A new events space and office for charities operated by the Robertson Trust has opened in Stirling
A new state-of-the-art charity hub has officially opened its doors.
The Robertson Trust partnered with Stirling Council to create shared office accommodation and an events space at the old Forthside army barracks in Stirling.
Developed and managed by The Robertson Trust, the Barracks Conference Centre is now part of a thriving charity quarter in the Forthside area in Stirling, where a number of third sector organisations are already based.
Facilities of the new 18,000-sq ft conference centre include seven accessible meeting rooms and the 170-capacity Robertson Conference Suite, all of which are now available for hire with reduced rates for third sector organisations. Meanwhile, the facility also includes an on-site café and various formal and informal working areas.
As part of the overall Barracks development, The Robertson Trust has refurbished three of the five buildings on site over the past two years. In addition to the conference centre, the other buildings (Cameron House and Kintail House) are now being leased by nine Third sector organisations, including Aberlour, Paths 4 All and Enable. They join Volunteer Scotland and Zero Waste Scotland, both of whom already operate from the other two buildings within the Barracks development, Moray House and Jubilee House.
“The idea behind the development is offering state-of-the-art facilities at affordable prices to charities,” said venue manager Fiona Jamieson.
“We want to provide better facilities than people can get elsewhere in the area. We want to have a facility that can offer something different between Glasgow and Edinburgh.
“The station is close by, there’s lots of parking and the building is fully accessible.”
The facility has modelled itself on the trust’s Glasgow hub Robertson House and also features a café for informal meetings.
The conference centre opened its doors on 15 November and since then has hosted a number of events for charities, with the diary for events already busy for the start of next year.
Kenneth Ferguson, director of The Robertson Trust, said: “Through Robertson House in Glasgow, we have seen first-hand the benefits of offering a high-quality space for Scotland’s charities and social enterprises to work, grow and create together.
“These new facilities in Stirling have excellent transport links and will also foster an environment of creativity, partnership working and idea sharing that, in turn, plays a significant role in creating a fair and compassionate Scotland.
“We aimed to create a charity hub of national significance and the opening of these new premises reflects our commitment to supporting the sector in ways which extend beyond traditional grant-making.”
For more information, visit The Barracks Conference Centre website.
