CentreStage, an Ayrshire charity dedicated to bringing the arts to local communities, has announced a new partnership with travel agent Stewart Travel. The agreement makes Stewart Travel a Community Partner of CentreStage, bringing together two organisations with strong local roots and a shared commitment to supporting the communities they serve.
Partnership to Support ASN and Aspire Work
As part of the developing relationship, Stewart Travel has shown particular interest in supporting CentreStage's work with children and adults with additional support needs, including its Aspire programme. Both organisations view this as the beginning of a wider partnership, with opportunities to collaborate across the CentreStage community in the months and years ahead.
Stephen Gilmour, Managing Director of CentreStage, said: "We are absolutely delighted to welcome Stewart Travel as a Community Partner of CentreStage. What has impressed me from our very first conversations is that this isn't simply about sponsorship. Linda and the team genuinely want to be involved, to understand the communities we work with and to look at where Stewart Travel can make a real difference."
Shared Values and Community Roots
Linda Boyd, Director of Stewart Travel, said: "We are delighted to become a Community Partner of CentreStage. As a business with longstanding roots in Ayrshire, being part of and supporting our local communities is incredibly important to us. What struck us about CentreStage was the breadth of the work taking place here and the number of people and families it reaches. There is a real sense of community, inclusion and belonging, and those are values which resonate strongly with us."
The partnership will give Stewart Travel opportunities to engage directly with the CentreStage community and support activity across the organisation, while initially providing particular support to CentreStage's ASN and Aspire programmes. Stewart Travel's team includes Kilmarnock Branch Manager Christy Hood, alongside Boyd and Retail Director Linda Boyd, with CentreStage represented by Gilmour and CEO Fiona McKenzie.
Building a Long-Term Relationship
Gilmour added: "Their initial enthusiasm for our Aspire and ASN work has been fantastic, and that will be an important part of the relationship, but we see this very much as the starting point. We want to build something together that can grow and develop over time."
Boyd said: "We have been particularly inspired by the work CentreStage does with people with additional support needs and are really looking forward to supporting that, but we're equally excited about the wider relationship and exploring other ways in which Stewart Travel and our team can become involved. We want this to be a genuine partnership and one which develops over time."
Gilmour concluded: "The strongest community partnerships are about much more than putting a company name on something. They are about people, shared values and finding ways of working together that have a genuine impact. That's what we want this partnership with Stewart Travel to become, and we're incredibly excited to have them joining the CentreStage family."
