There is new hope for the future of Willowbank as the conference centre looks set to remain in use after the hotel has closed.The Government-run Mirrors programme has been informed that they can continue to use the hotel’s facilities for their work with Bermuda’s young people.It is understood that the on-site conference centre will continue to be rented out for local events. If needed, the hotel rooms will also be made available for those attending overnight events.There are no plans to sell or lease the 70-room hotel, but it will close its doors to visitors on November 30. The closure will leave 46 employees out of work, but a handful of staff will continue to be employed to maintain the buildings.Kimberley Jackson, programme coordinator at Mirrors, said they had been in talks with hotel bosses and had been told they would not be affected by the closure.She said: “We are moving forward and are really hoping this isn’t going to affect us in any way.“We have been given permission to continue to use the conference centre. We have been told it’s going to continue to be rented out as a venue for local events”.Mirrors has been using the facilities at Willowbank several times a year since 2007 and are understood to be one of the hotel’s best customers.The programme encourages young people to work one-on-one with adult mentors from the community to help them achieve their goals and have direction in their lives. Its motto is “to transform our community one person at a time”.The charity’s two-week overnight residential programme for about 100 volunteers and young people is held twice a year at the hotel, usually in June and November.A two-week Middle School programme attended by scores of children on a daily basis is also hosted every October. The charity also uses Willowbank for monthly training sessions.The Mirrors Middle School programme starts on Monday and its two-week residential programme runs from November 4. Both events are scheduled to “go ahead as planned”.Fernance Perry, chairman of Willowbank trustees, said the decision to close the hotel after more than 50 years in business had been made “after lots of thought and discussions”.It is understood that the hotel had suffered a series of poor summer seasons with staff saying they understood the reasons for the closure. Ms Jackson said Mirrors staff had built up “excellent relationships” with Willowbank employees who “had been there for us since day one”.The Christian hotel is also heavily used by the Family Intimacy Centre, which regularly hires the conference centre for its overnight marriage counselling courses.Ms Jackson added: “We learned the news this week with everyone else. But we’d had some dialogue with staff about the challenges they were facing.“The lack of people utilising the hotel was clear to see, we’d certainly seen less activity recently. So we were shocked but not surprised at the news”.She added: “Not having our own facility meant we had become reliant on the hotel. We knew this risk was always there”.Willowbank manager Terri Allison was not available yesterday afternoon and a hotel employee refused to confirm if the conference centre would remain open. She would only say: “It could be possible.”Mr Perry did not respond to our requests for comment yesterday.