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 intend to commission a local tradesperson to construct a built-in storage cupboard in the upper room of McCandlish Hall. Funding from this grant will cover the cost of both materials and labour. Like many village halls, McCandlish Hall has faced ongoing challenges with storage, leading to equipment being left out between sessions. This new cupboard will provide a secure space for items belonging to regular community groups such as the craft group, Lego Club, and Badminton Club. It will help keep the area tidy, safe, and more welcoming for all hall users.

By improving organisation and freeing up space, the cupboard will make the hall more attractive for existing and future community groups.

Ultimately, this investment will have a lasting impact—enabling McCandlish Hall to remain a vibrant, multi-use venue that supports local participation and wellbeing across the community.

The project’s long-term vision for heritage preservation is the creation of a fully accredited museum of Scottish cinemas, with the Broadway’s heritage collections already extensive and featuring a varied catalogue of original features, equipment, and preserved memories from both the Broadway, and other cinemas across Ayrshire and Scotland. To continue to capture these memories, an extensive oral history project is planned to be developed by an official filmmaker of the project. This project will ensure recollections of the golden age of cinema in Scotland are preserved for future generations. There is currently no public museum to cinema in the country, despite Scotland once having the highest rate of cinema-going in Europe, and Art Deco cinemas remaining an integral part of our cultural and built heritage today.

This funding will support the acquisition of professional museum exhibit displays, including plinths, glass cabinets, and exhibit labels. These items are essential to ensuring that the museum will deliver a safe viewing environment for visitors whilst protecting and preserving the culturally important items in the exhibits, many of which are fragile and require the correct storage conditions. The items that will be purchased will be utilised in the museum project long-term and continue to serve in showcasing the Broadway’s collections for the foreseeable future as the heritage project continues to grow and expand

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. 

This funding will allow us to deliver free monthly First Aid courses (adult, youth & family sessions) within Ayr South, led by a qualified instructor that we have secured to significantly reduce costs in comparison to hiring independent training providers. This funding will allow for the purchase of the equipment needed to run the courses. Each session (up to 12 participants) features hands on practice with manikins, AED simulators and realistic scenarios. The funding will allow the supply all consumable training equipment, CPR manikins, first-aid kits, protective PPE and we will invite partner charities to join free of charge, boosting inter-agency referrals and carer resilience.

Demonstrated Need & Local Impact: Our last Carers First Aid course was oversubscribed (16 places, 8-person waitlist),demonstrating strong local demand. Unpaid carers tell us they can lack emergency response confidence: first-aid skills reduce anxiety and prevent crisis escalation.Monthly training makes life saving skills accessible to carers in our area, plus family members. Partner charities (local dementia support, mental-health services) will rotate free places, enhancing referral pathways and shared learning.

We plan to purchase the following equipment to allow for hybrid and online meetings:

IT Equipment

• Cyber security package £144.00
• Web cam £240.00
• TV £200.00
• Cables £12.00

Also a notice board with internal lighting £1000

The Village Hall in Loans is the heart of our community and a real asset to the village. By purchasing new tables, which will be used by a variety of community groups, we can offer a lovely venue with safe, clean and easy to use resources for let.  The tables are easy to store, easy to clean and light enough for our users to handle.  New tables would enable groups such as adult education activities, birthday parties, village fundaisers etc. to sit around safe tables which are fit for purpose.  By letting the hall out to groups and for events, we can generate an income and ensure this wonderful hall remains a viable asset to our community.  

We would also like to purchase paint and re-paint all the woodwork within the main hall.  This would help to brighten the hall up and make it more attractive when letting out. 

We would like 10 tables at a cost of £144 each = £1440

Purchase paint and labour - £560

At Carrick Rugby we are committed to promoting health & wellbeing through the sport of rugby in the Carrick area. Carrick Rugby is based in the communities of Girvan & Maybole & is committed to offering everyone the chance to take part in healthy activity, improve their social connections, improve their life chances & support their mental & physical health. We are immensely proud of our success in keeping young people engaged in both playing & coaching younger members & in helping to develop their careers in sport & in many other areas.

The direct beneficiaries are the young people and adults (male and female) participating in a fantastic team sport that develops confidence, discipline, health, social & general wellbeing. On a far wider scale the families also become involved & the sense of community that is built around the club has an impact far beyond the pitch, helping to break down barriers & build social cohesion.  We work with partners from the community and have built strong links with Active Schools, Girvan Youth Trust, VASA, Scottish Rugby, Girvan and Carrick Academies and Thriving Communities.

• Active Schools

“Carrick Rugby Club do amazing work in supporting their local communities, & our own Thriving Communities service, through the provision of programmes designed to reduce social isolation, improve mental health & wellbeing, & build community resilience. They support the development of young people & adults with skills for life improving employability & life chances, reducing poverty & increasing ambition & aspirations. We are proud to work in partnership with Carrick Rugby Club who are invested in improving the communities across North & South Carrick.”

The money will be used to purchase small equipment in a variety of sizes to provide opportunities for rugby at all levels. The equipment will be used for community based sport including Friday Night Diversionary Rugby, community fun days, tartan touch style rugby during the summer break, holiday camps etc. along with general training and playing.