Project Overview

 

Project Title: Monthly Lunch Clubs  

Duration: One year  

Total Funding Requested: £1,800

 

Objectives:

 

1. Promote Community Integration: Create a welcoming space for individuals from diverse backgrounds to gather, share a meal, and engage in meaningful conversations.

 

2. Provide Access to Information and Resources: Collaborate with local services such as the Citizens Advice Bureau, Welfare Rights, and the Heat Project to provide attendees with valuable information and support.

 

3. Reduce Social Isolation: Foster connections among participants, helping to mitigate feelings of loneliness and enhance overall well-being.

 

4. Encourage Healthy Eating: Serve fresh, nutritious lunches that promote healthy eating habits and well-being.

 

Audience

 

Our lunch clubs will primarily target individuals from minority backgrounds, but we welcome all community members to join us. This inclusive approach will help to break down barriers, encourage understanding, and promote a sense of belonging among participants.

 

Activities and Structure

 

Each monthly lunch club will include:

 

Light Refreshments: A healthy, balanced meal prepared from fresh ingredients, promoting nutrition and well-being.

 

Guest Speakers: Representatives from partner organisations will be invited to speak and provide information on various topics, including welfare rights, financial advice, mental health resources, and community services.

 

-Open Forum: An opportunity for participants to share their experiences, ask questions, and seek support from staff and volunteers in a relaxed and friendly environment.

 

Expected Outcomes

 

Increased Community Engagement: Participants will develop new friendships and connections, fostering a sense of community.

 

 Improved Access to Resources: Attendees will gain awareness of and access to local services, enhancing their ability to navigate challenges they may face.

 

 Better Quality of Life: By reducing social isolation and providing nutritious meals, participants will experience improved mental and physical well-being.

 

Conclusion

 

We believe that the Monthly Lunch Clubs will be a vital initiative for promoting community cohesion, providing support, and enhancing the quality of life for individuals in Perth. With your generous funding of £1,800, we can implement this project and create lasting positive impacts within our community.

 

Thank you for considering our proposal. We look forward to the opportunity to work together to make a difference in the lives of those we serve.

 

We appreciate your support and consideration.

 

We are exploring the possibility of this funding to try and offer children from Rattray some fun activities. These activities will offer far more than fun, opportunities to learn or improve on skills, fitness, be part of a team, work on respect, nature, environment, self-confidence all at their own pace and learning ability.

At Mantalk we have a lot of men coming through our doors with issues that stem from childhood. We are big believers that the more positivity you can give to children can help them them right throughout life. Whilst we are unable to accommodate them at our group we are always looking at ways where we can offer some help and support.

We talk about our own childhood experiences and when things like activities or sport camps came up many of us missed out because our parents couldn’t afford to pay the costs. From our own experiences during childhood we wouldn’t wish that feeling on any child but due to the cost of living we know there will be many children in similar positions. If we are successful then these spaces will be offered to any child in Rattray for free on a variety of activity days during the school holidays including paintball, cycling, football, rugby and archery.  We will partner with Albert Douglas of AK Paintball, Piotr Gudan of Outdoor explore and Cally Gordons activity camps to deliver these activities to the children of Rattray.

The Star Garden workshops will aim to involve the local young people in the community in gardening and other outdoor activities. We want to provide the children and young adults of Crieff with more exposure to gardening, composting, and sustainable gardening techniques. We understand not everyone has access to their own garden or gardening equipment, therefore with these workshops we aim to provide an opportunity to let a possible passion flourish amongst the youth. These workshops will provide a non-mainstream educational offering of engaging activities, in which the local youth will learn a range of skills both working as part of a team as well as independently.

The workshops will involve learning basic gardening techniques, such as planting and discussing growth cycles. Garden art, such as painting plant pots and other crafts. Composting workshop, learning about what can and cannot be composted. Herb and vegetable gardening, creating a ‘salad garden’ and learning how to care for herbs. Gardening also has many benefits for individuals with sensory affected disabilities. The activities in the workshops will help support the development of motor skills, can encourage emotional regulation, aid cognitive development, help deal with sensory responses and more.

The ‘Crieff Gleam Team’, who do litter picking in the local area, is something of interest to us as well, and we would like to also support their work during our workshops and get young people more involved in the community in which they live. We want to encourage the youth to explore the potential that comes with living in a rural location, such as having the opportunity to grow their own food in the garden, having a large outdoor space where they can come to relax and feel at peace. It is worth noting that the workshops will be free of charge for all those participating, as our main priority is to provide an opportunity for the youth of Crieff to explore new interests and hobbies.

