AYRSHIRE COMMUNITIES EDUCATION AND SPORT
Helping Stars Reach their potential
Registered Scottish Charity SCO37477 Contact 07411118135
CASE STUDIES
Ayrshire Communities Education and Sport exist to support the community, Since its inception ACES have provide support for families in the area who have required help in their hour of need, As these cases are of a sensitive nature we are reluctant to publish the details however we feel to show the maximum support that ACES gives to our residents a brief detail needs to be shown.
ACES have in the past helped with expenses of Funerals providing catering to families who didnt have the means,at no cost. We feel this helped to ease the financial burden of times like these, we have underpinned a search for a missing person using all our resources to help with the search and provide a meeting place where food and toilets were to hand when needed, and also raised awareness to suicide and drug mis-use
During the summer club of 2012 ACES identified three children in the ‘’ALL ABOUT ME’’ project. These stories were read out at the presentation day at the end of the summer club and didn’t leave a dry eye in the house!
Sandra had a younger sister who is autistic, as Sandra is the oldest of three she decided to look after Claire the middle sibling, helping her change, wash and go to school and the summer club, in her own words Sandra explained that it was difficult as her friends didn’t understand why Claire often shouted at them, and Sandra was often scratched and bruised from her sisters outbursts, Sandra was quick to point out that she loved her sister and did it because she knew Claire needed her help it was her job to make sure Claire was okay, Sandra was able to take full part in the summer programme as ACES contacted her parents and also offered a place for Claire. The parents were delighted as Claire was often excluded from clubs; Claire and Sandra have continued to come along to clubs and groups and even appeared on STV with the coaches.
Neil, aged 10 was staying with his foster parents and decided to come along, to the summer club , Neil had been held captive by a controlling father who set fire to the family home in a bid to keep his wife and children together, this left a very confused Neil obsessed with emergency services, and he often pretended that he was a member of the CIA which caused other kids to ridicule him which often resulted in bullying. Neil wasn’t keen on sports and preferred the company of adults as he felt he was smarter and older that his peers, on visiting the summer club Neil struggled to come to terms with being treated as a child, and in his own words he had no friends only folk he knew to look at, ACES volunteers keen to support him found out he enjoyed armed forces stuff as he put it so began to allow him to make replica models instead of sport, he was enrolled as a helper and willingly set up and took away the equipment. Neil began to take part in some sports and is known to local kids he was excluded from his school and sent to a day school, however Neil has never shown bad behavior during his time ACES.
Janet was the second eldest of a kilwinning family, she had lost her mum at an early age and a lot of her time was spent looking after her younger sister and brother, as her dad and older sister worked. She was an instant hit with summer club members
She was always willing to help others, in the little time that she had Janet visited her gran and together they knitted new born babies clothes for the local maternity hospital. When asked why she looked away and said quietly
’’ well I think it’s the right thing to do.’’
During the summer of 2009 a young man was enrolled into the summer club by his mum, she was quick to point out his erratic behaviour and told volunteers he sometimes cut himself and was very withdrawn. ACES volunteers kept an eye on James as they were concerned that he was very quiet and often shy and withdrawn, during an outing one of the community coaches asked him what kind of music he liked, and to the surprise of the coach he replied Johnny Cash. On hearing this the coach asked him to sing something and James was so pleased to do so that the sound of Ring of Fire was heard over the walkie talkie system which was carried whenever the group went out. This started a trend and James became a confident member of the group he even took part in Woodwynd’s got Talent as you’ve guessed it ! Johnny Cash complete with cowboy hat and guitar. He also opened up to the self harming, telling volunteers it was when he saw his mum upset that he did it, aces made enquiries and reached out to support both mother and son. The family are thriving
It is important to mention that while ACES is a child centered group, they take pride of place in their community, quite often local residents, many who have young children often seek support from the group simply because they do not know where to go.
One Monday morning the woodwynd woke up to a siege situation with roads blocked and armed Police around a local family’s house. This was the suspect in the letter bombs that had been sent to Neil Lennon. The aftermath left a sectarian bad taste in the area and aces felt they had to do something. ACES met with representatives from Nil by Mouth, and Youth Scotland and Police and formed a plan to help eradicate the problem. In June of 2013 they held a stand up to sectarianism awareness day at the community centre with free activities such as go karts inflatable’s, street soccer and freestyler David Mennie. Paul Branighan star of ANGELS SHARE and River city visited to speak to kids about his involvement in bigotry and sectarianism the no knife better lives angle was taken care of b ACES and a great day was had by all who attended .It is an interesting point that out of all the large football teams in Scotland some with sectarian baggage only Kilmarnock helped by bringing their team mascot.