One of Paisley’s best-loved community hubs has undergone a revamp thanks to a funding grant.
The Wynd Counselling and Conference Centre is gearing up for a busy 2022 after completing the refurbishment of the auditorium and repairs throughout the building.
It received £2,500 from the Benefact Trust to repair issues with the roof which had built up over a period of time.
As a result of receiving the grant, bosses at the Wynd could focus the money they had allocated to the project elsewhere and decided to refurbish the auditorium.
The space was recently home to the launch of ‘About Us’, by Unboxed, which saw hundreds of people enjoy free sound and light shows outside Paisley Abbey. This also included BBC Radio Scotland hosting its afternoon show from the centre as hosts interviewed people involved in the Unboxed project.
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The auditorium has been home to concerts, theatre productions and conferences over the years.
Centre manager Thomas Blane hopes the recent refurbishment will see the centre continue to grow after a difficult couple of years.
He said: “We realised since re-opening after the pandemic that there were improvements needed to give the centre a new lease of life.
“I am extremely thankful to the Benefact Trust for awarding us with this grant to repair our roof and, therefore, we have also been able to refurbish our auditorium.
“We had only just completed the work when Unboxed contacted us about using the auditorium for their launch and I genuinely believe that they may have had reservations if we didn’t have the opportunity to refurbish it beforehand.
“It is one of the largest events that we have hosted and, with BBC Scotland also broadcasting with us live for three hours, it was an extremely busy day!
“I would like to thank everyone who has helped with our refurbishment so far and, hopefully, with restrictions continuing to ease, we can have many more people using our facility in the future.”
The Wynd Centre is the outreach arm of Oakshaw Trinity Church opened in 1984 and, after refurbishment and expansion, the new facilities were opened by HRH Princess Anne in 2001. It was awarded The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2016.
Approximately 30 organisations use its facilities, including PACE and Victim Support, and it has a nationally recognised and well-used counselling service for clients aged from five years old up to adults.
