A lifeline charity for families facing financial problems is setting up a base in Irvine.

It comes after £50,000 donation was agreed by North Ayrshire Council for the Micah Project through the community investment fund.

The Micah Project was developed in Troon, initially as a response to the Covid lockdown in 2020, becoming a SCIO (Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation) in 2022.

Its work is aimed at supporting families and helping to restore dignity, reduce stigma and decrease waste and involves the community helping decrease unwanted and unnecessary items going to landfill and support struggling families with simple solutions like clothes and food. 

The venture addresses material need and mental well-being and realises children’s early years are critical for their overall growth and development.

It also acknowledges that families face financial difficulties which impede their ability to provide basic necessities for their children, including adequate clothing and resources that support the development of their mental health. The group are working across Ayrshire.

There are no restrictions on who can access their services and they encourage volunteers and donations.

This project for the Irvine locality will provide a storage base, coordinator, and delivery support within the town for a two-year period.  It will provide a well-being package for the ages of each vaccination stage – three to six months, nine to 12 months, two to three years and three to four years.

They aim to support families with children under five in particular - of which they estimate there are about 22,000 in the Irvine area. 

By providing a small pack of clothes and age-appropriate toys, books, and resources that will promote early childhood development at each of their vaccinations they will also have the opportunity to signpost parents to more support, educate on the value and sustainability of pre-loved clothing and destigmatise need by making them available to all families.

The Micah Project will be working closely with community development staff from North Ayrshire Council and partnering with GP practices but most of its work will be alongside the health visitors and vaccination team.

They aim to begin with one practice where we have already carried out a very successful pilot with newborns only and build up steadily across the Irvine practices as well as partnering and working alongside local organisations and groups, ensuring their general ‘New 2U’ clothing closet is more accessible to the communities and people they work with within the Irvine area by providing more drop-off and pick-up points.

This has been trialled using some of the Irvine community centres and has been very successful with a number of people requesting clothes through a discreet online ordering service.

By providing a small pack of clothes and age-appropriate toys, books, and resources that will promote early childhood development, the group will also have the opportunity to signpost parents to more support, educate on the value and sustainability of pre-loved clothing  by making them available to all families.

A successful small pilot has already been carried out with newborn packs in one GP surgery, and the project will build on this, expanding the age range and the number of surgeries participating.

The project also has already forged links with local partners and schools and will continue to build on those to expand contact points for families, as well as working with North Ayrshire

Council Community Facilities to create a network of collection points for donations. 
This initiative supports the Irvine Locality Partnership’s priorities, in particular alleviating poverty and sustainability.