Inverkip Community Initiative is applying for funding in partnership with Inverkip Church Hall as two constituted groups running one community event for the Inverkip locality area.

The event, named The Kip Fest 2022, will run on the weekend of Friday 10th June, Saturday 11th June and finish on Sunday 12th June. The event  will be hosted across the three community facilities Inverkip Church ,Inverkip Bowling Club and Inverkip HUB. The event will include a wide range of community activities, entertainment, social evenings and something for all ages for our local community and surrounding areas.

The Kip Fest 2022 will benefit the wider community by encouraging participation and promoting social inclusion. Through having activities aimed at a variety of audiences, and specifically targeting those who may not already be accessing the Hub, Church Hall or Bowling club activities, the event will increase awareness of what is on offer in the local community for all ages and backgrounds.

The event filled weekend will include a wide range of activities including a Tea Dance, Ceilidh, Family Cinema, and our taster sessions of Zumba, Table Tennis, Football Coaching, Messy Play, Guitar Lessons, Painting, E-bikes, Gardening, Live Music, and Kids Boogie Time will encourage new users that will hopefully continue to access these resources when the weekend is over leaving a new client group and bringing a new demand for these services at a local level. We are also in talks with local farmers and food companies about hosting a farmers market which we are keen to have on at the the Festival weekend.

Our event, Kip Fest 2022, has already brought together Inverkip Community Initiative, Inverkip Church Hall Inverkip Bowling Club and the wider Inverkip Community, and will only continue to bring our community together. 

Kip Fest 2022 will bring people and organisations together by hosting these activities and events across the three community halls in the village, allowing each organisation to target a wider audience than they would working alone. This will involve a wide array of community involvement and participation with many of the local clubs and activity group that meet within Inverkip HUB and Inverkip Church Hall involved in creating a 'taster session' of their activities, bringing together a wide range of people within the community. A good example of this would be on the Saturday while we have a kids show on at the hub we will have bike rides outside, with football coaching on the pitch, a Bowls Taster Session at the pavilion, Messy play at the Church hall and and Blooming Inverkip gardening group will encouraging people to join them in creating a Jubilee garden. All these activities are in walking distance from each other and connected by staff and volunteers helping across the three halls .

Clune Park Community Centre in Partnership with the Port Glasgow Toddlers group are looking to host 3 events over June, July and August.

Event1: Afternoon Tea and entertainment ( June)

This will be for the older people within Port Glasgow, in which there will be food, music and other entertainment

Event 2: Health and Wellbeing ( July)

This event is open to everyone to attend, at this event there will be a variety of free workshops, stalls focusing on health and wellbeing For example a free pamper session and relaxation workshops. There will also be activities to help keep the children entertained.

Event 3: Fun day (August)

This will be a free fun day with a variety of indoor and outdoor activities to keep all ages entertained.

The aims of these events is to help gather the whole community together, to socialise/interact and get back out of the house and meet new people. To improve mental health giving everyone something to look forward to. To help reduce poverty over the summer period as food will be available at no cost. Brining all generations together.

Auchmountain Halls Fun day

The fun day will be take place at the end of our 4 week play scheme, creating an opportunity to bring the whole community together. Working with other organisations in the area will help encourage as many people as possible to attend but also help plan the event.

The event will be held at Auchmountain Glen, weather permitted. If not it will be held within Auchmountain Community Centre. A Community Celebration where we will have a Children’s Entertainer, Burger Van, Face Painters & Goody Bags. This event will bring people together as the event is free of charge and open to everyone, all age groups, meeting up with old and new friends and breaking down barriers of isolation.  Connect and reunite the community and strengthen the bonds between them, this hopefully will help improve mental wellbeing and alleviate personal struggles. At the event, there will be:

• Children’s Entertainer                      
• Burger Van                                      
• Face Painter                                     
• Goody Bags
• And More........

Meliora funding would enable PBO to host a range of inclusive events throughout late Spring & Summer. This   would start with a community Spring Fair in April followed by a series of monthly ‘Community Get Togethers’ with different themes for each, with a focus on creativity, gardening and environmental activities. The ‘Community Get Togethers’ will be enhanced by being held in the surroundings of our therapeutic horticultural environment and gardens on the banks of the Clyde within Port Glasgow. Some of the activities planned for the monthly events include:

• Tai Chi in the Garden with sessions outside in the Parklea grounds (gazebos and covered areas would  be available in inclement weather to ensure the sessions can go ahead as planned)
• Therapeutic crafts such as Willow Weaving & Macrame.
• Herbalist Session – learning about the varied uses of herbs, how they grow and planting up your own herb planter to take home.
• Grow and Learn Together – we will provide a variety of educational and productive food growing activities within our fully accessible community growing area, learning a bit about how to “grow your own” and giving tips & ideas of how this can be achieved on a small scale at home.
• “One Planet Picnic” – in conjunction with Keep Scotland Beautiful and local partners. A chance for the community to come together for an inclusive cultural community picnic! This will promote locally grown and seasonal foods as well as encouraging people to think about reducing packaging and food waste.
• We will provide growing resource and activity boxes.

