STAR will help Glenburn to shine
Project to open base in Paisley community
The award-winning STAR Project has expanded from its Paisley north end home to open a new base in Glenburn.
The community organisation has run projects, courses and groups for people in north Paisley since 1999, aiming to build safer, more connected and resilient families and communities.
Now it’s opened a new base inside Glenburn Community Centre to spread the good work it does for people in the area after securing £ 56,964 from the Scottish Government’s Aspiring Communities Fund.
Manager of the STAR Project Sharon McAulay said: “We are delighted to be awarded this funding.
“This is a great opportunity to expand our reach to the Glenburn area of Paisley, and we’ll be doing this in partnership with Stronger Communities who have been making a real difference in Glenburn for the past few years.
“The funding awarded will last until the end of January 2019, but we hope to secure additional funding to continue supporting the Glenburn community. “The launch went really well. “We’ve had a really good welcome from the people of Glenburn. People have been asking us for a few years if there is a STAR Project elsewhere and we’ve actually had a lot of people from Glenburn come down to see us.
“It seemed like a good place for us to expand to.”
At the moment the STAR Project Glenburn is offering a drop- in session every Tuesday, from noon till 3pm, to give people the chance to come and meet the staff, find out more about what the project can do and suggest ideas.
With the funding, the STAR Project has been able to extend employment contracts of their parttime staff and have also employed a new project assistant who’ll be based at Glenburn Community Centre every Tuesday.
At its north end base, the project runs events like mindfulness courses, volunteer training, trips to the panto, drama and music classes and a popular toddler group.
And Sharon said they’re happy to listen to the community of Glenburn to find out what they’d like from them.
“I always think everybody knows what we do, but there are some people who haven’t heard of us.
“We shouldn’t underestimate the importance of a drop-in.
“It will be relaxed and informal and we want people to make it a regular thing to feel comfortable and we can take it from there.”
She added: “There’s no restrictions to accessing the STAR Project. Everyone is welcome and the kettle’s always on.
“Come along to the drop-in to find out more.”