To ensure the sustainability of these activities, we will run the workshops throughout June, July, and August. We plan to provide cover to accommodate the unpredictable Scottish weather, ensuring that the workshops can proceed rain or shine.

Our club has always demonstrated our values which are to provide a safe, fun and inclusive netball club. We have always ensured that our girls understand the benefits of how having an active lifestyle can only bring positive outcomes for their physical and mental health. It also helps our girls from the different schools across our area to make real connections and friendships away from the ever increasing dependency children have on social media. Perth City Juniors were re-established in 2021 and since then we have managed to obtain success in the form of twice winning the Netball Scotland Scottish Youth Cup along with many netball leagues throughout Scotland and across all of our age groups. We also have some girls who have gone on to represent Scotland. The costs involved in playing netball competitively can put a financial burden onto parents therefore our committee have always strived to fundraise so that we can keep our fees low. 

We have a culture of giving back at our club with many of our older girls volunteering their time to help coach sessions at the club as well as within their secondary schools. Many of them have obtained coaching qualifications along with becoming umpires. With this in mind, we'd like to continue this by giving back to our communities. 

We are hoping that with a successful funding application, we can deliver free netball sessions within local primary schools. We would like to coordinate with the headteachers and Active schools coordinators to offer 4 weekly sessions to be held either in school hours or as an after school club. 

Our hope is that by offering these sessions, we can encourage the children to subsequently be involved in playing netball at the many clubs in Perth & Kinross. Showing that no matter what their socioeconomic background is, there is accessible netball available to everyone. Following these free taster sessions, we'd hope to hold some holiday camps to benefit all netball players in the area. The funding would also allow us to upskill our coaches and equipment so that we could deliver a high quality holiday camp catering to girls of differing levels of netball ability.   

We have witnessed first hand the positive impact that being involved in this team sport, can allow our girls to thrive, be successful and boost their confidence. We hope that our application will be successful to allow us to include more girls who will benefit from our club.

Overview: Wonderland is a community-based initiative devised by Adventure Circus SCIO in 2024. Wonderland’s aim is to bringing free outdoor circus performances and workshops to local parks in Perthshire. The project focuses on engaging children and families, particularly those from low-income areas, offering them the opportunity to experience live circus entertainment and actively participate in circus skills training within their own community (Coupar Angus), out of doors during the summer holidays. 

Our goals: 

• Access to the Arts during cost of living crisis: we want to provide children and families in low-income / semi-rural areas with the chance to see a professional circus performance, something that may otherwise be financially out of reach. 
• Skill Development: we love to share what we do, and so our performances always include an element of participation to encourage children to engage in circus skills. For example our performers will help members of the public to try juggling, hula hooping, and aerial arts, promoting physical activity, creativity and self-confidence. 
• Community Building: Our visits are intended to offer a community activity that brings local people together for a fun, inclusive and interactive experience. As an outdoor spectacle, there is no limit to the number of people who can attend. In 2024 we performed Wonderland in Coupar Angus to approximately 250 people of all ages. 
• Wellbeing Focus: It is our long term aim that our Wonderland events provoke audience members to consider taking part in circus skills, either through our education programme, or through self practise. Circus arts have a well known reputation for improving mental/emotional wellbeing due to a long history of inclusivity, and the skills offer an opportunity for self-expression, resilience and crucially for young people, play. 

Key Activities: 

• Outdoor Circus Show: Our professional circus performers will put on an engaging outdoor show that is family-friendly and accessible to all ages.  The show is based on Alice in Wonderland and so the story concept is recognisable to many people because of it’s well known characters and timeless themes such as curiosity, exploration, personal growth, absurdity and nonsense! 

• Taster Sessions: After the performance, children and adults will be invited to try their hand at various circus skills like juggling, hula hooping and aerial hoop workshops led by the circus performers. Participants will be encouraged to experiment and learn. 

• Community Involvement: Alongside our performers, local volunteers from Adventure Circus, including our young leaders, will assist with workshop delivery and gain valuable community experience. We will spend time getting to know local people and can encourage them to join us, continue to practise independently. 

Target Audience: 

• Children aged 3-14, particularly those from lower-income backgrounds who may not experience many special activities / experiences due to the cost of living crisis and limitations of the family budget 

• Families and community members who may not typically access large-scale entertainment or arts events because they cannot afford to attend or because they do not have the means to travel out with their area due to limitations of public transport / cost. 