 All of the monthly events will have fully inclusive activities as well as the opportunity for people to come together to eat and share food experiences.  We will offer wider support and engagement to our community by having local partners and agencies present at these events i.e. Community Learning and Development, Health Improvement,  Environmental Services, Carers Centre, The Trust, etc who would provide a range of information/advice and will be able to signpost people to local services.

An intergenerational mini arts festival, celebrating the new use of a previously prohibited green space. An all-day inclusive event for the surrounding community featuring:

• Mindfulness/meditation walks                      
• Street Food
• Poetry and creative writing workshop          
• Live music from local artists
• Teddy Bears' picnic and Storytelling time   
• Children's activities

An opportunity for connection after Covid, conversation, hospitality, art therapy and fun, as a chance to reimagine the possibilities of this new space together as a community.

This festival will encourage the local community to visit this previously prohibited space, particularly those who have no private garden and those who have had little access to this site and contribute their ideas and vision for the future use of the site. We are hoping that this will be interactive on the day, with an 'ideas tree' where folk can discuss, write and display their ideas. We will encourage our multi-cultural neighbours and friends to participate in planning the event to include cross cultural exchange and friendship.

The festival will seek to foster interaction, promote good mental heath through community, and nurture confidence and inclusion in the local area by providing time and space to celebrate together in a safe and fun environment. We will be directly supporting local musicians and artists as well as reaching out to 'sister' green spaces, (eg Broomhill Hub), local schools,(eg Ardgowan),  churches, (eg Hope Church) We will encourage partnerships with local businesses and charities (eg Mindfulness Warrior, Man On, Foodshare, Spar, Porchlight, artist Nicola Young, Yvonne Lyon Music, Reely Jiggered, Urban Folkers, BEP signs and Inverclyde Shed), most of these being in our neighbourhood, or having strong links with.

We shall be organising a Heritage exhibition in the Watt Hall which will comprise exhibitor stalls showcasing heritage related photos, tours, trails, memorabilia, pamphlets and books. This will also be supported with access to online local heritage resources. We shall be offering a schedule of short presentations from various groups who will give information about the rich heritage of our community. Various topics will include such as Wemyss Bay Station, researching family history, shipbuilding, architecture of the Municipal Buildings, and Greenock’s historic quarter.

Visitors at the event will be able to engage with heritage enthusiasts on a one-to-one basis and learn from their comprehensive knowledge of Inverclyde fascinating social history. The exhibition will be an informal and relaxed environment and information will be provided which gives access to follow up information online.

Our Heritage Fair in the Watt Institution aims to celebrate the many ways local people are researching, recording and passing on aspects of their culture which has significance to the way they are living their lives. We shall also visit community groups throughout the summer to introduce them to our group and to engage with more residents. IHN hopes to inspire others to share and celebrate their life stories specifically through oral histories to enable us to preserve the cultural heritage of the current generation for the generations of the future.

We would like to host a community galaday which has had to be cancelled for the past 2 years due to the pandemic and would like to coincide this with The Queens Julilee celebrations on Saturday the 4th June. We, as the association would normally try to subsidise as much as possible for the galaday so it is very much a community event that anyone can attend. We would like to do this again and make it a free event as much as possible, for everyone attending. We would also like to show off the refurbishments that have been made to the community centre at this event and hope to get ideas from the community as to what they would like to see in the community centre.  

As well as this we would like to support and include other local groups to be involved and promote what is available for the community locally, whether in the community centre or not. We want this to be as inclusive an event as possible with activities for children and families as well as our older population. We would like to have a tea room, utilising the new kitchen, games both indoors and out, fairground rides, entertainment provided by local groups eg dance group and showcasing what activities are available in the centre.

We will be showcasing what is already on in the community centre, also asking the community what they would like to see on in the centre. We would then look to add popular activities to our timetable where possible. We would like to promote the benefits of the various activities and groups in the centre. We hope to have representatives from the groups attending to be able to talk about and demonstrate what their groups do. We want to hear from the community after 2 long years of mostly being closed. Needs have changed for a lot of people and we want to reestablish relationships with the local community and this event will support this.

The event will have various and mixed activities for all ages to get involved, both inside the community centre and utilising the outside space. We want to showcase what groups and activities are already taking place within the centre and hope to have representatives to do this. We have always included different groups and organisations in our galaday eg the school PTA, Rainbows, Scouts, RNLI etc and will do this again. We want to hear from the local community about what they would like to see on at the centre, whether that is regular groups/events or one off activities. We want to get a wide range of views and will use what we have learned through the support we provided during covid and using local businesses to help with this as well.

We would like to collaborate to run a number of events and community campaigns throughout May 2022 to “Break the Stigma” on mental health whilst raising awareness of the support available within the community. Both charities have successfully managed to combine the communities love of football and its need for mental health support and this proposal links both together to continue that journey together.  

