Community Benefits Wishlist Submission

As a registered community charity managing extensive facilities, Irvine Community Sports Club faces significant maintenance overhead costs that strain operational resources. We are currently seeking donations to install a new suspended ceiling in our primary function space. This improvement will enhance the venue's aesthetic appeal and functionality, making it more attractive to potential hirers and community users. The upgraded space will generate increased rental revenue, which will be directly reinvested into our vital community programs including TimeToTalk and minority sports development. This enhancement represents a strategic investment in both facility improvement and sustainable community service delivery.

Irvine Community Sports Club urgently requires donation of new refrigeration and freezer units to support our extensive community food program. Weekly, we provide nutritious meals to over 250 children aged 5-16 years and more than 100 adults through our community initiatives. Recent equipment breakdowns have severely compromised our cold and frozen storage capacity, limiting our ability to serve our community effectively. These new appliances are essential components of our planned kitchen upgrade project, designed to expand community food options and ensure food safety compliance. The enhanced storage capacity will enable us to purchase ingredients in bulk, reducing costs while maintaining meal quality and variety. This improvement directly supports our charitable mission of addressing food insecurity and promoting community wellbeing, allowing us to continue serving vulnerable families and individuals who depend on our meal services for nutritional support and social connection.

Through its digital inclusion initiatives, the TimeToTalk project delivers comprehensive training and ongoing support to over 180 individuals weekly, addressing critical connectivity barriers within our community. We distribute approximately 150 free SIM cards monthly to residents whose financial circumstances prevent them from maintaining phone contracts. Since 2020, the club has successfully secured and redistributed over 250 donated devices to individuals facing multiple deprivation barriers. According to Ofcom statistics, 1.5 million UK households lack internet access, with cost being the primary barrier for 36% of non-users. The Carnegie UK Trust reports that 22% of households cannot afford to replace broken digital devices, while 6% of adults have never used the internet. These statistics reflect the reality within our community, where residents experience intersectional poverty affecting housing, employment, healthcare access, and digital connectivity. Our established tech donation service facilitates device refurbishment and redistribution, extending equipment lifecycles while meeting urgent community needs. We actively seek donations of smartphones, laptops, tablets, desktop workstations, televisions, and projectors. These devices enable essential services access, educational opportunities, employment searching, healthcare appointments, and social connection for individuals experiencing multiple forms of poverty and social exclusion.

Lap tops to allow us to offer IT training to those suffering digital poverty. The ones we have had funding for are being used to power CNC & 3D printing units. We have had a plan to offer IT training for a year now and have never been able to due to a lack of physical resources.

Any excess/off cuts of timber from the building of the new Ardrossan campus.

We are looking for timber & rafter insulation rolls. 12 off ideally something like Superglass 570mm x 10m x 90mm rolls.

we are running a knife crime initiative for primary's 6 and 7 in local schools to pilot the initiative with a street striker challenge on the final day the young people will take part in a series of street football challenges and for this we require a scaffolding tower. to use as a platform for ball drop. the final will be towards the end of September.

we require top soil and bark to finish our community edible garden looks like a ton of each soil for vegetables and fruit trees and bark for path around our raised beds.

We would be looking for a storage facility to store our new lights and other supplies we have.

500 selection boxes that we can use as a gift from Santa.

£300 that we could use to help us run our senior citizens afternoon tea and our Christmas m Party for children these events will be targeted at hard to reach groups.

We'd like a donation of 280 heras fencing panels with 280 block feet. This is to cordon off activities in Irvine moor on the day of the Marymass festival 23rd August. We are aiming to put the fencing up on 22nd August.

We'd like to hire commercial waste bins for the day of our festival on 23rd August. We would need someone to deliver the bins and uplift the rubbish. This would be a great help to us as we'd like to keep the community clean and means we will have more funding to put in to the Marymass festival.

We’re looking for ceiling tiles to help us repair damage after a recent flood from the upstairs property. Unfortunately, this is the second time this has happened since moving into our new shop—and we’re only eight months into our new premises. We’ve already cleaned up the mess and are now waiting for the relevant contractors to fully fix the leak and reassure us that the issue is completely resolved. As a small, non-profit organisation, we’re hoping to avoid going through insurance again, as this would set us back significantly in terms of time and progress. If anyone is able to donate or supply ceiling tiles over the next 2–3 weeks, it would make a huge difference and help us move forward in continuing our work with the community. Thank you so much for your support 💜

Preparation of bases for portacabins, ankle bar, sheeting and cladding for terracing.

Advertising boards, player sponsorship, kit sponsorship and footballs.

Grounds maintenance and Renewing barriers.

We are looking for some Grass Reinforcement Mesh – Heavy-Duty Turf Protection for Car Parks, Driveways & Lawns. We aim to use this for a couple of disabled parking spaces close to the field to facilitate access as the current parking is quite far from the field and makes it hard for people with mobility issues to access. We are looking for roughly 2mx30m. Any excess from the car spaces would be used in high traffic areas of the field where it is becoming muddy and slippery.

Help with the setting up and dismantling of 240 crowd barriers for a jousting event we want to put on for our visitors. This is to provide an arena 20 x 70m long. It has to be double ringed for safety purposes. This is the weekend of Sat 6th and Sun 7th Sept and will need to be done either the night before or preferably first thing in the morning and dismantled on the Sunday evening or Monday morning.

We require volunteers for many aspects of the festival including: **Marshalling**: Guide our festival-goers and ensure the safety and smooth flow of events. **Ticket Collection and Distribution**: Assist with managing entry points to the festival. **Survey Taking**: Gather valuable feedback from attendees to help us improve future festivals. **Event Assistance**: Help organise and manage various exciting events, such as parades, entertainment shows, and village activities. **Setting Up Arenas**: Ensure our event spaces are ready for action. **Market management** Marking out pitches, moving and setting up of stalls and tables. Assisting traders, marketeers, charities and community groups with wears and equipment. **Entertainment** Liasing and assisting bands and performers on and off stage, time management and potentially sound and light engineering etc. ** Pitching tents**. Helping the reenactors pitch their tents safely and securely. .**Procession Marshal**: Lead and coordinate festival parades. **Crowd Management**: Help create a welcoming and safe environment for all attendees. **Car Park Marshal**: Direct vehicles and ensure efficient use of parking spaces. **Public Assistance**: Provide information and support to festival visitors. **Liaising with Reenactors**: Work with our historical performers to ensure authentic and engaging portrayals. **Longboat Building Assistance**: Contribute to the construction of our iconic Viking longboat. **Merch and Donation Collection**: Support our fundraising efforts. **Weather Management**: Distribute straw and sand on wet days to ensure safe pathways. Make sure tents are well pitched. **Water Carrier**: Keep participants and attendees hydrated. **Signage Distribution**: Ensure essential information is clearly posted around the festival grounds. Why Volunteer? By choosing to volunteer as a húskarl, you'll contribute significantly to keeping the spirit of the Largs Viking Festival alive. You'll gain valuable festival experience, meet new people, and leave with a great sense of achievement.

Assistance to erect fencing.

Areas of the plot become badly flooded. Financial assistance with the costs associated with installing drainage.

Groundworks and materials to improve paths. Paths are narrow and uneven leaving most of the plot inaccessible to people with mobility issues. Our aim is to be able to be fully inclusive