Northern Locality Projects
Thank you to all the great projects who applied to the Wellbeing for All fund in the Northern Locality area! These are the projects who received funding following the public vote.
Darvel Christmas Dinner Ladies Group – Music and Cake Afternoons
Amount awarded: £1,000
Our group was formed several years ago, to tackle social isolation in the elderly, over the years we evolved to assist with food support, furniture support and wheelchair loan service.
The funding will be used to hold monthly afternoon teas that consist of music, tea/coffee and fellowship to help tackle isolation in rural areas. The afternoons are for all ages and are being initially funded by our fundraising.
Fenwick Community Council – Telephone Box/Book Exchange
Amount awarded: £980
The red telephone box has been in place at the south end of Laigh Fenwick for many years, probably since the King George V Jubilee in 1935, and is a recognisable landmark of Fenwick Village. The funding will help with maintenance of the telephone box and book exchange, which is used on a daily basis by the villagers and visitors alike and is constantly being stocked and restocked with recycled books donated by the villagers themselves.
DART (Darvel Area Regeneration Team) – The Corner Community Hub
Amount awarded: £4,000
DART aims to improve the environment and the community spirit in Darvel through pursuing a range of projects.
There have already been two important events – a two day cycling event (Darvelo 23) in June and the first of our community markets in July. Our hope is that we can arrange markets on a regular (monthly basis) and we are also responding to requests from the community for a repeat of the cycling event next year.
Annick Brae Residents Association – New Equipment for Play Park
Amount awarded: £1,370
Our purpose is to manage the Annick Brae estate, which comprises of 77 residences, a large soft landscaped area and a play park maintained for the benefit of the wider community.
The funding will be used towards developing the park and adding in new equipment, which will encourage children and their families to socialise and play.
Darvel Improvement Group (DIG) in partnership with Darvel Gala Day Committee – Darvel Improvement Group Café Day in the Square and Darvel Gala Day Grand Community Event
Amount awarded: £5,000
DIG’s purpose has been to “Make Darvel a GREAT place to live” and has centred on organising social events to bring all ages of our community together. The Gala Day Committee shares the same ethos by providing a lively colourful day’s entertainment to be enjoyed by all the community.
The Annual Café Day in June is an eagerly awaited and widely supported outdoor event, offering food and entertainment and the biennial Gala Day is a colourful, lively parade of the town’s various organisations and bands, led by the Town Crier, ringing the “Darvel Bell” along the route, finishing with the Crowning Ceremony of the Lace Gala Queen. The Lace Queen and her attendants are chosen from the primary schools and it’s an exciting time for the young people involved, and a matter of great pride for their parents. Joining these two events will bring the community together in a full day of Celebration.
Fenwick Primary & ECC Parent Council – Fenwick Foxes Afterschool Club
Amount awarded: £4,680
Our purpose is to work in partnership with the school to create a welcoming environment which is inclusive for all families and promote partnership between the school, its pupils and families.
The Fenwick Foxes provides families support by allowing mothers to get back into the workplace and supplement the household income. By offering affordable childcare we are giving families the opportunities they require to access employment and training opportunities, allowing them to get out of the house and to make new friends. This funding will allow us to keep our costs low and offer more afterschool support as well as a healthy snack to the children who attend.
John Knox Parish Church Thrive Project – Thrive Stewarton
Amount awarded: £4,000
Our project, staffed and shaped by volunteers with lived experience, offers activities for all but with a focus on people aged 20s to 40s in the Northern locality that supports physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health needs.
The project will see people coming together to learn new practical skills as they tackle projects together with an intergenerational approach. This shall include Partnership working with Stewarton Initiatives on a public art installation.
Lainshaw Lions Out of School Care – Fuelling our Families
Amount awarded: £5,000
We are a local registered organisation within the Stewarton area who provide children care for children aged 3-12 years. We aim to provide quality care to the children and families in our care and through our offer of breakfast, afterschool and holiday care we provide parents with more opportunities to work or further their education. We also ensure that trips and special events are either free or at very low cost to allow all of our children and families to take part.
This funding will help us to support families who struggle with childcare feels and will allow us to provide nutritional snack and meals for the children in our care over the next 6 months
The Food Locker
Amount awarded: £5,000
Our community food larder helps to provide food with dignity to communities within The Irvine Valley which in turn helps to tackle the cost of living crisis for families and individuals. The Food Locker helps to provide members a variety of fresh, frozen, non-perishable foods as well as toiletries and laundry giving members the ownership by offering choices of foods. The money we are applying for would be used to replenish stocks in the Food Locker and help to provide members with a variety of items.
Darvel Primary School Parent Council – Creation of a Family room within Darvel Primary School
Amount awarded: £3,970
With funding, the Parent Council would like to support the school in transforming this room into one which provides a welcoming, therapeutic and calming atmosphere, where families can meet with various agencies in an unintimidating and relaxing environment within which these supportive discussions and meetings can take place, and where the welfare of the child(ren) can be at the forefront. The longer-term goal would be to also use the space for relevant agencies to run workshops and sessions with targeted families to provide information and support on behavioural and health matters relating to, for example, Autism, ADHD, mental health and wellbeing etc. This would also aid in the creation of support network for families in the community going forward, where they can connect with other like-minded people and families who may be facing similar challenges.
Darvel Community Trust – Digital Learning Centre and eCafé @ Sports Darvel
Amount awarded: £5,000
Our purpose is to manage and operate Sports Darvel, formerly the Gavin Hamilton Sports Centre, and provide a wide range of sports, health & fitness and recreation facilities and services to help meet the needs of the local community.
The funding will help us develop a new facility that will provide access to iPads, PCs and printing equipment, providing free access to the internet and online resources for community members and organisations who might otherwise be unable to access such services. We will also establish a café service to be run on a not-for-profit basis which will provide a drop-in facility where people can meet.
Stewarton Annick Football Club – Free Football
Amount awarded: £5,000
Our aim is to provide a safe and secure environment for kids to play football.
Football is sometimes the only escape that kids get from the real world, and they should not miss out due to rising costs of things way outside of their control.
£5,000 would allow us to keep 250 kids playing football for “free”, and allow them to come along without parents worrying about making the monthly payments.
Verve – Darvel Connect Learning Disability Group and Darvel & Irvine Valley Community Halloween and Christmas Events
Amount awarded: £5,000
The purpose of VERVE is to tackle loneliness and isolation and promote well-being. It is about bringing people together, providing support, and a toolkit of strategies that people can use to support their own mental health and wellbeing.
The weekly group that Verve runs (Tuesday 10am – 3pm) provides opportunities for people to socialise, reduce loneliness and isolation, develop daily living skills, work on literacy and numeracy skills, as well as enabling people to participate in a range of community based activities such as a weekly litter pick, wildlife and environmental activities, build raised veg beds and grow vegetables to be used by the cooking groups and donated to the Food Locker. This funding will allow us to continue the group and purchase materials and resources for learning and development activities.
The funding will also help us run free, inclusive and experiential Halloween activities and Holly McJingles the Christmas Elf provides free elf workshops for all children each year. To date we have provided over 800 children with a spooktacular Halloween and magical Christmas experience and our plans for this year are even bigger and better.