"Recovery Rejoice: A Sober Celebration of Christmas & New Year" will be an evening of entertainment designed to fill the holiday season with joy, connection, and hope. The event venue is adorned with twinkling lights and festive decorations, creating a warm and inviting atmosphere. Inviting people from the whole of the Recovery Community to join us on 28th December, including both voluntary & statutory sectors (event will be ticketed to ensure numbers don't exceed venue capacity)

The heart of the celebration lies in the music and dancing. We will have DJ spinning uplifting tunes that inspire everyone to hit the dance floor. Participants can relax &  unwind while dancing the night away to tunes from the 80's & 90's up to present time.

A night of festive games, adding an element of friendly competition and laughter to the occasion. From old school festive games to interactive challenges, there's something for everyone to enjoy. These activities not only provide entertainment but also encourage bonding among attendees.

One of the most magical moments of the event is when Santa makes a surprise visit. Santa's arrival brings smiles to all faces, as he personally hands out small, thoughtful gifts to each guest. This traditional touch reminds everyone that the spirit of giving and generosity transcends sobriety.

Throughout the evening, the air is filled with laughter, conversations, and the sound of people coming together in unity. It's a celebration of life, recovery, and the strength of community. "Recovery Rejoice" ensures that individuals who might have spent past holidays feeling isolated now have a place where they can create cherished memories, experience the joy of the season, and know that they are not alone on their journey to recovery.

Venue - £80

Food & Soft Drinks - £200

Entertainment - £100

Festive Decorations - £50

Santa Visit - £50

Gifts for attendees - £200

We are appying for support to allow us to provide Baby Sensory classes to our members.  Baby sensory is a fully interactive session which includes music, bubbles , puppets and sensory experiences. 

By supporting the parents and carers to bond, form attachments and play with their child the child's health and wellbeing is improved and they thrive in a safe environment. This early intervention results in better outcomes for all. The babies and children have the opportunity to mix with children of their own age and stage of development and this leads to learning how to socially interact appropriately with others.

The sessions are open to all and are led by a professional in child development.

The classes cost £50 per session 

Dementia Wellbeing Cafe has recently opened on the 21st July and runs every Friday in the Argyll Community Centre from 1-3pm.  It is for people living with demenita and the unpaid carer, friend or family member to come along to have a chat and a cuppa and meet other likeminded people to provide support.  There is also releveant support organisations that come along to answer any questions. 

The money will be used to reemburse volunteer expenses, replensih cafe stock e.g. tea/coffee biscuits etc to enable us to continue to provide the cafe free to people to, ensuring that cost is not a barrier to people attending. 

The cost of bringing one author to Arran including travel to the island,  overnight accommodation, subsistence plus their fee (on average) was  £500  in 2022 - all depending on where they are travelling from.

It is anticipated this figure will increase for 2024. At the moment our Wee Mac Programme is expected to have 8 guest events over the two days

Venue hire for 2 days - final figure yet to be advised by AHM Committee but the very modest sum of  £200  hire fee is expected to increase for 2024.

Set up of Microphone, Speaker/Sound equipment and cabling - supply and in person support for Wee Mac over two days £350 

The funding we are applying for would be used to cover :-

Arran Heritage Museum venue hire costs, sound engineer and any balance left to help towards the cost of one programme guest.

Support us to build an inventory of tools, materials and resources to deliver workshops on traditional and heritage skills around the Isle of Arran. This will be with the aim of helping our communities to learn the skills to manage the land around Arran using sustainable methods.

Through the network of community gardens we have helped to establish in different villages around the Isle of Arran, we are planning to help local people to manage the green spaces in our communities through learning traditional methods such as Scything, hedgelaying, natural construction, woodcarving, carpentry, craft skills and more. This budget will go towards purchase of equipment to deliver workshops and develop educational materials that can be applied to a variety of different contexts around the Isle of Arran, buillding on our track record of prototyping sustainable methods of land use over the last three years. 

Breakdown of Costs:

• Scythes and scything equipment: £400
• Handtools: £400
• Budget for printing educational materials (handbooks, training materials): £200

Dalry Community Sports Club have a number of key priorities which were originally based on increasing the health and wellbeing of our community through various sports and leisure activities. Prior to the pandemic we were also looking at opportunities to help address, both social isolation and food deprivation issues, aligning ourselves with some of the key priorities of North Ayrshire Council and Scottish Government. As part of these priorities we have been operating our Community Larder since Nov 2020, initially as a foodbank during the pandemic, but now aligned with NAC`s Community Larder model, where customers pay £4, for a selection of items, and also a variety of free short dated / best before items. To complement this, we opened our warm space throughout the winter period, but have actually kept this going all year now. Once people have visited the larder, they can then have a hot / cold drink and a filled roll / biscuit. Both the Community Larder and the Warm Space have allowed both individuals and families the opportunity to meet and socialise with other members of the community previously unknown to them. We operate both the Community Larder and the Warm Space on a Wednesday night and a Saturday morning. Since the cost of living crises started, we have seen the numbers of people attending our Community Larder steadily increase. We are now seeing more families attending these, and more people who are working. To support these activities, it has put a strain on the commitment of our volunteers, but also on the stress and strain of constantly looking for funding opportunities to support these. Local businesses have been great here, where we work in partnership with Tesco, ASDA, Bookers, Co-op, Irvine`s Bakery, Lidl and Reid`s Food Services, who supply us with a combination, of either free short dated / best before items, or items at discounted prices. Unfortunately over the last 12 months, we have seen how the rising costs have impacted on our funding, where it doesn`t buy as much. To help us get the best value for money, and bulk buy when the prices are good, we require the purchase of an addition upright freezer and pastries storage. We further require a labelling machine so that we can mark up items of food that we pick up free, and aprons / fleeces which would help give our volunteers a feeling of identity.

Costings

Polar G-Series Upright Display Fridge 218Ltr Black - £599.98, Lacor Countertop Ambient Food Display 554mm - £239.99, NIIMBOT B1 Label Maker Machine plus additional role - £29.99 + £8.99 = £38.98 &  Aprons / Fleece / Print – cc £120