Welcome

Action Kintore SCIO is a registered charity with local trustees and volunteers. 

It was set up in 2009 with its first project being to provide facilities for the young people in and around Kintore. This youth project is known as The Bothie.

More recently Action Kintore has added the Town House project to its remit. Action Kintore is examining the options to bring our magnificent 18th century Town House back into use for the community. This is clearly a long-term project.

Action Kintore became a SCIO in February 2020. SCIO stands for "Scottish Charity Incorporated Organisation" and is a legal status that has been specifically established to suit the Scottish voluntary sector.

The new Action Kintore website can be found on the button below.

To support our charitable work go to our LocalGiving page. 

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LATEST KINTORE TOWN HOUSE UPDATE

MARCH 2024

The latest with the Town House project is:

We have planning permission in place for the whole project, which we have split into two stages-

1.Main Building  and 2. Café Extension due to obtaining the level of funding required.

The attached drawings show the 3D views and proposed floorplans.

We await an agreed Community Asset Transfer and then a lease agreement from the council.

We had a £250K award from Place Based Project (PBP), which had to be spent by 31st March 2024. 

The council, and Special Projects Funding rejected our funding application for a further £250K, requiring a more up to date Feasibility Study and detailed business plan. 

Given we had to have a lease in place to begin any capital works and unable to commit to any expenditure by end of March,  we had to decline the PBP £250K award.

SPF have arranged for consultants to prepare a new feasibility report and assist us in providing satisfactory detail in our business plan to meet everyone’s requirements.

When complete we will be able to apply for funding to the two original bodies again and others.

Meanwhile, McWilliam Lippe architects are completing the design to apply for building warrant, with part funding from the Architectural Heritage Trust.

When completed, to submit the building warrant application we will require to raise a sum of £12,000 to cover the BW application fee and pay fro the required structural design certificate.

When we have the building warrant approved we will have 3 years to complete the work.

So we shall be approaching all local and beyond businesses along with an appeal to all residents for their support to get us building warrant approval.

If there are any questions, we can arrange for a member of AK to respond or attend a future KDCC meeting.

Regards

Brian 

Brian Johnstone

Chairman Action Kintore

brianjohnstone54@btinternet.com

07710 409629

The Bothie is the youth initiative of Action Kintore.

It started out holding meetings in the Town House, but found the location limiting in the scope it could offer for young people in our community. It was decided to raise funds for a purpose built building

Opened in December 2013, The Bothie is right in the heart of Kintore – just 200 yards from The Square and the Town House – in Allandale Gardens (immediately behind what used to be Moar’s Furniture Store). It was constructed from environmentally-friendly straw bales covered with a lime mortar, giving an excellent energy efficiency, good soundproofing and a very low carbon footprint, however due to an issue with the original design the Bothie walls were rebuilt in 2023 with traditional bricks and mortar thanks to an army of volunteers and the generosity of local businesses.

The Bothie is home to a range of youth and community groups and with the help of volunteers and youth workers, we are able to set up and provide a safe, fun environment for the young people of Kintore and district. Workers do sessions and provide advice and support on specific topics and issues that are established through needs assessments and informal chats with young people, thus enabling them to deal with certain situations more effectively.

The Bothie youth evenings and events are all free-of-charge, and the building and support staff are funded entirely from grants and fundraising, so it needs all the help it can get to support and maintain the services provided for these young people.

The Bothie has a website, link in the button below.

Bothie Website: 

The Bothie: A safe, fun space to relieve the needs of young people in Kintore and district by bringing together those young people and local authorities, voluntary and other organisations in common effort to advance their education and provide facilities for recreational leisure times activities, designed to improve young people’s conditions of life in the area, enabling them to participate in society and mature and responsible individuals.

Youth Work outcomes:

·  Young people will feel a sense of normality and will know they have a place to go and be themselves. 

· Young people will have a place to go to speak with youth workers about how they feel. 

· Young people will develop into healthy, considerate young people with confidence in themselves.

· The community will have more respectable, mature young people who have more consideration for others and better communication skills. 

· Young people will receive Saltire Awards and accreditations by volunteering with the younger youth groups and at community events.

· Kintore’s young People to become confident, responsible individuals and successful learners. 

· Young people are confident, resilient and optimistic for the future.

· Young people manage personal, social and formal relationships. 

· Young people feel confident to express their voice.