Benefits: 

• For Children: Encourages physical activity and boosts confidence and resilience through fun, engaging experiences. 

• For Families: Provides a free, inclusive arts/circus experience that brings joy for all the family and introduces new ways to engage in physical activity. 

• For all: floor skills such as juggling and hula hooping are extremely low cost and are accessible beyond our Wonderland experiences through our community classes, or through self exploration at home using resources such as youtube/TikTok/Instagram 

• For the Community: Strengthens local connections Adventure Circus has within different areas throughout Perth & Kinross and helps to create lasting memories by bringing a positive, uplifting event to the community. 

Outcomes: 

With your help, we will be helping to increase access to the arts for children in underserved areas, we will encourage/enhance physical and mental wellbeing through creative circus play and we will help to strengthen community cohesion and pride in local parks as venues for cultural and recreational activities. 

By bringing the magic of the circus directly to the community, Wonderland creates a free, accessible opportunity for children to see, learn, and play, and best of all, it is all set up right in their own parkland!

Video: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17929916303875766/

The CAYAG Adventure Seekers project aims to get more young people outdoors and being active.  There is evidence that suggests young people being outdoors can improve their physical and mental wellbeing, support social skills and academic performance. Spending time outdoors can reduce feelings of stress and anger, and boost self-confidence and self-esteem by allowing young people to take risks in a safe space. In Coupar Angus and surrounding areas we are very lucky as there are so many great spaces we can explore and utilise.

We would start the project in May and end in October with every second Saturday having a different activity on offer.  Each activity will be facilitated by skilled staff, which CAYAG staff and volunteers will support.  Activities will include, adventure tubing, archery, gorge walking, mountaineering, paddle sports, clip n climb, mini highland games and more! We would be tailoring the activities to the young people's needs and abilities and set the programme with their input.  There would also be the opportunity to gain awards and certificates in paddle sports, mountaineering, map reading etc.  We would end the project with a residential to celebrate everyones achievements and also to deliver training oppotunities in outdoor first aid and Dynamic Youth Awards. 

All activities would be open to the young people of Coupar Angus and surrounding areas, whether they are a member of CAYAG or not and will be free of charge.  We are looking to boost engagement with the young people in the town and hope this project will encourage more young people to attend CAYAG.  There would be free refreshments offered at each session with lunches provided for full day activities.  Transport will also be available at no extra cost to the participant. 

We will be working in partnership with local businesses, youth work partners and youth scotland to create a varied programme with something for everyone. 

For the last year and a half, coaches who live locally from stirling shinty club along with  Active Schools Coordinator for Crieff & Fairview  Nick Keiller, have been running primary age after school clubs in crieff. A club session for primary aged kids has also developed this with kids playing in local and national festivals and competitions. Currently crieff has access to plastic first shinty equipment , but to move to the next level and start sessions in the high school, we are looking for wooden sticks, helmets , balls and Multi purpose goals. This equipment would be used for outdoor school competitions , from primary and secondary schools, festivals, PE lessons and after school clubs  We hope to develop Shinty as a sport for the local community where kids will grow up to be part of local club, and be part of a traditional sport that is at the heart of many areas in scotland, which can grow  in strathearn, as it has for clubs in Lochabar , Badenoch, Oban, Inverness to Glasgow.

We plan to run recreational sport and fitness sessions, mainly football based however we will take feedback from participants and engage with our partner clubs about other sports that may be of interest, to address the needs of people who may be suffering from or at risk of social isolation, poor mental health and young people not in education and training. We will deliver 3 sessions per week throughout the year aimed at these target groups but open to all who feel they would benefit from such a session. These sessions will be delivered in the morning, afternoon and evening spaced out throughout the week to allow options for participants and ensure the best reach. We will advertise this project through our social media channels, local press, partner agencies and in hard copy in local facilities. This is a new project for us which we will be reviewing to better understand the demand, impact on participants daily lives, effectiveness and desirability of the sessions. We hope that this will lead to a future expanded community projects package including this and other projects for the benefit of people in our community who would benefit from enhanced physical activity coupled with additional life support covering areas such as financial, skills and confidence, employability and mental health. In addition part of this funding will be used to invest in our exisiting volunteers ongoing development to allow them to better support our participants and potential new volunteers drawn from our attendees. This funding will allow them to be upskilled in coaching qualifications, first aid training as well as in additional areas particular to their ongoing development goals.

