Our project is focused on providing an enriched programme of activities for the 51st Kincorth Brownies in Aberdeen. As a key part of the Girl guiding community, we aim to inspire and empower girls aged 7–10, helping them develop valuable life skills, confidence, and friendships. We plan to use the funding to continue offering our local community a low-cost activity for our young people and create engaging opportunities that enhance the Brownies’ experiences. This includes organising adventurous trips, hands-on workshops, and special events like outdoor camps. We also want to invest in new equipment and resources to support activities like STEM challenges, creative arts, and community projects. The funding would allow us to cover regular running costs such as venue hire and resources as well as offer experiences like camps, adventurous activities and day trips (skiing, tubing, theatre etc) that our members may otherwise not have access to as well as ensuring that every girl can take part regardless of financial background. By making these opportunities accessible, we aim to foster inclusion and inspire every Brownie to achieve their potential in a safe and supportive environment. Your vote will help us provide unforgettable experiences for the girls in Kincorth, giving them memories to cherish and the tools to grow into confident, empowered individuals. Together, we can make a lasting impact on their lives. Thank you!

Kincorth is called the garden estate. Although the area has many green spaces the community doesn’t use this to its advantage, many of the areas are under developed or over grown particularly the trees. This project is about creating a safe and welcoming green spaces for the residents in the Gardner community. We want to take community action to develop the areas to provide green spaces that are used by all residents to socialise and enjoy nature. We want children to be able to feel safe and play in a positive clean environment. Our ideas include planting and growing flowers and cultivating vegetables using raised beds, seating for residents and equipment to support wildlife and biodiversity. We want to motivate people to take a personal pride in their area, clean encouraging owners to clean after their dogs.

We plan to set up the centre ar least one morning a week to offer soup and a roll in a warm and friendly safe space with no cost to entry.  All our volunteers will have been trained in the rquirements of food hygiene (L2) legislation and will have PVG accreditation.  We will be building up a pool of volunteers and team leaders to ensure that we have a sustainable rota built in for ensuring local continuity once the project starts.  We will also be looking to collaborate with Lochside Academy and other community partners in the management and delivery of this project to assist young people gain experience in the running a model of a social enterprise community cafe with an offfer of friendship and hot soup and a roll, acommpanied by a welcome cuppie.  We will endeavour to source quality produce from CFINE, supermarkets and other suppliers at no cost wherever possible, and where needed we will seek external funding to support our operational costs.  We have also set aside a reserve within our business planning for operational costs to ensure we can achieve our charitable purposes and meet an un-met local need in Torry.

Empowher is a peer-to-peer mental health support group for women in Aberdeen. Setup in Nov. 2024 the group meets on a fortnightly basis for 1 hour & provides a safe space for women to have open & honest discussions around mental health, with a focus on suicide prevention. The idea came from the founders' lived experience, recognition in the success of groups such as Andy’s Man Club & Man chat, and identification of a lack of similar help for women.  The venue is a cosy room in Hilton Community Centre, which has been popular, and has been free while the group has been set up. The Centre is very near Woodside and at least two regular participants are from Woodside. The project aims to help women help each other with improvement of their mental wellbeing. About 8 people have come along to each session with varying degrees of mental health issues, some with Autism or ADHD & is inclusive to anyone struggling or feeling alone. The budget includes venue hire for the fortnightly meetings for a year, as well as separate professional art therapy for people who would like to try this. The group will also aim to find free, in-kind advice from specialist organizations, to learn more about keeping the group going safely.  

Following the outcome of a recent survey from members of Torry community we would like to run a project based on the requests of members of the community. They have expressed their wish to have a type of recreational club.

This project aims to engage people with weekly activities that will help their mental resilience, health and wellbeing, support them in building healthy relationship among members of the community, build community spirit, social interactions/connections. This club will also improve the self-awareness of beneficiaries and enhance their self-esteem. This club will offer activities like fitness classes, games sessions, outdoor walk sessions, knitting and dance sessions.