• Event 1 would be a young person focussed mental health football tournament for 11 to 14-year-olds within the community to come together and play at Cappielow for the “Break The Stigma Cup”. There would be opportunities for young people to connect with break-off Wellbeing Sessions in the stadium and mental health awareness sessions.
• Event 2 would follow a similar pattern but would be for adults within the community who may be struggling with their wellbeing who would come together and form teams to compete for the “Break The Stigma” adult cup. There would be a number of adult-led community groups available for chats within the stadium to support the adults attending.
• Event 3 would be a week-long campaign for both charities to co-produce content with members of their services to mark mental health awareness week and the importance of breaking the stigma on mental health. This would include the distribution of campaign merchandise such as a specific Football Jersey for Breaking the Stigma and other items to raise awareness in the community,
• Event 4 would be a continuation of the young person focussed tournament into the following 6 weeks with a Friday evening “Break The Stigma” session ran within the community.

We believe that these events will help the community come together on a subject matter that is hugely important. We know that the pandemic has exacerbated mental health for a lot of the residents in Inverclyde and that having an opportunity to connect with such vital projects throughout the month of May could be crucial to help them access support that they may need. We know that the people who come through our doors are struggling with a variety of trauma-related conditions, battling addictions, mental health conditions, or experiencing suicidal thoughts. We also know that connecting these people with others who have lived-experience can be life-saving. Our football projects in the community have been able to connect with people who wouldn’t normally present at mental health services, and we believe this month-long celebration of our work will only support more people. We have gained vital feedback from parents through pilot projects running supporting young people and know that the need is there to raise awareness for our young people on mental health to help break the stigma for future generations. We also know that connecting young people with football is a great avenue to begin these conversations and believe that this event and the follow-up sessions could contribute to a stigma-free society within the area.

We want to host these events throughout the month of May, traditionally where Mental Health Awareness Week falls within the UK. The theme for this year is Isolation and Loneliness which we know is a huge factor towards creating and fostering the stigma attached to mental health.

Young people (aged 15 – 25) from Kayos and Prominence will work together to create three performing arts workshops (musical theatre singing, dancing and acting) to be delivered free to schools and/or community groups. Community member workshop participants will then be brought together for a culmination performance to be performed for free to a community group, care home, school or nursery chosen by the participants. All rehearsals, workshops and performances will take place in the Greenock East and Central locality. The final performance will be outdoors in order to be widely accessible to the chosen community group and the local community.

This project will build on recent successes of Prominence’s ‘Elfcapades’ and ‘Deadcapades’ and Kayos’ street theatre productions (performed at Galoshans Festival and Surge Fest as part of Merchant City Festival) clowning and puppetry workshops and numerous successes of both groups in music and musical theatre. It will allow young people from both groups to put in to practice skills they have learned, work collaboratively, be supported to take leadership and assistant roles and work through the process of creating and delivering workshops and working with a group of participants to create and deliver a final performance.

Young people (aged 15 – 25) from Kayos and Prominence will work together to create three performing arts workshops (musical theatre singing, dancing and acting) to be delivered free to schools and/or community groups. Community member workshop participants will then be brought together for a culmination performance to be performed for free to a community group, care home, school or nursery chosen by the participants. All rehearsals, workshops and performances will take place in the Greenock East and Central locality. The final performance will be outdoors in order to be widely accessible to the chosen community group and the local community.

This project will build on recent successes of Prominence’s ‘Elfcapades’ and ‘Deadcapades’ and Kayos’ street theatre productions (performed at Galoshans Festival and Surge Fest as part of Merchant City Festival) clowning and puppetry workshops and numerous successes of both groups in music and musical theatre. It will allow young people from both groups to put in to practice skills they have learned, work collaboratively, be supported to take leadership and assistant roles and work through the process of creating and delivering workshops and working with a group of participants to create and deliver a final performance.

A series of weekend/holiday workshops. The workshops would take place at the garden at Saint Columbas High School. The school is in the process of setting up a garden and would like the local community to be involved with this. The workshops would initially include, planting sunflower seeds in pots to take home, making herb planters and learning/sharing  gardening skills.Inviting the community into the school will have a multitude of benefits for the school and  the local community. These workshops would help build a bridge between the community  and the school. The school garden is a long term project that will need the support and help of the local community. There is also strong research that shows gardening and  working outside improve peoples mental health, which has taken a knock with lockdown.  These events will give people the opportunity to talk and share experiences and skills in an  outdoor setting. It is envisaged that the event will give attendees the skills to look after their own gardens and to be involved in the Siant Columbas' Garden in the coming years.  Giving people the opportunity to learn new gardening skills, be involved in a nurturing an caring project and learn more about the school fits the criteria of the Meloria events perfectly.

The event will be open to all members of the local community, with no barriers to taking part.  People of all ages and abilities will be encouraged to participate.  The workshops will be outside allowing people who are nervous about working in groups  indoors the opportunity to be involved. It is hoped that the event will initiate partnerships with the school and its neighbours, that will continue for many years as the school garden grows.