Nature of the Project: From funding applications

All of our projects are run through youth groups and are planned with the young people themselves. All of our youth groups have access to general youth club activities; game consoles, arts and crafts and pool tournaments but as the session’s develop over the course of the term, a lot of issues are brought up and so workshops on these issues are planned and delivered so that the young people are better equipped with how to deal with certain situations and pressures and how manage their lives better. Advice and support is also available to all young people to ensure that they are able to deal with life situations better and to be mature individuals. 

The focused youth group, Mind Yer Heid, is very similar but with more frequent and in depth workshops being delivered to cover all the bases and to ensure that these young people are as prepared as can be to become young adults. A wide range of issues are brought up during these youth groups. We have partnering organisations who can deliver issued based workshops, so we invite them in to work with the young people and to provide them with the correct information, and secondly have a better understanding on the issue ways to manage it. The main, reoccurring issues we have had to deal with in the past year are: poverty, inequalities, connecting families with the local food banks, addiction in families, LGBTQ+, social media and how to be safe, sexual exploitation (online), sexual health, bullying, mental health (self-harm, depression, anxiety, OCD), studying/exams, school concerns, employability, further education, family issues, body image, and employability skills. 

It is imperative that we continue the running of these groups so that the young people have a support network in Kintore and district, especially for those who are more vulnerable and easily influenced. 

During COVID, a walking group was set up to allow the young people to meet with youth workers while being outside and exploring their village. Since then, by the request of the young people, the group has continued to meet weekly for walks and outdoor activities around Kintore, all while discussing issues that arise in their lives, the benefits of walking and how it can impact their mental and physical health and well-being, and again, giving them a safe, fun space to be themselves while exploring nature. This group has also merged with the new Sustainable Youth eco-group, who are always coming up with ideas on how to make their village more wildlife friendly and sustainable. During the winter months, the group form their own Sustainable Youth group, and start taking actions/fundraise for their spring/summer outdoor projects. 

This group is also a positive stepping stone for young people who aren’t fully comfortable coming inside to meet with other, like-minded young people, then eventually they’ll feel ready to join the groups.

Different ways to participate: 

· Youth Groups- Junior group, YAFTS (Young and free to speak), Walking group, Mind Yer Heid, Sustainable Youth.

· One-one support- To support a young person in their personal development and empower them to make their own, informed choices. The aim of this is to build their confidence to eventually join in with the youth groups available. 

· Residential weekends- Weekend trips away to take part in team building activities, water/hill sports, cooking, cleaning and being responsible for their own equipment. 

· Event volunteering – Summer Festival, coronation, street parties, burns nights etc. 

· Fundraising- As well as the big funding grants we apply to, the young people like to do their own fundraising events to get funds for their trips, hoodies, resources, snacks and many more! Working together to get what they want for their group is much more rewarding for the young people. 

Updated quotes from the young people: 

What have you learned from coming to the Bothie?

· Support- Mental health, education, employability, family, learning about unhealthy relationships which really helped me. 

· Gives me a safe space to be me. I can be myself when I’m here. A safe space away from home. Bullying doesn’t happen when we’re here. A lot of the public think we’re just wild teenagers but we’re not, and I know we won’t get judged here. 

· How to work for what we want and have our voice heard on things that affect us- We done fundraising to get hoodies. We wanted to go on a trip so Rachel said if we done some fundraising and raised a little bit of money, the Bothie would fund the difference (which was a lot). It encourages us to work together and push for what we want.

What impact has coming to the Bothie had on you? 

· I can work better as a team and know I have good ideas. 

· There’s always someone I can talk to If I need it, and I know no one will judge me or try to ‘fix’ me. 

· Awareness of my own mental and physical health, and how to manage them both. 

· Support through difficult times and building my resilience so I know I’m capable of getting through it.

· It’s given me a safe space to explore who I am as a person, without anyone judging me or pushing me towards their own goal. 

· I had become a hermit and was always anxious when I was outside of my house. Getting support from the youth workers, especially Jaz, the dog, has helped me so much because now I have friends, I can walk around my village and not be scared, and I know I have Jaz to talk to if I get overwhelmed. 

· It’s gotten me thinking about my own job prospects, and I think becoming a youth worker would be great! The workers have sign-posted me to youth work training which I’ll go to. 

For more information on The Bothie go to our Facebook page.