebo, all of which proceeds enable us to donate monies to various charities across the season. At our own Foccrs regatta recently, we raised nearly £500 which we donated to the Ellen Macarthur Foundation which is a charity close to our hearts and is committed to creating a circular economy, designed to eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and regenerate nature. Unfortunately, due to the uncertainties of the Scottish weather, our previous gazebo is now beyond repair and we need to invest in something much more robust and longer lasting to help us continue our participation in the events mentioned previously. A funding award from the Locality PB would help us enormously in this respect and be hugely appreciated by all concerned.  

https://www.gazeboshop.co.uk/product/metal-gazebos/aluminium-extreme-50-hex-series/3m-x-6m-aluminium-extreme-50-hex-gazebo/

A Film Club would provide opportunities for the commuity to come together, for cutural and educational benefits.  What was once the old cinema could once again deliver many different genres of film.  As the new building is totally accessible everybody will be able to participate.  There could be screenings individually for children, for those suffering with dementia, for those who would revel in the old stories of the Clyde and the tales of Para Handy, for families. These are just a few examples.

A consultant would research this local innovation to provide a clear strategy and guidelines to be developed for future use by those taking the project foward.

A self employed consultant at 8 hours per week for ten weeks at £15 per hour would cost £1,080 - see role profile below for further information.

This event has been running for years with many attending including children, older residents, and vulnerable members of our community. With proper festive lighting, we can make the event more vibrant, inclusive, and safe, ensuring that everyone enjoys a welcoming environment.

However, the cost of professional lighting installation and operation remains our biggest challenge. The estimated cost of this year’s lighting project is £4232.74, which covers hire, installation, maintenance, and safe dismantling. As a nonprofit, we rely entirely on fundraising, volunteers, and the generosity of partners. The price this year has almost doubled since last year and without external support, we face the risk of scaling back this much-anticipated celebration in 2026.

We have already taken steps to raise funds locally and have a new committe putting this event together hopefully making it bigger and better than before. We have organized community fundraising events and have also received generous donations of time and services from volunteers who are committed to keeping this tradition alive. While this support has taken us part of the way, we still face a shortfall needed to cover the other things we provide. This includes free light wands to all the children, facepainting, food and drink, santa grotto visits and gifts.

By investing in this project, you will help ensure that the Christmas Light Switch-On remains a highlight of our community calendar, bringing light, warmth, and shared celebration to all. We believe that with your support, this year’s event will shine brighter than ever before.

Outgoings - funding sought for:

Venue hire: £150

New costumes for Santa/Mrs Claus/Elf £250

Light up batons £150

Selection boxes £300

Facepainting £150 

This project will purchase tools, seeds, compost and fruit trees to support food production across Arran communitiess. By investing in quality, durable equipment and quality organic and heirloom seed varieties, we'll continue to support more residents to grow their own food, reduce grocery costs and improve access to fresh, healthy produce.

Specific Costs We're Applying For:

• Compost: £200 (we make a our own compost and supplement this with high quality bought compost from Dalefoot composts. the amount bought has reduced year on year)
• Seeds for 2026 season: £200 (From high quality suppliers, Seeds of Scotland, Tamar Organics, Scotia Seeds, Vital Seeds, Real Seeds Company)
• Fruit trees and soft fruit plants: £400 (From RV Roger in Yorkshire and Drumfearn Trees in Skye)
• General garden tools and ongoing maintenance: £200 (bought locally or from online suppliers)
• Total: £1,000

Who Will Benefit: All people who use the community gardens, from regular volunteers who grow food throughout the season, to people who enjoy the produce or occasional visitors to the gardens. Tools and supplies will be stored at each community garden for use by their volunteer groups. Fruit trees provide long-term benefit, producing food for future years whilst improving local biodiversity. Why This Deserves Funding: This project addresses multiple Locality PB themes:

Cost of Living: Growing your own food significantly reduces grocery bills - particularly important on an island where food costs are higher due to transport. 

Health & Wellbeing: Home-grown food provides better nutrition and the physical activity of gardening improves fitness and mental health. Gardening also connects people with nature and provides stress relief, and provides opportunity to connect with other people.

Building Community Spirit: The gardens create connections between islanders  and sharing knowledge and experience about growing creates stronger community bonds.

Green Projects: Local food production reduces food miles and plastic packaging waste. Diverse seed varieties support biodiversity and climate resilience.

