2 0 1 3 - 14 Beith Community Development Trust Annual Report
Contents The Financial Bit …………….....1 Our Work ………………………. 2 Beith Astro……………………….3 The Numbers The Big Swap…………………….4 We’ve organised over 200 workshops, Ideas Bank………………………..5 activities and events with a footfall of over Community Mapping Project...6-8 3000 of which over 500 were new Pop-Up Beith…………………….9 participants. The New BCDT Brand………...10 In addition to this over 30 teams made use Awards & Accreditations……....11 of the Beith Astro on a weekly basis through Staff & Volunteers……………...12 training and playing. Our Funders…………………….13 The BCDT Board………………13 Our income increased by over £250,000 Thank you to the Community…14 over the course of the year. Looking to the Future………….14
The Financial Bit We had £20,380 at the start of the year. We raised £345,936 from trusts, funds, generated income and supporters. We spent £268,430 on workshops, staff, staffing and lots and lots of community activity. We finished the year with £97,886, £61,914 of which is restricted for What Else Happened…
A Lego Group offered safe play for kids during the dark evenings
A Gaelic Development Day was hosted in Beith
A Cycle Scotland Bike Ability Course was completed by 14 local people
The Easter Camp was attended by 127 children over a two week period
A top of the range floodlight system was purchased for the pitch took place
A parent and child space education programme
Two new full time members of staff were recruited
One Community Job Scotland post was filled
An outdoor education week was organised in partnership with local primary schools with over 400 children attending.
47 bikes were collected to be recycled and rehomed where possible
Awards and qualifications were offered to local people including the Play Maker Award, Sports Leader Award, Young Leader Award and Saltire Award
Unlicensed Events hosted 2 headphone discos in Beith and 2 live music events
BCDT hosted the 1st ever Activate course in North Ayrshire, in partnership with the University of Glasgow. Our Work At Beith Community Development Trust we are passionate about one thing; Our Community. We do our best to cater for all of the community through a number of programmes and projects.
Friday Night Footy Fives This is a social football on a casual basis sometimes with as many as 51 participants during Summer months.
Nurture group at Beith Primary School BCDT have been working closely with Beith Primary School to deliver a nurture group for a group of 5-6 year olds. The group meet Soup Dragons once a week and partake in outdoor A new programme has been introduced education based at Beith Primary School or to encourage the young people in Beith Beith Astro, accompanied by BCDT’s thera- to be more involved in outdoor activity pets Poppy and Daisy. including cooking outdoors, habitat building and increasing awareness of the Anti-sectarian Give Bigotry the Boot environment and wildlife. The Programme participants are also working towards BCDT designed this programme to deliver to both gaining the Playmaker award. primary and secondary children in order to educate them on what sectarian behaviour is, how to tackle it and how to oppose it. The programme was delivered to 7 schools throughout the Garnock Valley and culminated in a foorball tournament at the Astro involving all children who had participated in the programme. Beith Astro
New Ecommerce Site New branding A fully functioning ecommerce site for The Beith Astro branding has had a the Beith Astro has been developed, it makeover and now appears a lot more will launch in the Summer of 2014 and commercial and appealing to the target offers individuals, teams and clubs the market. This has been roled out across all chance to book all available services at customer touch points including online the Astro. and offline channels.
New Marketing Strategy New Products & Services A new strategy has been A range of new services has been developed, setting in stone developed to bring planned promotional activity, a in new business; pricing strategy, an overhaul of Astro Ball and the physical environment, Kids Birthday customer processes, people and Parties being the positioning within the market. most successful to date. The Big Swap
BCDT’s Big Swap project has seen a very successful second year. The Big Swap project is aimed at recycling, reusing and reducing waste in Beith. The Big Swap has been led by projects such as Kit Swaps and Eco Laundry, powered by our very own solar panels.
Eco Laundry Our Eco Laundry service was introduced in 2013 as a method of cutting down the carbon footprint of the Beith community. Eco Laundry allowed our teams to leave dirty kits after matches, which are washed in washing Kit Swap machine powered by our solar panels. The Kit Swap continues to be one of BCDT’s Laundry is then dried through our very biggest successes to date. Kits and boots are own air-drying system. At present we refurbished, recycled and re-homed amongst have washed and air-dried 587 loads of clubs and teams all over Scotland, as far a field as football strips in our Eco Laundry, South Uist. To date we have rehomed 1161kg of saving 21.34 tonnes of CO2 emissions. kits and equipment, with a value of £4371. Ideas Bank in partnership with SenScot & the Climate Challenge Fund.
The Ideas Bank is a partnership that has been developed between BCDT, SenScot and the Climate Challenge Fund. The partnership is aimed at supporting sports clubs in their bid to reduce their carbon footprint by reducing, re-homing and reusing. To date the partnership has successfully supported Linwood Community Development Trust, Ardroy Outdoor Education Centre and Blantyre Soccer Academy to secure Climate Challenge Fund contributions, allowing them to encourage their communities to reduce their carbon footprint.
