<p>A group of volunteers took over the care of flower beds, signage, upkeep of paths, upgrading of fencing, the creation&nbsp;of fairy paths, bug hotel at Douglas Park in Largs.In May 2020&nbsp;no flowers or plants were visible in the park. Within a few weeks all previous flowerbeds were opened and new bulbs, plants installed. An &#39;adopt a flower bed scheme&#39; was launched and individuals, local businesses, local groups like the Foccrs, Largs Youth Theatre, Largs Flower Club and the Nazarene Church had adopted and taken over the care of the beds along with the support of&nbsp;&nbsp;a group of committee members and friends. The gardens at Douglas Park have been transformed and paving work upgraded, the firechip to all the paths was renewed and painting of fencing, benches and metal surrounds also took place. However we need to continue our upgrading and maintenance to ensure the park continues to bloom.</p>

<p>SHED is part of Community Roots in West Kilbride which also runs the Village Larder, a subsidised food with dignity project. We have a community garden in the center of West Kilbride and host a drop-in social gardening day once a week there. We have been developing this garden for fruit and vegetable growing so that we can learn how to grow food whilst recognising the mental and physical health benefits of gardening together. Most of what we produce goes to our Village Larder to be accessed for free by our customers there, and some of it is a healthy reward for our hard working volunteers. Our aims are to make healthy food more accessible and create a buzz in the area about the benefits to our health and environment by growing our own food.&nbsp; In the upcoming year we want to further develop our Community Garden and facilitate food growing in people&#39;s own gardens by providing materials, plants and practical support. We trialed offering some plants to our Village Larder customers this summer with great success and think that we can advertise and distribute well from there, with additional advertising of the project on our social media platforms and contacts. We think this will build our connections with people in WK and be the start of a rolling project over the seasons with continual support and materials offered. People will be asked when signing up f they prefer large trugs, 15litre potted veg gardens, or pop up fabric planters and what plants they want to grow from a list. We will have cards to give out with info on growing each plant, fertiliser for the season, canes and ties etc. They will be invited to sow the seeds in our polytunnel on drop in days to see where it all begins and this will introduce people to our growing community. This project will be especially useful for people who aspire to grow but don&#39;t know where to start, people who can&#39;t afford things like soil and fertiliser to sustain crops once established (which is expensive, expanding education on food and its origins, and people who are not able to access the drop in sessions that are keen to connect and grow.&nbsp;</p>

<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif">Friends of Trindlemoss and Bourtreehill and Broomlands Community Association would like to hold&nbsp;events on the 5th and 6th of April 2024 just after Easter. The events would be multiculture event to welcome the new Scots to our country.&nbsp; A celebration of the new Scots moving into&nbsp;the area The two organisations would like for the people of Ayrshire to sample the foods from different cultures for the Syrian Shawarma, Manakish, Falafel to name a few&nbsp;the Afghanistan national dish of Kabuli pulae, Ashak Dumplings the Polish dishes like schabowy, mushroom and cabbage pierogi or sernik and Ukrainian dishes like borshch,varenyky, chicken kyiv not forgetting our own good old Scottish food getting the haggis tatties and neeps, scotch pies, Cullen skink. We want to offer the people of Ayrshire and the new Scots two&nbsp;afternoons of free fun having bouncy castles and fun fairs at both events so the children and adults have fun candyfloss, popcorn also market stalls selling arts and hand-crafted wares. we also want to include a canny cooker demonstration.</span></span></p>

<p style="margin-bottom:11px"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">We would like funding to purchase a new defibrillator to assist with our community resilience volunteer programme. Volunteers will learn how to use it, developing their skills and building confidence.</span></span></span></p>

<p>SeaSalt Streets have, as part of their vision, a longing&nbsp;to bring life and vitality into Saltcoats and in particularly to the heart of the town centre. We have successfully completed most of the vision created by the group, a vision inspired through extensive public consultation with members of the local community and beyond. One part of the initial vision remains unfulfilled -- the use of pop-up events as a means of building community spirit and ownership, a&nbsp;series of &quot;different&quot;&nbsp;one-off events to inspire others to think out of the box and to bring people into the town centre thereby stimulating economic growth. The events will also be used as&nbsp;an opportunity for SeaSalt Streets to showcase their group, it&#39;s vision for the future and as a recruitment tool for new members.</p>