Our Story

About Vibrant Health Advocates - Polaris

A Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation rooted in Kilmarnock, built on the belief that moving together is one of the most powerful things a person can do for their health.

Polaris members sharing tea after a morning walk Who We Are

For everyone over fifty in East Ayrshire

Vibrant Health Advocates - Polaris is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation based in Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire. We exist to make healthy, active ageing accessible to everyone in our community — not just those who are already fit, already confident, or already connected. Our walking groups are open to all adults aged fifty and over, regardless of fitness level, health history, or background. We meet people where they are, literally and figuratively, and we grow from there together.

Our work is grounded in Kilmarnock's own landscape. Dean Castle Country Park, with its woodland trails and castle grounds, provides a rich backdrop for our most popular Tuesday morning walk. Bellfield Park's flat, accessible paths make it the first choice for members who are returning to activity after illness or surgery. The Irvine Valley routes offer longer, more challenging walks for those ready to build stamina and explore East Ayrshire's remarkable countryside. We know these places intimately — their seasonal changes, their accessible gates and benches, their quiet corners — because our members and walk leaders have walked every metre of them, year after year.

As a SCIO, we are governed by a voluntary board of trustees drawn from the Kilmarnock community and answer to OSCR, the Scottish Charity Regulator. We are funded through a mix of grants from East Ayrshire Council, the National Lottery Community Fund, and individual donations. We keep our administration lean so that the vast majority of every pound we raise goes directly into walk leadership, volunteer training, and the practical support — walking poles, printed maps, warm post-walk spaces — that makes participation possible for everyone.

Walkers at Dean Castle Country Park

The Dean Castle Country Park, where our Tuesday morning walks have gathered every week for years.

Our Origin

How Polaris began

Vibrant Health Advocates - Polaris began with a conversation at a community centre in Kilmarnock's New Farm Loch area, where a small group of people in their fifties and sixties were comparing notes on how hard it had become, after retirement and after the disruptions of ill health, to stay physically active and socially engaged at the same time.

A local health professional and two community volunteers decided to try something simple: meet every Tuesday, pick a local path, walk it together, and see who else wanted to join. The early walks were modest — six or eight people setting off from the Dean Castle car park — but word spread quickly through GP waiting rooms, community noticeboards, and word of mouth between neighbours. Within two years, the group had grown enough to formalise, registering as a SCIO and taking on its first round of grant funding.

The name Polaris was chosen deliberately. The North Star has guided travellers for centuries — it is constant, reliable, and visible from wherever you are standing. That is what we wanted to be for Kilmarnock's older adults: a fixed point of welcome in what can, in later life, feel like a disorienting landscape.

Today, our network of walk leaders, volunteers, and partner organisations has grown into something far larger than those early founders imagined, but the spirit of that first Tuesday morning walk — warm, unpretentious, rooted in place — remains exactly the same.

Our Mission

What guides everything we do

Vibrant Health Advocates - Polaris exists to improve the physical health, mental wellbeing, and social connectedness of adults aged fifty and over across Kilmarnock and East Ayrshire, by providing regular, inclusive, leader-guided walking groups that use the parks, paths, and green spaces of our town as a shared resource for healthier ageing. We believe that movement is medicine, that belonging is as important to health as blood pressure, and that the paths and parks of Kilmarnock belong to everyone who lives here — including those who have felt, for whatever reason, that they were not for them. Everything we do is shaped by that belief.
Our People

The team behind the walks

Vibrant Health Advocates - Polaris is led by a voluntary board of trustees who bring a breadth of professional experience — in public health, community development, finance, and social care — alongside deep roots in the Kilmarnock community. Our trustees set strategy, safeguard our charitable purpose, and are actively involved in the life of the organisation. Alongside the board, our paid coordinator and team of over thirty trained volunteer walk leaders are the heartbeat of what we do: out in the parks every week, whatever the weather, keeping the walks going.

Margaret Forsyth Chair
David Cairns Treasurer
Sandra McIlroy Trustee

Plus over 30 trained volunteer walk leaders serving East Ayrshire's parks and paths every week.

Your next walk starts with one message

If you are over 50 and based in the Kilmarnock area, come and join us. No referral needed, no fitness test, just turn up and we will take care of the rest.

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