We rely soleley on donations and fundraising and over the past few years we have struggled with providing fred bags for older children.  We often put games into these bags as this is something which older children enjoy but we find that we dont have as many donations of these as we would like.  The funding would be to purchase as many boardgames as possible and our team of volunteers would then be able to use these for the bags for older children.

To purchase the former Troon Old Parish Church and Halls from the Church of Scotland on behalf of the community.

To turn the former buildings into a safe vibrant space for all the community of KA10 and visitors.

Provide a venue for civil weddings, music, drama, theatre, and pop-up cinema within the former sanctuary.  Use the halls for access by all types of organisations and groups to provide health and well-being activities such as yoga, marital arts, dancing, well-being events, and other activities such as arts and crafts.

Create a community garden to provide vegetables and herbs for the community and hopefully encourage intergenerational working together.

We will design, have printed and install four high impact pop-up banners that we will rotate around community hubs across Prestwick, Monkton and Dundonald (Businesses, libraries, GP surgeries, Dentists).  

Each will feature:

• Bold headline such as “Unpaid Carer? Get Local Support in... (Prestwick x2/Dundonald/Monkton) Now”  
• Live QR code linking directly to the 24/7 Bridget carer support platform and direct registration.
• Local branding: Carers Gateway Group logo and colour palette as well as Prestwick & Villages LPP
• Concise prompt: “Scan for immediate advice, support, digital training and workshops”

By rotating these banners around high footfall points, we’ll help normalise carer identity, drive early self-referral and steer carers straight to round the clock help before challenges escalate. 

What is Bridget?: It is a cutting edge online self help service, that harnesses AI to help carers of all ages. It’s specifically designed to provide personalised localised support and information to help people care loved ones and themselves. Carers can quickly select the topics that affect them and it instantly build them a custom carer support plan with advice, health tips and information about local events and services. It registers the Carer with the Gateway in touch through email and text, offering more help where you need it. We’ll also check in regularly to see how you’re doing and offer extra support when necessary. Carers can access everything anytime, day or night and if they choose to register they can save their plan and pick up where they left off next time.

Need: Economic value of unpaid care: The UK’s 6.4 million unpaid carers save the public purse an estimated £119 billion every year more than the entire NHS budget. Based on demographic proportions, we estimate there are 1,200 unpaid carers in Prestwick & villages. Without increasing easy, visible, public prompts many Carers may only seek help once in crisis. Our “Get Local Support Now” banners, with live QR links to Bridget, will help normalise “carer” as an identity, lower access barriers and drive early referrals, reducing later resource heavy emergency interventions.

Being awarded funding to open our studio space will align with UK Shared Prosperity Fund’s goals by strengthening the resilience of our community through creative learning and reducing isolation in our communities by bringing people together in a space that they can take ownership of. By providing accessible and affordable quality arts and entertainment we will be tackling inequalities and improving life chances for people living in our community and beyond

The Iris currently delivers creative learning workshops where people can learn how to express themselves and have their voices heard about things that matter to them by learning how to create film and theatre. By teaching people living in our community creative writing and film productions skills, we can empower people to learn and help them to improve their mental health. The Iris is a multi-award winning production company, having produced 100s of creative learning pieces with people living in our community since 2019. By having a studio space open we can empower the community to create more, bring more people together and access free or reduced cost creative learning and entertainment.

£2000 will pay for 10 refurbished bikes, to be supplied by our CGX Cycle Works as capital assets costing £200 each to be donated free of charge to individuals.  CGX Cycle Works has recently completed two successive years producing 400 refurbished bikes to issue free of charge to young people across South Ayrshire.  The Cycling Scotland recognised cost of a refurbished bike exceeds £250, with the additional costs of storing and distributing them to recipients further exceeding that, all being regarded as elements of the total capital cost to achieve the transfer of ownership of the capital asset.  During distribution of the bikes to children, many of the parents asked about the availability of free bikes so they could go on rides with their children.  We hope to meet this identified need.

Pickleball:

Pickleball is a fun sport that combines elements of badminton, tennis and table tennis.  Played mainly indoors in Scotland on a badminton-sized court and a modified tennis net.  Two or four players use solid paddles made of composite materials to hit a plastic lattice ball.  Pickleball is one of the fastest growing sports in the UK.

We are looking to expand Pickleball at Prestwick Tennis Centre through giving access to the sport at an affordable price to the wider community irrespective of age and ability. Pickleball is easy to play and provides a good level of physical activity for those participating.

The club requires to invest in new equipment to enable us to achieve this increase in participation of the sport.  Pickleball is played on the existing indoor tennis court surface, but we need to invest in pickleball equipment as follows to provide a further four pickleball courts available to players.  The cost of this equipment is estimated as follows:

4 pickleball nets (£120 each) - £480

16 Pickleball paddles (£20 each) - £320

24 Pickleballs (£2 each) - £48

4 Sets of Pickleball Lines (£30 each) - £120

This will enable us to provide 2 Pickleball sessions per week – one targeted at secondary school pupils and one for adult beginners.  With four courts we can deliver to a class size of up to 16 participants.

Learning Disability Tennis Programme:

The club also requires additional equipment to continue to develop its LD tennis programme.  At the present time, we offer weekly sessions to Southcraig school as well as further adult and junior LD classes.

The equipment required is as follows:

4 mini tennis nets (£130 each) - £520

Cones and Targets - £70

12 dozen “red” tennis ball s£130

12 Tennis Rackets (£25 each) - £300

We are applying for a grant of £2000 to meet the cost of this equipment for both our Pickleball and LD tennis activities at our club.

Stinchar Connections is a community transport initiative which connects communities in the Stinchar Valley area. The steering group have received funding through Carrick Futures to run a timetabled bus service connecting Girvan, Pinmore, Pinwherry, Barrhill, Colmonell, Ballantrae and Lendalfoot on 6 days of the week. The group has also received Community Mental Health and Wellbeing funding for a Development Officer to help progress the project over the next year. Stinchar Connections is aiming to become constituted, open a bank account and apply for charitable status, however Colmonell Community Association have agreed to act as sponsor organisation meantime. NHS Ayrshire & Arran Health Improvement Team are also supporting the project by evaluating the first year of the pilot transport project. We have applied to Carrick Futures for a second year of the pilot timetabled service. 

The participatory budgeting funding would allow further promotion of the project by the Stinchar Connections Development Officer at local community events where she will have a stall to promote the service. This will help with recruitment of volunteer bus drivers for local trips, which will help the project become more sustainable. A budget for branded clothing has also been included, for the volunteers who will be helping to drive the buses for community outings. We have included a budget for a laptop and software for the Development Officer, as well as costs for printed leaflets and marketing materials (e.g. banner, gazebo, beach flag, pens) to help with promotion. 

The residents of Morrison Gardens Sheltered Housing complex would like to improve the communal patio area by purchasing patio furniture and planters to create a more welcoming and accessible outdoor environment. Residents will be able to come together to relax, connect with others, and enjoy time outdoors. The planters will make the space more attractive and will offer opportunities for light gardening activities, which will support physical activity. Overall, this meaningful improvement will enhance the quality of life for the residents.