The d.i.y luch bags started a few years ago and became a way to help out parents, make sure children in need were stil able to access food during the school holidays and also educate families on cooking meals together in the kitchen (just like back in the day). These bags are available for anyone with a child from nursery all the way through to highschool. As any parent knows children tend to eat a lot more when theyre not at school for a number of reasons, Boredom being the main one the d.i.y lunch bags are designed so that children (sometimes with supervision) can make their own lunchs if needed during easter, summer and october holidays. 

As a result of improvements made at the stadium at Davie Park, Blairgowrie & Rattray Community Football Trust (BRCFT) are excited to offer a programme of activities within the new built-for-purpose social space, designed to benefit the needs of the entire community, by promoting improved health & wellbeing.

It is BRCFT’s intention to open the space on an ad-hoc basis daily to provide a warm, welcoming space for residents of the SIMD 1 community in which it sits. As a result of ongoing community engagement, this has been identified as something that is very much needed, particularly during the winter months, due to the levels of deprivation the neighbouring communities are facing, resulting in glaring health inequalities.

However, not only do we want to open this space to use when needed, but we also intend to develop an activity programme that brings the community through the doors, providing the ability to utilise other support services that are on offer and, thus, reducing the stigma of accepting help. Due to the strength of the presence that BRCFT and the sport of football has in the local community, it provides the unique opportunity to destigmatise and normalise the acceptance of support, making the Trust in a powerful position to monitor changing needs and be responsive to this.

The health & wellbeing project is designed to alleviate the impact of poverty and the cost-of-living on the health and wellbeing of Rattray residents. Recent key findings from SPICe publication titled ‘getting the inactive active: barriers to physical activity and their potential policy solutions’ (Scottish Parliament, 2025) highlights that Scotland have ‘disproportionately poor health outcomes’ and those facing the highest levels of deprivation are far less likely to participate in sport and physical activity, despite being the population that benefit most from it. Therefore, this identifies the need for a more targeted offering, due to the following conclusions: 1. 35% of school pupils living in 20% most deprived areas in Scotland are most likely to be inactive (only 23% for those in 20% least deprived areas evidencing the health inequalities). 2. People with disabilities, who are also experiencing poverty, are considerably more likely to have higher levels of sedentary behaviour. 3. Only 55% of 65–74-year-olds meet CMO guidelines for physical activity – 29% have very low activity. 4. Physical inactivity costs NHS Scotland over £77 million per annum.

Therefore, to support the Rattray community to improve these outcomes, the health & wellbeing project will encompass the following main features: 1. Introduce free BRCFT-led activities using new staff structure – Football Education Officer, Football Development Officer & sessional coaches 2. Provide venue hire at no cost to community organisations that promote improved health & wellbeing - 3 hours per week available with the focus being on mental health, women & girls, and disabilities, due to identified need. 3. Ad-hoc use of venue as a warm space – community café-style offering, hot drinks facilities consistently available etc.

This funding would be utilised to develop our initial programme of free activities, inclusive of: 1. Games club - video and board games in a social environment with physical activity incorporated into session - designed to encourage inactive children and young people to attend and increase physical activity levels. 2. Weight management sessions 'Fan Fitness' - 90-minute session for over 35s to improve mental, social and physical health by promoting lifestyle and behaviour changes through fun, educational and interactive activities. 3. Walking group - low-level activity suitable for all ages and abilities. 4. Sporting memories - supporting people aged 50+ including those living with dementia, depression or facing social isolation to improve their mental and physical wellbeing. 5. Activities for people with disabilities - adaptive and inclusive activities for people with disabilities who face limited access to activities to support their health & wellbeing due to related barriers.

It is essential to be able to provide access to activities at no cost to support those who are least active to become more active by reducing the barriers of participation, such as cost. This provides the opportunity to build upon the activity provision to reduce health inequalities in the area as BRCFT continue to build partnerships with NHS Tayside.

Although the maximum benefits are likely to be experienced by those living in Rattray, due to evidence that targeted physical activity provision is largely more beneficial in the 20% most deprived areas, it won’t be limited to the Rattray community due to BRCFT having a broader remit in Blairgowrie, Rattray and surrounding areas, and pockets of deprivation existing even in more affluent areas.

References: Meir, D., & Scott, D. (2025). Getting the inactive active: Barriers to physical activity and their potential policy solutions. Edinburgh: The Scottish Parliament. Available at: https://bprcdn.parliament.scot/published/2025/1/10/c1a1038a-6254-45be-b329-edba530b47e1/SB%2025-03.pdf