We are a foodbank serving West Dunbartonshire, our main office is based in Dumbarton. We provide support to children and families affected by poverty and food insecurity in West Dunbartonshire.  We will use this funding to continue to buy food stock for the foodbank and continue our community soup project.

The WW2 Dunkirk little ship, the Skylark IX’s story of hope and resilience is what inspires all of our Community Engagement activity, alongside the people we work with. Weekly, five adults in recovery and one retired community member participate in our boatbuilding programme based in the Denny Tank Museum, Dumbarton.  We also have 14 members of the community who engage weekly in our textile group based in the Lennox Evangelical Church. Over the past few years we have continued to engage with young people in schools and local community centres, as well as running our own youth sessions outside, locally, all around West Dunbartonshire.  Our regular Community Engagement activities helps to reduce social isolation, and creates opportunities for skills building in a meaningful, inclusive, therapeutic and collaborative way, developing our Skylark IX Crew Culture, which makes everyone involved feel a part of something for their collective or individual goals and aspirations.   We intend to have Skylark IX Rowing School Summer sessions running twice weekly for 6 weeks through July and August 2023, specifically targeting young people ranging from ages 12-25. These sessions will be based out at Balloch on Loch Lomond and the River Leven at our base by the Maid of the Loch. We will utilise funding to bring in support and expertise from partnering organisations such as Royal West Amateur Rowing Club, alongside our own team of trained volunteers from our current programmes/rowing school members and employ a sessional youth worker to support the logistics and operational support of the project engaging with the young people too.  We will purchase any necessary extra water safety equipment (i.e. life jackets) and buy materials for our boatbuilders to produce smaller oars. We will also utilise a bit of contingency for any other potential amendments to our wooden boats or adjustments that may need to be resolved in the workshop, to ensure our boats are fully accessible for any young person wishing to be participate. This will be a free activity for young people, where they will be supported with safe travel where required, to and from our sessions, and we will help tackle holiday hunger by providing ample amounts of healthy breakfasts, lunches, water and snacks for all involved.  We will also purchase Crew T-shirts and beanies to gift to the young people involved, to evoke further becoming part of "The Skylark IX Crew".

Silverton Summerplay was a group set up over 25 years ago by a group of parents with children at Knoxland Primary, Braehead Primary and St Patrick’s Primary to give the children in p4-p7 a week of fun activities in the summer.  We are now a committee of 12 volunteer parents from the 3 primary schools who continue this on an annual basis.  We meet as a committee every 2 months to plan fundraising events and also the fun week.  Our fundraising consists of discos for over 100 children as well as an annual bag packing in a local supermarket.  These funds are then used to book a fun day at Knoxland and various days out visiting parks and amusement parks.  This funding will be used to cover the costs of the coaches we hire for the trips and also towards the park entrance for the children. All families who take part in the summerplay week will benefit.  The cost of the week has been £50 and any additional funding would help to keep the cost of the trip to this level with the cost of the buses increasing over the last few years.

Working in schools, colleges and other organisations we work alongside young people the Autistic Spectrum who may not fit the We aren’t school, we aren’t church, we are somewhere in between.  We can help individuals, parents and those who work and live around folk on the Spectrum and if we can’t help we will point people in the direction of those that can. We will use the funding for Developing and paying for our website so people can access help and ideas, travel, equipment and getting this activity of the ground properly. This will benefit Individuals and their parents, as well as organisations such as schools, Churches and all those working with folk on the Spectrum.  Examples of our work can be found on our website.

We are a community group based in Braehead, Bonhill. We currently have 25 members and are open to volunteers from other groups, schools and nurseries to join. We are applying for funding to make improvements to the community seating Area, Create Light, Physical Activity to garden users and improve shelter areas.

We are based in Centre81 in Clydebank, we run an art and sport club on a Friday night and Saturday morning this service is for children who have autism, siblings are also welcome. Parents have an area provided for parents who want to stay and chat through the sessionsWe will use the funding to expand the group to meet the demand as we are getting new referrals weekly. This will benefit Children and families affected by Autism.

The group is based in Concord CE Centre and has approx. 70-80 members. The group is based in Concord CE Centre and has approx. 70-80 members. The money will be used for the running of the group. Volunteer training, food for the pantry, expenses, activities, uniforms and team building activities.

We are a Shopmobility centre, based in Clyde Shopping Centre.  We offer provision to people who may require assistance to get out and about, especially in the shopping centre. We are aware of the social isolation and want to start up a Boccia group which is suitable for people of all abilities and ages.  We also want to encourage young people to come along.  Boccia is a paralympic sport and we would look to join Disability Sports Scotland to get support from them.

We are a newly formed Parent Council. We represent the entire parent forum of Dumbarton Academy, and seek to improve educational and social experiences for all pupils at the school. We are committed to reducing inequity and in promoting recovery from the pandemic through opportunities to improve the Health and Wellbeing of our young people. We will establish a Sports Clothing bank within Dumbarton Academy, thus widening access to sports and wellbeing activities for young people and ensuring equity of opportunity. We don’t want any young people to miss out on health and wellbeing opportunities due to cost. The 605 pupils at Dumbarton Academy will benefit. 

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.