Since 2015, the Provost has been involved in selecting an official 'charity of the year'. This scheme is a way for Stirling Council to promote awareness of local charities that carry out important work in our communities.
How the Provost's charity of the year is decided
A charity receives this status when:
- the Provost formally nominates them by sending a proposal to Stirling Council's Civic Panel
- the Civic Panel agrees with the Provost's proposal
What the Provost's charity of the year receives
The Provost's charity of the year receives:
- a £1,000 donation
- support from the council on issues like promotion and awareness raising
Our current charity of the year
Radical Weavers, a non-profit workshop based in Stirling city centre, aims to help to tackle social isolation through offering therapeutic crafting experiences. It works with people who have been affected by trauma and loss to rebuild their confidence through creating unique and colourful handwoven fabrics.
Trossachs Search and Rescue has been in operation since 1998 and provides practical support to the emergency services across the rural Stirling as well as first aid and CPR training to local communities.
Both charities, in addition to being named as the Provost’s Charities of the Year for 2024-25, will receive a donation of £500 each from the Civic Fund in recognition of their value to the community.
Mairi Breslin, Founding Director of Radical Weavers said: “We are honoured and delighted to have been chosen as one of the Provost’s Charities of the Year. We are a relatively young charity, but we have already seen people’s lives improving because of the work we do.
“Some young people don’t have a great experience at school and find the idea of going on to training or education afterwards quite daunting. We hope that spending time with Radical Weavers helps them to work out where they would like to go in future, and that we can provide support and coaching to help get them on their way.”
Radical Weavers offers support to people affected by trauma and loss through creative workshops
Mark O’Donnell, a Trustee of Trossachs Search and Rescue said: “Although we're a search and rescue organisation, that's not all we do. Much of our time is spent doing proactive work to help our communities across the Trossachs, Strathard, and Strathendrick. We're also quite passionate about ensuring everyone knows how to save a life, so we run Community CPR and basic first aid classes free of charge for any community groups across the area.
“We also cover MECS on behalf of Stirling Council where we can sometimes get to alarm activations faster than carers, cover first aid at events such as the Bridge of Allan Highland Games, and assist where we can with community resiliency response such as the floods at the end of last year in Aberfoyle.
“Other than that training takes up a fair amount of time, we have a number of search dogs who regularly train to keep their senses sharp, and the rest of the team are regularly put through their paces to ensure that when we're called out by the emergency services we're ready to go.”