The project helps to build sustainable systems and build knowledge throughout the community. This creates lasting impact beyond the initial funding.

The Committee aim to keep this a free event in line with the rising cost of living struggles which are evidenced in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation figures, with Stevenston sitting in the top 10% most deprived decile.

Our aims is to work in partnership with local organisations to provide free fun activities on the night like face painting, glitter tattoos, badge-making, arts & crafts, large outdoor games, retro gaming and much more however, we would like to invite in other businesses to bring something different to the event. This includes the hire of a snow machine, providing free food & and live entertainment. We are also lucky to have the appearance of Santa, where young people will get to visit him and receive a free small token gift in the form of a selection box.

We also host 2 competitions on the run up to the event. These include a Christmas Card Competition and a Window display competition. (Prizes are generously donated by local businesses) The Christmas Card Competition is an opportunity to get our young people at primary school involved. The top three cards will be professionally printed and gifted to the successful young people. We will also make additional prints to sell on the night for those interested. This sale helps kick start the fundraising for the following years event. The window display is an opportunity to encourage community engagement and participation. A friendly competition between businesses and neighbours to get people into the festive spirit and help create community cheer.

With the help of North Ayrshire Council in the past the display of the lights costings have been covered, however, with budget cuts this now falls into the hands of Stevenston Lights Volunteers to source. Alongside the cost of living crisis, businesses and individuals are no longer in a position to sponsor like they once did, as they face rising costs also. So we need to reach out to funders like you to request assistance.

 This event is a year long commitment to plan and implement and requires £8,000 - £10,000 each year to host. We are applying in advance for our 2026 switch on event to help kick start our fundraising efforts.

We are applying for the following resources to be considered for funding:

£500 - money to buy ingredients for free food distribution

£150 - Santa's Grotto inflatable

£350 - Live entertainment delvered by Irvine Beat FM

Kilwinning Community Shed (the Shed) was established just over a year ago with the purpose of bringing the community (our members) together in a space where they can collectively or separately interact and discuss what's important to them; whether it's work, family, hobbies, or skills, they can learn to be creative by participating in a variety of crafts and activities. More importantly, reducing solical isolation and being part of the wider community is key to our ethos which is aligned to the Scottish Men's Shed Association of which we are a member. Belonging to our community group gives people purpose and a sense of belonging because the 'Shed' is collectively the people, not the building.

Since it was established we've been housed in a temporary accommodation while we await the decision of the asset transfer in December. When awarded a permanent home we understand the responsibilities that come with it relating to legislative requirements and compliance. We must ensure the building is safe for our members and we meet all requirements for both compliance and regulations. This funding application is to help us meet the costs for surveys and reports relating to health & safety, fire risk assessments, electric and gas equipment and services as well as the overarching assessment of the intended function of the internal space and the external land space.

We estimate the spend to be as follows:

Site survey for fire risk assessment - £500

Site survey for extinguishers and signage - £250/day

Fire warden training - £60/person (minimum 4 persons)

Health & Safety Assessment - £500/day

Pre assessment survey and advice - £500

In the past year we have experienced membership growth and wider engagement with the local community, e.g. we work closely with Choose Kilwinning and will be actively involved in creating and building the Christmas trees for the town centre as part of Choose Kilwinning's sustainability plan. Our male to female ratio is 1:3 and we have an active membership who regularly attend our twice weekly meetings which we anticipate to increase in a permanent home. Our members benefit from a space to come together and be creative, or simply to be with people and chat. Our activities include but are not limited to woodworking in our workshop and a variety of crafting activities such as sewing, pottery, crochet, knitting, paper crafting and model railway building.  Essentially we are a member led organisation, a self funded charity which generates a lot of interest in Kilwinning, and while perhaps some people may not feel they are ready to join us right now, we want to create a community that will be here and ready for people of all ages in their future, young or old, from all walks of life, with or without a skill they just haven't discovered yet.

Agreement from application review: as the group are currently undergoing the CAT process, and the funds would cover work to be completed if they take on the asset being applied for, funding (if the group are successful at the public vote) would only be released once the asset transfer has been completed. If this has not been concluded by the end of the 2025/26 financial year, the funding will be offered to the project with the next highest number of votes. 

Lunches £450

Tea & Coffee £50

Buscuits £50

Hall hire £450