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.
'Inspiring and humbling'
Lord Provost, Elaine Watterson said: “The work done by these wonderful organisations to support the people of Stirling is both inspiring and humbling.
“Radical Weavers do incredible work to reach out to people who are risk of retreating into themselves following trauma or loss and build their confidence back up through weaving the most gorgeous scarves and garments.
“Trossachs Search and Rescue quite simply save lives with their long-standing support to emergency services for those who get into difficulty in our beautiful natural environment and other community activities. I’m proud to endorse them as the Provost Charities of the Year.”
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.”
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.”