Funding secured by Three Towns group
The group is celebrating an important funding award.
Youngsters in Stevenston will have an opportunity to enjoy hot meals and fun activities at their weekly club thanks to funding secured through the efforts of North Ayrshire Council.
The Three Towns Locality team helped Hayocks Community Association to receive an almost £20,000 funding boost.
Received via the National Lottery Community Benefit Fund, the £19,225 donation has been secured to provide the weekly Hayocks Youth Cafe group and its hot meals provision during the weekly youth club.
Funded in partnership with North Ayrshire Council, The National Lottery, and KA:Leisure, the youth café takes place every Thursday at Hayocks Community Hall from 6pm until 8pm.
Their project ties directly into the locality priorities for the Three Towns to increase civic pride, encourage community engagement and boost overall wellbeing.
For young people aged 11 and upwards, it is being run to provide a safe and inclusive space for health, wellbeing and cyber activities with free hot meals and snacks provided.
Part of the council's Community Learning and Development (CLD) team, the Three Towns Community Development Worker supporting the project, Graham Hunter, said: 'We are delighted to have recently helped Hayocks Community Association to apply for National Lottery funding to achieve their aspirations for this thriving community café for young people.
'Our team will continue to support them by providing an action-packed schedule of youth work activities alongside our partner K:A Leisure.
'Over the summer there will be football and fitness coaching and plans are already underway for health and wellbeing dance and movement sessions.
'There is also an opportunity for the young people aged between 11 and 16 to take part in the Cyber First youth work programme Cyber Explorers via the youth group.
'So, if sports aren't your thing, you can get involved in this to play retro games and gain a qualification that centres around cyber safety and digital careers. There's something here for everyone.'
The idea for the specific youth group came from the CLD Locality Team and the project has been set up in partnership with Hayocks Community Association and Hayocks Tenants and Residents Association.
Councillor Alan Hill, Cabinet Member for Communities and Islands, welcomed the funding announcement.
He said: 'The impact that the Community Association is making is tremendous. Well done to everyone involved in securing this significant National Lottery funding. It is brilliant to see the fantastic collaboration between them, the Three Towns Locality Partnership and local partners to alleviate poverty and empower residents of all ages."
Dawn Hogg, Anti-Poverty Manager at Hayocks Community Association, added: 'Many of the young people and families in the surrounding area are impacted as the Cost-of-Living Crisis rages on, this is why the sustainability of our new youth group is vital as we are passionate about lightening the load and alleviating the challenges of rising costs.
'The recent funding boost from The National Lottery is a huge win for us to help to support some of our most vulnerable residents, providing the funds needed for the meals we're providing over the next two years.
'Not only is it going to help us grow and provide opportunities for young people to thrive, it will also be one less meal to worry about each week for families who may be struggling.
'Thank you to North Ayrshire Council, KA:Leisure and the Three Towns Locality team for their continued support in helping us to identify funding streams and for their ongoing commitment to the Hayocks Youth Café and Community Hall.'
Offering signposting to support and training opportunities, Dawn's team also operate the Tap End community food larder from the community centre – part of the council's Fairer Food Network, where members who are facing food insecurities can access their weekly grocery shopping at a subsidised cost.
Mary Frew, Hayocks Community Association Chair, added: 'We are over the moon at the recent funding boost.
'We're only two weeks into providing the meals at the youth group and the young people are loving it. We've had a fantastic turnout with between 20 and 25 youngsters attending weekly so far, and we are optimistic for the future.
'If you are a young person aged 11+ and want to meet new friends, take part in exciting activities and enjoy a relaxed meal with us each Thursday, why not come along?'
Keep up to date with what is happening at Hayocks Community Centre by following their Facebook pag e.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Wales Online
11 hours ago
- Wales Online
Euromillions massive £208m jackpot draw time and ticket deadline
Multiple consecutive rollovers mean that tonight's EuroMillions jackpot sits at a staggering £208 million - the highest National Lottery prize ever. It comes just days after nobody scooped the £199 jackpot in Tuesday's EuroMillions draw - which has now rolled over to tonight to create the eye-watering £208 million prize pot. It comes after Tuesday's £199m draw had no winners. The winner will take the top spot on the National Lottery's biggest ever wins list. Senior winners' adviser at Allwyn, Andy Carter, said: "We are now on the verge of potentially creating the biggest National Lottery winner this country has ever seen." Follow live updates here.
