We love to give our girls great opportunities and experiences. the money will go towards our annual sleepover, crafts, our christmas trip and a science evening provided by silly science..

Sleepover - £300 Christmas trip - £300 Silly Science - £200 Crafts - £200

Within the Garnock Valley there is a substantial amount of families and individuals who live in poverty.  A few years ago, as a charity-based organization, we felt that this is something that we should address and started to look at what we could do to help in our community. The statistics at that time found that 1 in 3 children in the Garnock Valley go to bed without a meal at dinner time. We introduced a community meal where families can get a three course meal for  £2.50 and children can eat free, we also accept referrals through the local authority and other organisations which allows families, and or individuals who are strugling with the cost of living, to eat for free. This has become very popular over the last few years with orders ranging from 55 – 125 individuals. This usually varies depending on what is on the menu that night. As well as a collection service we offer a delivery to those who are unable to get to the building, which gives an apportunity for our trained staff to check in with those who live in isolation. Currently our vegetables for our meals are purchased through a local supplier. We have discussed for some time that it would be more cost effective if we could grow our own vegetables and use these as part of the meal we provide.

Within the Community Hub we support adults with learning disabilities and as part of their daily programme, we could implement a grow your own food activity. This is something that the service users would really enjoy and are currently doing this on a much smaller scale within our garden. The ingredients could be used both for the community meals and when the service user's are making food within the training kitchen, which is where they prepare a meal from scratch to take home to eat.  The positive aspect being the reward for the time spent growing the vegetables/fruit, so that they can enjoy this as well as the most vulnerable people in our community.

We are looking to do more to help the vulnerable in Garnock Valley, by proposing to implement cooking classes for the impoverished. This venture is still in its infancy; however we are keen to develop this.  The food grown within the Polly tunnel could also be used for this project once we have the service up and running.

Polly tunnel - £500

Groundwork -£500

Our project aims to save an at-risk collection of documents donated to Kilwinning Heritage from the former Hugh King & Sons solicitor's office on Howgate. The building was also formerly a bank, and the collection contains around 20,000 documents from the bank and solicitors offices. The documents have been very poorly kept and require intensive cleaning to save them and record any information we can gather. We will clean and record these archive documents which will be available for future research into the people of Kilwinning.

The project will be led by a team of volunteers and will be trained by staff from Ayrshire Archives on how to safely and accurately clean and record these documents. The volunteers will benefit from the project on a personal level as there is a good cohesion in our volunteer team and any new volunteers will be welcomed. Some of our volunteers benefit from the project as it gets them out the house and taking part in an activity which is very beneficial for them due to the relaxing nature of the project and repetitiveness of the tasks. This reduces their risk of social isolation and increases their skills by getting training and brings people together.

Building community spirit is also a key part of the project as the information gathered from the archive could provide a new insight to the history of Kilwinning and some of the unique individuals who once lived in the town. We intend to make the archive available for any future members of Kilwinning Heritage and the public where appropriate to inform research and future projects involving the history of the town. We hope that all the volunteers involved in the project will work collaboratively and we will provide social opportunities for them to network and make new friends/ develop relationships in the community.

Breakdown of costs;

£250 - scan tent  £300 - archive boxes £400 - mobile phone for scanning £50 - external hard drive 

Seasalt Streets intend to run a series of events in and around the town centre. These events are intended to create a talking point, a feel good factor, a want to get involved and inspire others to create their own event thereby starting a Ripple Effect !!! The group intend to organise pop-ups which are different to the norm in Saltcoats town centre.

Our ideas vary from Smoothie bikes - bicycles with blenders attached which the rider uses to create fruit and / or milk smoothies, old style kerbie days - the game where opponents try to bounce a football back from the opposite "kerb", a "free for all stage" where locals and others can showcase their talents - poetry reading, violin playing, dancing, joke telling etc.  Other ideas include pop-up sample sessions using established groups to promote their clubs and increase membership. Clubs interested include NATTC (North Ayrshire Table Tennis Club). Shibumi Karate Club, Dance Mafia (Hip Hop dancing), LeROC (line dance etc).

All of the events are targeted at community building, health and wellbeing, promoting mental health and encouraging economic growth.

