Centre81 Steering group are based in Centre81 in Whitecrook and provide activities for local young people and their families.  We try to provide consistent weekly sessions focusing on arts, sports, cooking, and other activities that provide not only fun but a range of soft skills and build relationships within our community.  We are applying for funding to continue providing these opportunites for young people in 2023.

Bags Full of Love is a charity operating in West Dunbartonshire for children in Foster & kinship care. We provide children coming in to care with a backpack filled with new essential items and clothing so that the carer does not have to rush out shopping and can spend quality time getting to know the child in their care, this also gives the child a chance to settle in their new home and have new items just for them which gives comfort on probably the worst day of their lives. The money will be used for buying stock for our bags and for as each bag costs between £70-£100 depending on the childs age.  Last year we distributed 45 bags to children in West Dunbartonshire.

Our Social Group brings together autistic people (aged 18-35) from across West Dunbartonshire. The group reduces social isolation among autistic people living locally, and supports them to become more active in the community. Our Social Group is run by a specialist support worker and 3 volunteers. The grant would cover the costs of the staff involved, plus a range of social group activities. This will benefit up to 15 autistic people aged between 18 – 35 years who live in West Dunbartonshire.

We are a parent council of approximately 15 members supporting 350 pupils within the school. We do this by meeting regularly with school senior leaders to discuss school issues and ways the parent council can support the school.  We do regular fundraising that helps to supplement school funds, which are used to enhance the children’s educational experience.   Fundraising is done through events such as Christmas and spring fairs, bounce-a-thons, sponsored walks.  The money will be used to purchase Chromebooks for Knoxland Primary School. This will benefit all children, teaching and support staff within the school environment, giving them access to a wider range of resources and digitally enabled lessons.

We are a social enterprise engaging people in West Dunbartonshire with the arts. We are passionate about breaking down barriers, or perceived barriers, to participation. We work in areas of deprivation and with people with additional support needs. We will run a number of trips for young people aged 3-25 to see professional theatre/performance. Young people aged 3-25 from throughout West Dunbartonshire will benefit from the project. Our aim is to have 100 people attend the theatre as a part of this project. 

Sessions at the horticulture project at Knowetop form part of the recovery programme offered by Alternatives to clients in its community-based and residential programmes. Our Into Nature programme of afterschool and school holiday sessions, runs from March to October and there is a range of outdoor activities, storytelling, and nature inspired art and crafts. We also work with schools, and to date 108 children from the 2 local primaries have taken part in our schools programme. This funding will be used to develop and deliver a programme of outdoor activities at Knowetop for 11 to 18 year olds, providing young people with opportunities to experience nature and take part in workshops to learn new practical skills. This project is aimed at young people between 11 and 18 years old from anywhere across West Dunbartonshire. Our programme to date has focused more on younger children, and we’ve identified a gap in our provision for this age group.

St Marys Primary School, Clydebank, G81 6DL. We, The Parent Council, are made up of 4 core elected members however parents/carers and automatically invited when their child is enroled in the school. We aim to raise funds to help enrich the childrens learning.We would improve one of our playgrounds which is delapitated and has a lack of resources to benefit the childrens social, emotional and physical well-being. Approx. 400 children in the school and attatched nursery will be able benefit from the improvements.

We are Gavinburn Primary School’s Parent Counci who meet on average once a month and our aim is to help promote partnership between the school, its pupils, its parents and the community. We develop and engage in activities throughout the year which support the school, education and welfare of the pupils.  We identify and represent the views of parents on not only the education provided by the school but any matters affecting the school, education and welfare of the pupils. We strive to increase social and well-being opportunities for our pupils and community.  We would like to fund the purchase of outdoor wear for pupils of Gavinburn Primary School.  We will purchase  waterproof jackets and trousers, fleece jackets and wellington boots to allow more outdoor learning for the pupils.  Gavinburn encourages as much outdoor learning as possible and considers itself to be an "outdoor" school.  Our pupils will benefit from this funding.

WDCF provides support to anyone affected by poverty and food insecurity in West Dunbartonshire. We provide Emergency Food Parcels, a School Uniform Bank, a Babybank, School Holiday Brunch Bags, a Christmas Toybank and an Emergency Fuel Project.  We provide support by home delivery, delivering across West Dunbartonshire 5 days per week.  Our Emergency food Parcels include ambient food, fresh and frozen food, toiletries, household, Baby food/milk/nappies, and pet food; and each parcel contains enough food for 7 days for the household. The funding will be used for Charity operating costs.  This will benefit anyone living in West Dunbartonshire who is affected by poverty and food insecurity.

FireCloud was started by a few young ‘Bankies’ in 2007. 16 years on, we work with 500 people annually from Whitecrook, Drumry, Linnvale, Parkhall, Hardgate, Faifley, Dalmuir, Old Kilpatrick, and Duntocher (and another 2500 people across Glasgow). We are based in Our Holy Redeemer Church House, Clydebank. We will use the money to employ a sessional youth development worker to help grow our current youth work into a sustainable ‘academy’ style programme for teens (11-18).  11-18 year olds in Clydebank and the surrounding areas will benefit from this funding as will the families of the teen participants, the adult volunteers who help deliver the programme and the wider community. If our young people are given a chance to be a force for good in our community then the ripples of that goodness will affect the whole community.