JOG TORRY - keep on running! There is a proven link between fitness and both physical and mental health - which is why SAMH works in tandem with Jog Scotland to promote the couch to 5km programme in local communities. Our aim is to kickstart jogging in Torry with 2 blocks of coach-led sessions. The model is that from the 20 plus local participants, two will then go on to complete the Jog Scotland training so that they can then run the Torry group as volunteers. This will mean that Jog Torry will be self-sustaining. By having a community fitness celebration day this will encourage the wider community to get fit. It is envisaged that the fitness day will take place at St Fitticks Park and include a 5km round the park for the first couch to 5km course completers. The fitness day will also provide refreshments for the community and will host info stalls on various themes including community walking groups (paths for all), chair based aerobics, Sport Aberdeen’s offers and other fitness opportunities in the area. Local parents at Greyhope have already expressed an interest. Jog Scotland/SAMH are supporting this bid and will provide a letter of support. The Torry Health Matters group has identified this as one of its 4 core aims (adult fitness/mental health/diabetes prevention) and hence it is supportive of this bid. Sport Aberdeen is supporting the bid too.

Middlefield Hub will facilitate monthly Games and Activity sessions with our Nurseries, Youth Hub, and Older Adults in the area.

The purpose of these sessions will be help combat isolation and loneliness, keep older people active engaged in lifelong learning opportunities such as arts n crafts, board games, dancing, and more.

Young people that attend the Youth Hub will support adults with taking part, serving food/drinks, and helping them work their mobile phones and tablets. Nursery children will take part in activity and sing songs, make gifts and birthday cards during the week, and create more opportunities for different age groups to mix and be around each other.

Studies show mixing generations and ages is beneficial for everyone. These experiences, which will also have food and drinks at each session to help combat poverty and the cost of living crisis, will help nursery children in their development and learning, older youths will gain valuable experiences to help them reach their full potential, as well as increase learning about other people and empathy, and will help older people feel connected with the community. We can also use these sessions to signpost participants and families to other services at The Hub and in the community should they need further help or support. We will also invite different agencies to come in and speak to groups about other services, such as AHSCP Wellbeing Team, Sport Aberdeen, AFCCT, Mental Health Aberdeen, SamH, and more.

For several years, the community flat has supported local residents with emergency food provision. Due to the steep rise in food and energy costs, job losses as a result of the pandemic and the downturn in oil and gas services and the introduction of Universal Credit, more and more vulnerable residents are seeking support to feed themselves and their families. We provide food to everyone who needs it – babies, children, single people, pensioners, refugees, asylum seekers and those who have No Recourse to Public Funds. We provide a food parcel (approx. two days of emergency food) once a fortnight and this is topped up through weekly deliveries from Fareshare and donations from Cairncry Community Centre who have links with the Co-op.  Demand has increased exponentially over the past few years and despite reducing our service from once a week to once every two weeks, we still struggle to meet demand. The foodbank service plays a vital role in maintaining health and equalities within the community and is a lifeline for many. 

We have a programme of three levels. All the schools start with the first level where we cover the essential and basics of first aid. We start with how to keep themselves safe, why we do first aid, calling for help, talking about how we can be the ones to help friends and family. Not only with people that we know but this can also be used in the wider community. We also cover asthma, choking, DRAB and recovery position. We have discussions, the children do group work, fill in booklets they can keep and hands on practice of DRAB and recovery position.

Family Learning and Sport Aberdeen, using Cummings Park Centre plan to deliver wellbeing physical activities and arts/crafts wellbeing sessions and offer wellbeing sessions aimed directly at those who currently experience mental health symptoms, or are felt from time to time, or from those in the process of recovery.

For this, EFT Natural Healing Therapy sessions would be purchased from a local community business which would not only provide the skills necessary to reduce stress, low mood and anxiety but help assist develop a local small business

The families targeted and expected to attended have many wellbeing needs and the activities provided are designed to combat many of these by ensuring all abilities can participate, sessions/activities are good fun, everything is easy for beginners, there is a role for everyone, provides the ability to improve confidence and improves social skills for families, adults and children alike.