Linwood Community Development Trust Kit Ardroy Outdoor Education Centre's Ardroy Recycle & Caboodle project works in conjunction project in Lochgoilhead is designed to contribute to with the local football community to protecting the environment by recycling wetsuits and encourage behaviour change principally other equipment to eliminate part of their landfill around sports related activities such as travel usage and to reduce their energy consumption by habits and recycling sports kits and using polytunnels as part of the drying process. These equipment. Activities will include kit and two strands added to the food/garden waste recycling boot recycling, bulk laundry including air plant already established at the centre will enable drying and the promotion of long term travel them to give practical examples and guidance to behaviour change. children, teenagers and adults attending residential courses. Blantyre Soccer Academy’s PASSBACK project aims to change the behavioural habits of parents and coaches and encourage them to recycle, reduce and reuse kit by changing the way they wash and redistribute their sports kit which will lead to a reduction in landfill emissions. The project will also reduce carbon emissions associated with travel. Community Mapping Project
Last summer BCDT with the help of an intern from the Glasgow School of Art and Baxendale organised a Community Asset Mapping Exercise, this spanned over an 18 month period . Baxendale is a family of employee owned businesses that helps organisations to build a responsible, sustainable and profitable future, through our unique combination of advice and investment. The Mapping Exercise invited local members of the community to a series of events and activaties intended to ask the community to map their hopes , aspirations, ambitions and ides for the future of Beith. The giant graffiti map allowed participants to pin up labels with their plans and inspired people to look at the community as a building block. As an outcome of the focus groups, questionnaires, interviews and events a document detailing the outcomes was produced, this explained in detail the aspirations of the town. A selection of these dreams are detailed on the following pages.
1. Community Well-being Centre 2. Trinity Arts Centre
Replacement of existing community centre The vacated Trinity Church and health centre with a combined would be transformed into an community hub that promotes well-being arts centre providing facilities through a diverse range of activity. for performance, rehearsal, Located on the site of the current health painting and photography. Permanent and temporary centre and connecting to a new ground for gallery space would be created Beith Juniors and Beith Astro. Also as well as a new small-scale incorporated would be a new running cinema ‘Beith Picture House’. track, skate park and hockey facility. 3. Artistic Residencies 4. Walking Trail A programme of artistic residencies should be Beith has a thriving canoe club that currently delivered to enact creative tangible and immediate has limited facilities on Loch Kilbirnie. We changes to areas of the town these residencies could propose an upgrade of these facilities to be focused on the following: provide increased storage, changing areas, a) Shop shutter project – artwork on all the shutter to office, kitchen, social space and viewing enliven the streets tower b) Routes of colour – artwork along routes that 5. Beith Canoe Centre children take to school Beith has a thriving canoe club that currently c) Gable ends – exposed gables from demolition to has limited facilities on Loch Kilbirnie. We receive murals or plants propose an upgrade of these facilities to provide increased storage, changing areas, d) Whisky Bond – artwork applied to the Whisky office, kitchen, social space and viewing tower. Bonds to enliven the view into Beith e) Bus stop exhibitions within vacant shop windows 7. Expansion of Beith Townhouse Beith Townhouse provides a fascinating and 6. Pop-Up Ships [UNIT:E] engaging introduction to the heritage and Uniting a community through the utilisation of history of Beith. vacant shop units. A quick stroll around Beith’s The lounge area of the pub would be Main Street and Eglington Street show there is an demolished and a contemporary extension array of vacant spaces. and entry point to the Townhouse could be Short term leases give residents a chance to created. invigorate the town and initiate new connections, spurring growth from the bottom-up. They give 9. Beith Entry/ Exit Markets creative entrepreneurs a platform to prototype New signage and sculpture could be new ideas, without the burden of long-term introduced at key points of entrance and leases. exit of Beith. These markers would 8. Beith Craft Interpretation Centre communicate a sense of the heritage and history of the place in a modern way. Beith Townhouse provides a fascinating and engaging introduction to the heritage and history of Beith. An ability to generate sustainable revenue is restricted by the size and nature of the Townhouse itself. We would recommend taking ownership of the neighbouring Anderson hotel. The lounge area of the pub would be demolished and a contemporary extension and entry point to the Townhouse could be created. 10. Orr’s Trust Park 11. Bypass Crossings Orrs Trust Park could be reimagined as a new Options for a new pedestrian crossing at the village green. The skatepark and running track locations indicated should be explored. Access would be relocated to a new Community Well- to the countryside and to Spiers is currently being campus at Meadowside Park. restricted for pedestrians. The play park would remain with then following additional features introduced: 12. Main Street Improvements a) boating pond A fully pedestrianised Main Street and extending b) band stand and amphitheatre a shared surface along Wilson Street and across the public square in front of the Old Kirk was c) new paths connecting to loch side trail proposed. Vehicular access would be maintained d) dog walking area for delivery but otherwise cars would not be permitted on the street. A new car park would be 13. Events and Festivals created on vacant land at the end of Wilson and Main Street. Beith has a great track record of organising public events. This could be built upon by the 14. New Housing introduction of new events that celebrate other There are limited opportunities for new housing aspects of Beith’s culture and history. within the town. In the first instance A smugglers festival would be a fun annual opportunities to upgrade and refurbish existing event that celebrates Beiths’ history as a historical stock should be explored, these could be smuggler town. developed by the community to later be sold or A whisky festival would be a way of engaging rented. with the neighbouring whisky bond and New build housing that suits a Scottish vernacular bringing the local industry into the town could be developed one the Manse Field or on vacant land within Meadowside. Pop-Up Beith Pop-Up Beith is a project aimed at encouraging the community to think differently about their high street and how it is used. The work of Pop-Up made use of vacant shop units and outdoor spaces in Beith to run a series of events and workshops, including music, cinema, arts, crafts and outdoor education. Pop-In Beith makes use of empty shop units, allowing BCDT not only to improve the appearance of the high street for local residents and businesses, but also allowing local home retailers, crafters and artist the opportunity to showcase their work.