If successful, SeaSalt Streets intend to use the funding to purchase a large gazebo (6m x 3m) to showcase their event (regardless of weather). The gazebo will be a vivid colour making it visible from a distance, encouraging people to inquire more !!!  The cost of this gazebo, including protective sides, leg weights and carry case is £699.00

The group would use the balance of the funding to purchase (a)  SeaSalt Streets branded "T" shirts and hoodies for existing group members (8) to enable them to be identified as points of contact for enquiries and security reasons, and (b) to purchase branded promotional material to promote and grow the group membership. this is costed at £200.00 for clothing and £100.00 for merchandise,

Kilbirnie and Glengarnock Community Association have gifted Cafe Solace Kilbirnie use of a section of the community garden, that Cafe Solace Kilbirnie are going to utillise as a community garden to grow our own vegetables that will be used to make our low cost, nutritious meals. As well as growing our own vegetables our hope is that volunteers who help with the growing process will benefit from learning new skills as well as maintaining their mental health and other benefits. Any excess vegetables that Cafe Solace Kilbirnie can't use we will donate to The Wee School Pantry to help with the rising food costs facing the community. As an added Security measure we are also looking to install CCTV cameras to help protect the garden from vandalism or theft as well as preventing tools etc being stolen. We are also looking to install additional parking facillities for the vaolunteers or visitors to use whilst at the centre. Below is a breakdown of the proposed works with an estimate of approximate costing.

STAGE 1

Heavy Landscaping  £300

Bark/Gravel - £350

STAGE 2

Shed for Tools - £200

Tools - £100

STAGE 3

Compost/ Top Soil - £300

Seeds/ Plants - £150

Planters - £300

GARDEN WORKS - £1700

CCTV INSTALLATION - £1800

PARKING AREA - £1500

We live in an area of deprevation, this means that council up lifts or skip hire is costly for some people to prevent these costs reidents are fly tipping. There is alot of fly tipping in our area and we are greatful to the local volunteers who who take time to try and do the their best to make our community a place to be proud of as well as making it it safer for our wildlife, animals and kids to run around. Some of the items fly tipped are to big for the volunteers to lift, so have to leave it until these are picked up by Streetscene workers.

We are applying for money to cover the cost of  two skips, so local resident can come and use it rather than fly tip it. There will be no cost for people to come along and dispose of their rubbish, hopefully this will reduce the fly tipping, making our commmunity a better place. We will pilot this over 2 months to see if it reduces the fly tipping and then maybe look at doing it a few times a year. 

Skips x 2  £816

Permits x 2 130

This is a continuation of an activity that we have been running since August 2022 following a successful bid to Last years NAC Participatory Fund.  costs are 

£30 per half hour session with Instructor 

£25 for Room Hire 

£0 for  advertising via social media & DFL website

Mindful Makers supports Health and Wellbeing in the Three Towns. Our mantra is ‘Be Kind to Your Mind’ (see Descriptive Image attached), and we will build on our successful previous projects (see Document 1 attached, Saltcoats Mindful Makers Report July 2023). We are a non-registered not-for-profit group and are applying for funding to continue teaching and nurturing creative textile skills in the context of mindfulness and social connection. Our aim is to combat loneliness, so we bring people together in a positive and safe environment while building confidence through the acquisition and practice of new skills. We also aim to enhance emotional resilience, by encouraging and challenging people to adapt to new techniques; for instance, in August we explored how being outdoors in nature can heighten the stress-reducing benefits of mindfulness, and the success of this exercise meant that we intend to repeat it annually. To meet the increased demand for Mindful Makers activities over this past year we doubled engagement opportunities for participants who come from all across the Three Towns. Please see the Box below for a description of how we organise our activities.  Funding goes to the provision of materials, and workshops and tutoring are provided free of charge to ensure there is no financial barrier to participation amongst vulnerable and/or disadvantaged communities (see Document 2 attached for a few examples of Mindful Makers activities). Mindful Makers will provide a warm welcome throughout the winter at Saltcoats Library, and through our outreach work at CLASP HOPE in Stevenston, while a link has been established for outreach work in Ardrossan where we plan to hold an Introductory Workshop at the Library in January 2024. Additional activities already planned for the next few months include:  A further 6-week outreach textile project at CLASP HOPE in Stevenston starting on 19 September; we will be supporting the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival in October by holding an extended workshop focussing on the benefits of mindfulness and shared experiences for mental well-being, and also involve Saltcoats Book Group using carefully selected reading materials; we will support a collaborative community fund-raising event in conjunction with CLASP HOPE in October where we will sell items produced using participants’ new skills to raise additional funds to support our sustainability. Through a link with Ardrossan Castle Heritage Society made at the North Ayrshire Participatory Budgeting and Chit Chat event we are proposing to hold a field trip as the basis for a creative project.

We are applying for funding of £600, to reflect the enormously increased costs of materials in recent months and our greater number of participants. £550 will be for materials, and £50 for awareness-raising and hand-outs.

20 x tracksuits average £40 each 

5 x winter jackets average £40 each 

Total £1000