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.

We would like to bring back the popular ‘Light Up Loans’ event, which hasn’t run in the village since before covid. This Christmas event brought the whole village together to sing carols and enjoy refreshments before counting down to the switch on of the Christmas lights.

We would also like to have a lovely tree within the village hall which would be lit up and on display for any events held in the hall during December.  Part of this project would be to offer local people at the Light Up Loans event to purchase a tree bauble that they decorate in memory of a loved one or with a special Christmas message.  The monies generated from this would be used for future years to replenish baubles, replace lights and decorations as required.

We’re looking to apply for funding to cover the costs of an outdoor Christmas tree (purchase, delivery and installation/removal), an indoor tree,  lights and decorations for both, baubles to personalise and refreshments for on the night.

Outdoor Christmas tree - £700

Indoor Christmas tree - £330

Lights and decorations - £300

Ceramic baubles to personlise - £200

Refreshments for event - £100

Total - £1630

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.

We plan to revitalise Prestwick Community Hall to create a more welcoming, accessible, and versatile space for local residents of all ages. The funding will be used to purchase essential decorating materials (such as matt and gloss paint, brushes, sealant, and fillers), timber for minor repairs, and laminate flooring to improve our upstairs meeting room.

A key part of the project is the installation of heavy, full-length blackout curtains around the main hall. These will dramatically improve the sound quality during live music events and performances by reducing echo and enhancing acoustics. The curtains will also enable us to host daytime shows, film screenings, and community events that require light control.

These upgrades will allow us to expand our programme of activities and attract a broader range of users — from Pensioners, youth groups and adult learners to music performers, social clubs, and family-friendly events. This funding will help us transform the hall into a vibrant, inclusive hub at the heart of Prestwick's community life.

The money will allow us to purchase 4 paddle boards, that can be used by young people and local youth clubs etc.  having additional paddle boards will also help in developing the equipment we have for the new Water Sports facility.

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 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

We would like to offer a free 'BSL Cafe' for people to learn and also practice and use their sign language skills. We're applying for funding to buy a computer with the ability to record and show BSL videos, thus allowing learners to practise their skill and record evidence of their abilties if desired. The computer has camera, microphone and suitable sized screen.  We would also require a printer, paper and ink to provide training materials for all learners that they could take away to practice at home.

I already offer BSL classes so this would be open before, during and after classes in the Loans Village Hall. As part of the cafe, we also like to provide some refreshments, therefore purchasing a hot water urn for tea and coffee facilities aswell as mugs and spoons. The money will be used to start this up.

£500 – Computer with ability to show/record sign language videos

£200 – Printer, ink and paper

£100 – Hot water urn

£100 – Initial set up for café (mugs, spoons, tea, coffee, etc)