A Bridge of Allan based charity is putting out a call for help to find new premises after months of searching.
Reanimate, which brings animals and people together to recover from the effects of trauma, have been based at Parkhead Farm near the town since the charity’s inception in 2012.
But they say that as the service continues to grow in popularity, a new base of operations is required to reach new people and catch up with demand.
The charity’s founder and project coordinator, Sharon Taylor, told the Observer: “We’ve actually been looking for quite a while because a lot more people are looking to come up but it’s very hilly where we are and there isn’t a lot of space.
“It just feels as if our current base has run its course and we’ve found ourselves stuck between a rock and a hard place.
“One of the issues is that we’re looking for a place to rent at the moment and then potentially buy down the line but there’s nothing to rent locally - we’ve even put in calls to a few derelict places that we’d be happy to take on but we’ve had no joy even with that.
“We’ve tried every avenue we can and contacting the council and different companies, but rentals are just far and few far between.”
The charity - previously known as Katie’s Cradle - initially started in 2012, before formally gaining charitable status in 2016 for its programme in ‘animal integrated mentoring’.
As part of the charity’s growth, it has been taking part in various projects across the Forth Valley region, but their current space constraints have forced them to have to turn away people who may have been assisted by the service.
Sharon added: “Ideally we’d be looking for someone in Stirling and the surrounding areas - or even Falkirk or Alloa - because the problem is if we move too far away, then the people who are currently reliant on us may end up being let down.
“If we can find a spot, then we would be able to take on more clients and be more diverse than we currently are.
“It would also allow us to become more self-sufficient because currently we can’t put on events that people would pay money for so that resricts our ability to bring in money as well.
“We currently work with a lot of people who lack confidence and self-esteem including students from abroad, we are waiting for restrictions to ease to start work in Cornton Vale prison for supporting people back into the community and we have also secured Lottery funding for a project involving people with autism.
“We just need premises that are workable for us to help us grow and hopefully we’ll be able to find something.”
