Estimated Price

£1,000

Summary

After confirming a demand we would like to create a community facility to help combat loneliness and isolation which is most prevalent in our older community. We would like to improve social interaction through an informal drop-in venue hosted in our Community Centre and run by volunteers in conjunction with the Community Association. The desire is to provide a weekly meeting place with soup and refreshments. The availability of such a facility becomes known quickly and encorages those more isolated to participate and develop new friendships.It also gives people the opportunity to better understand and hopefully participate in the other activities available in the centre, library and community. Also to help create any new and needed facilities. In a rural community people can become isolated because often travel is needed to participate in many activities in other facilities. Our aim is to tackle this inhibition by at least providing a local basic meeting facility that can be tailored to increase participation as demand is understood. Using this Village Hub approach we will try to encourage participation with the hope of providing other social, recreational, well-being and educational opportunities. This will provide the Community Association with a better understanding of the needs of the community to be used in our ongoing interaction with the North Ayrshire Council Officers.

Description

The Community Centre will be used to provide a drop-in facility. It will be a weekly come as you please drop-in for the community providing refreshment, social interaction in a club like environment. It is hoped to offer soup, bread, tea and coffee and biscuits. It is assumed that it will run for 15 weeks from December til March and operate for two hours a week. The likely cost to provide this service is estimated as follows: Soup/bread £45/week, tea/coffee £8/week and venue charge £28/week for 15 weeks total cost is £1215. It is estimated that approximately 30 people per week will attend. Should attendance be such that we consider a small charge per head to be reasonable then that will be used to offset expenses beyond any awarded funds.