Boost Fund Stories: Little Stars ASN Stay and Play East Ayrshire
Little Stars ASN
The Boost Fund is delivered by Corra Foundation and is a partnership between STV Children’s Appeal, Comic Relief, and Corra Foundation, and is supported by players of Postcode Lottery. Boost is currently open to applications and provides small grants for community-led organisations across Scotland supporting local people affected by poverty or disadvantage.
I established our group Little Stars ASN Stay and Play in East Ayrshire at the beginning of 2025. I started up this project as my granddaughter is non-verbal autistic and we have also only recently found out our grandson is also non-verbal autistic. As a family we found it near impossible to find ASN (Additional Support Needs) places suitable for our granddaughter, they were either too busy or too noisy.
When I started the group we had about 6 children – I now have a list of over 20 children! Our team consists of myself, parents, my husband and daughter. Our local communities have been amazing, especially if we are doing some fundraising.
“Me and my son attend regularly. It’s an amazing wee group. My sons confidence has grown so much through this group, he absolutely loves it, being able to play and stim till his heart is content. It is also great for the parents. I have made a lot of new friends and we share experiences – the good, bad and ugly. It really does make you feel like you have another family.”
We have stay and play groups, inclusive swimming groups and we hold Halloween and Christmas parties. We were able to take the children to an inclusive Santa visit and we also recently took some of the kids and their parents on a bus run.
It has impacted on so many families in our communities. We have children who are autistic, one who has cerebral palsy and one who has down syndrome. They are a great mixture of children.
“We love this group, it gives Alexander the freedom to be his unique little self and play with other children who are just as amazing and special as he is.”
When I applied to the Boost Fund I was filling it in blind as this was the first time I had applied for anything like this – I found it not too bad and pretty straightforward. I applied to the Boost Fund to allow us to offer more groups, free groups and inclusive hire of ASN friendly places. The Boost Fund also allowed us to move to larger premises!
“It’s a safe place for our kids to play and enjoy themselves without the judgement of anything. So good to get speaking to other families who are in the same situation and can help each other. The fact that it is local makes a massive difference. Both my kids love the group, especially the sensory and messy play. I don’t feel as lonely now.”
Thank you to Paula from Little Stars ASN Stay and Play for writing this for us and sharing their experience of applying to Boost. You can follow them on Facebook here.
Learn more and apply to The Boost Fund here.