Daily Record
11 hours ago
- Daily Record
Ayrshire local authority recoups £31,000 in council tax fraud
Fraud investigations brought £50,000 back to the council. More than 300 corporate fraud incidents were investigated by North Ayrshire Council in 2024-25, bringing in more than £50,000 to the authority. The team received 331 referrals for investigation during 2024-25 (compared to 398 in 2023-24), the Audit and Scrutiny Committee heard on Thursday. Some 359 cases were closed during 2024/25 (2023/24: 385 cases). These can be categorised as follows: Outcome - Number of Cases Closed with no issues identified - 170; referred to another agency (including SFIS) or Council Service for investigation 76; closed with results achieved (fraud, error or other recovery/action) - 11. TOTAL 359. Fraud and error totalling £57,000 were identified and are categorised in the table below: Category Value Housing Benefit £9000; Council Tax (including CTR, Single Person Discount and other recoveries) 31,000; Housing Other (including arrears now recoverable) 4,000; Payments to Employees (e.g. salary, time, travel etc.) £13,000. TOTAL 57,000. In addition to the financial outcomes noted above, other outcomes/benefits were noted as follows: Fifty-eight tenancies were recovered by Housing with some assistance from the Corporate Fraud Team. Sixty-three referrals were made to the Single Fraud Investigation Service. Nineteen referrals were made to other services, local authorities or agencies. In respect of blue badge cases investigated: Fifteen cases concluded with a warning letter to the badge holder (2023-24: 2 warning letters), 13 warning letters were issued to third parties (2023-24: 2 warning letters), and 7 expired badges were recovered (2023-24: 1 badge recovery). Nine investigations resulted in updates and corrections to records. Four internal investigation reports have been taken forward with recommended actions for control improvement. International Fraud Awareness Week took place from November 17 to 23. It was promoted throughout North Ayrshire Council by social media campaign.
Daily Record
11 hours ago
- Daily Record
Cuts and council tax hikes could bridge £40m North Ayrshire budget black hole
The next three years provides a range of financial challenges for the local authority. National financial bosses are warning of a structural funding gap of more than £40m over the next three years for North Ayrshire Council. And the authority were warned that cuts will be needed along with workforce changes and council tax and charges in the Audit Scotland North Ayrshire Council Best Value Thematic Management Report, presented to Thursday's Audit and Scrutiny Committee. The report revealed that the council's latest Medium Term Financial Outlook has identified a structural funding gap of £46.7m in the three-year period to 2027-28 (including HSCP pressures). Projected savings from transformation fall significantly short of the savings required. Officers are clear that future recurring savings also need to be made through workforce changes, cuts in services, and council tax and fees and charges increases.. Officers have indicated that future recurring savings also need tobe made through workforce changes, cuts in services, and council tax andfees and charges increases. However, Audit Scotland claim the transformation programme needs to be sufficiently ambitious to respond to the scale of the financial challenges. The Accounts Commission's Local government in Scotland Financial bulletin 2023-24 noted that councils need to intensify transformation activity, progressing at scale and pace to ensure their financial sustainability. The council's current transformation programme, known as its Sustainable Change Programme, was approved in 2023 and clearly sets out how it intends to transform its services, in line with its priorities, through five workstreams and six service reviews. Between 2021-22 and 2024-25 the council achieved financial efficiencies from its Sustainable Change Programme of £3.136m. They plan to make further efficiencies of £8.5m over the next three years. There was scope for the council to consider opportunities for more radical transformational change with partners. Mark Boyd, Head of Service (Finance), told the committee that in terms of transformation there is a lot of work going on and the solar farms would generate revenue. They were progressing with a number of services reviews like waste services, learning resource reviews and digital workstreams. There was also more momentum about how the 32 councils could better work together. In areas like blue badges, he said they could maybe have one solution across the authorities. Thirty-two councils were all doing similar tasks and they had to look to harness that activity and target efficiency from it. Budget preparations were beginning next week with the executive leadership, the finance boss revealed. There were also ongoing discussions with other Ayrshire councils around wider reform and opportunities to share services and that would continue although there had to be the will to progress that through three separate entities that had to be done at officer level and leadership level.