Pop-Out Beith has been working in partnership with local primary and secondary schools to identify vulnerable young people and engage them in a Forest schools education programme. Pop-Out is focused on teaching children about outdoor cooking, shelter building, safe use of tools, learning about the environment, working together and looking after each other.
Pop-Up Beith events also enabled BCDT to raise enough funds to buy a community defibrillator for Beith, by hosting a cycling relay in an empty shop unit and teaming up with the local Curves gym. Beith Community Development Trust The New Brand
A new Beith Community Development Trust brand; new logo, new website, new blog content and new social media activity. The logo has been reworked to give a more clean cut, corporate brand image. This new brand image was then carried throughout the new website. The website offers more in terms of content and openness of the organisation through the publication of our constitution, annual reports, board set up, aims and objectives, funding details and projects. The website also boasts an area completely focused on the wider community, by introducing a community calendar, community A-Z and the outcomes of the BCDT mapping project. Blog content on the activites of the trust and other interesting pieces have been increased, with the help of a number of volunteer interns. Social Media activity highlights the work being done in Beith, however a social automation campaign has been developed to share relevant industry news across Facebook, Google + and Twitter. Plans are in place to develop a more active YouTube channel for BCDT. Awards & Accreditations
We are proud to offer sports leadership courses for young people from the age of 7 up to adulthood. Courses included the Playmaker Award, Young Leader Award, Sports Leader and Community Sports Leader Level 1 & 2. Young people aged between 12 – 25 also have the opportunity to work their way towards a Scottish Government Saltire Award through us, the Saltire Award are designed to recognise the commitment and contribution of youth volunteering, meaning they are the perfect awards partner for us here at BCDT who believe wholeheartedly in the power and potential of the young. Staff & Volunteers
Beith Community Development Trust would not be in existence if it wasn’t for our wonderful staff and volunteers. They are the backbone of our organisation, we would never have achieved as much without our staff and volunteers. Staff
Jane Lamont Mollie Kerr Jamie Beattie Alex MacFie Kieran Clacker Maureen Rooney Scott Moffat Michael McNaugton Colin Hunter Angela Hamilton Darrin Purkis Karen Millan Brent Norris Lee Thomson Nicole Burns Bora Zabranski Michael Zabranski Amanda Burns Amy McKeeman Dylan Walker Gill Ritchie Caroline Watson Volunteers The Board
John Nelson Craig Walker Scott Watson Gordon McLoed Ruairidh Kerr Charlotte Nimmo Simon Webster Kevin Nelson Kevin Nelson Ross McKie Sophie Millan Jean Watson Aileen Kerr Ewan Donnachie Amy Pollock Kenny Watson Andrea Carthy Ross Ball Kayleigh McIlree Ted Neville William Walker Sharon Boyce Ross McLoed Paddy Nimmo Matthew Bell Sinclair Reid Rachel Halbert Lesley Chalmers Catherine Burns Doug Ritchie Lucy Smith Lynne Gibson Joey Connor McGirr Dylan Hamilton Rhuairidh Mcdonald Cameron Chamlers Julie McCarney Sean Craig David Gray Susan Nelson Andrew Ferguson Sophie Maxwell Sheena McTaggart Gail McDonald Jamie McLoed Rachel McPike
Thank You to our Funders
Beith Community Development Trust and its affiliated groups owe many thanks to all our funders. Without their investment in what matters to us, we wouldn't be able to do the work within the community of Beith and the surrounding areas.
Thank You to our Board Thank You to Our Community Members We owe a massive thank you to the community of Beith for their participation and support throughout 2012 and 2013.
Looking forward to the future...
We look forward to the future, we hope to create more collaboration, develop new ideas, grow enterprise and see lots, lots more action.