<p><strong>We are a newly esablished Tandem Cycling Group, set up to allow Vision Impaired people like myself, to get<br /> out and about on a Tandem Bike, together with a fully qualified Pilot. Being Vision Impaired does&#39;nt mean&nbsp;<br /> that you cant ride a bike. We are a relitivly new group base in Kilwinning, but are very open to members from&nbsp;<br /> the All North Ayrshire area&#39;s. We are at the stage where we have a Constitution, proposed and seconded at our &nbsp;first&nbsp;<br /> AGM held on Tuesday 15th August 2023 where we openly elected a committee from 18 members.&nbsp;</strong></p> <p><br /> &nbsp;</p>

<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">West Kilbride Village Gala is an annual event that has been running for over 60 years and provides an opportunity to bring the community of West Kilbride together.&nbsp;We hire in a variety of fun equipment and rides and offer reduced cost wristbands for unlimited use to ensure that these are accessible to all regardless of financial situation.&nbsp; The Gala provides the people of West Kilbride with an opportunity to socialise and enjoy themselves, promoting community cohesion, health and wellbeing&nbsp;and tackling social isolation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">In addition to the fun equipment and rides there are a range of stalls e.g., tea room, bbq, bottle stall, cake and candy, bric-a-brac, hook a duck and lucky dip and much more.&nbsp; These activities take place in two large marquees, which require to be stored throughout the year.&nbsp; We are seeking funding to purchase storage cages&nbsp;for the marquees (which are also used by other community groups), storage boxes and ground mats.&nbsp; As the storage cages are on wheels this will allow easier transport of the marquees.</span></span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="tab-stops:list 72.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">The Montgomery Court Entertaiment Committee have establised in June 2023 to support&nbsp;Residents and Community members with the opportunity to take part in weekly lunches&nbsp;and activities within Montgomery Court engagement hub.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify">We hope to gain more participants from the community and began hosting trips for our members.</p>

<p style="margin-bottom:11px"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:18.0pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bahnschrift Light&quot;,sans-serif">Who are we?</span></span></span></b></span></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"><span style="font-size:16.0pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bahnschrift Light&quot;,sans-serif">Two local Girls from Stevenston in North Ayrshire who share a passion for recycling reclaimed items such as textiles and small household furnishings. We have set up this non-profit Social Enterprise to share our work with others.</span></span></span></span></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"><b><span style="font-size:18.0pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bahnschrift Light&quot;,sans-serif">What do we do?</span></span></span></b></span></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"><span style="font-size:16.0pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bahnschrift Light&quot;,sans-serif">We create items such as bags, pouffes&rsquo;, quilts and much more using reclaimed clothes, bedding and scrap materials that are reusable.</span></span></span></span></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"><b><span style="font-size:18.0pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bahnschrift Light&quot;,sans-serif">Why do we do it?</span></span></span></b></span></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"><span style="font-size:16.0pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bahnschrift Light&quot;,sans-serif">We want to share our passion for what we do with people across our communities to share the fun learning and open up new ideas to people who may have never considered using a sewing machine or recycling reclaimed items.</span></span></span></span></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"><b><span style="font-size:18.0pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bahnschrift Light&quot;,sans-serif">The benefits</span></span></span></b></span></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"><span style="font-size:16.0pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bahnschrift Light&quot;,sans-serif">Learning new skills, being creative is relaxing and rewarding its helpful to the environment and its great fun!</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>

<p>At North Ayrshire Carers Centre we provide a tailored service for unpaid young and adult carers across the locality, we support individuals and families through their caring roles and provide a listening ear, support services, advice, and peer support groups. Not only this, we aim to support all unpaid carers within each locality within North Ayrshire, through locality events and drop-in support groups for carers. Within our service, we recognise the unseen roles and responsibilities unpaid carers take on for&nbsp;a relative, friend, or neighbor. Care can be provided in more simplistic ways such as helping with the weekly shop to cooking meals. Support is not restricted to physical care but can be also emotional support ranging from just giving a listening ear or taking care of their financial affairs or their own health.&nbsp;This project aims to create a community carousel in partnership with HSCP Carers Team, Youth Services, and KA Leisure to create opportunities within each locality. This will provide a family respite opportunity for unpaid carers accessing the service, or for individuals who may require support in benefit advice, education support, funding, carer support plans or a listening ear as we understand how demanding being an unpaid carer can be. This project will initially be rolled out in seldom-heard communities such as Garnock Valley and North Coast where we aim to provide support within our capacity to unpaid carers along with a fun day out for families to access activities and information based on their needs and abilities.&nbsp;This project will provide an opportunity to tackle isolation, food poverty, and fuel poverty by giving carers a safe, warm space to use for the day where they can bring their cared for, and also access a meal and refreshments along with the company of Carers Centre staff and partners.</p>

<p style="margin-bottom:11px"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif"><span style="color:black">We are looking for funding to help support our Community Larder, which will be 3 years old come November, initially launch as a food bank during COVID and later developing to the Larder model. The funding would be used to purchase an additional upright&nbsp;glass fronted freezer, Countertop Food Display Unit, for the free pastries we receive, lable maker,&nbsp;and Individual Aprons / fleece for our volunteers.</span></span></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 aim to elevate and expand our Adult Drama group centred in the Three Towns, offering participants the opportunity to perform a devised performance in a local arts venue. </span></span></span></p>

<p>We wish to purchase waterproof&nbsp;suits and footwear for all children in our Early Years&nbsp;as we want every child to have access to outdoors in all weathers.&nbsp; Outdoor Learning&nbsp;enhances&nbsp;health and wellbeing and educational experiences.&nbsp; It supports&nbsp;mental, emotional, physical and&nbsp;social development and allows children to thrive in a stimulating and natural environment.&nbsp; Furthermore, accessing the outdoors supports the development of&nbsp;literacy and numeracy skills and enables them to be practised in a real and meaningful context.&nbsp;&nbsp;To ensure all children have the opportunity to learn outdoors throughout the year,&nbsp;and that families are not impacted by the cost of wellies or waterproofs, we wish to provide these within the EYC.</p>

<p>After the covid crisis and during the current cost of living crisis, voluntary groups in Scotland have found it difficult to engage with young volunteers, This could be because young people want a paid position to they can take care of their own expenses and releave the pressure on parents, or simply do not know what it is that&#39;s required. We at Ayrshire Communities Education and Sport and Woodwynd community association and many other groups, and clubs have&nbsp;&nbsp;struggled in the past trying to engage with young volunteers many asked for part time work however to employ workers is both difficult due to funding and also brings in so many other issues. We feel that by showing what&#39;s required and having the time to do so would benefit young people, and groups, especially like ACES and woodwynd community Association. the priciple idea would be to train young volunteers at a speed where they are comfortable then when they have confidence in the training and guided by a qualified member of ACES they can begin to volunteer.&nbsp;</p>