Starbucks Quartermile, Simpson Loan

Waverley Care is Scotland’s leading HIV and hepatitis C charity. Everything we do is guided by the experiences of the people we work with, from shaping the services we deliver to influencing national policy around sexual health and blood borne viruses.

Street Assist was founded in April 2016. The project is delivered entirely by volunteers who donate their time between the hours of 10pm and 4am every Friday and Saturday throughout the year in the City of Edinburgh. On average we have between 15-20 volunteers out each evening. From January to end of October 2017 we have Assisted 1000 individuals. Our aim is to help people who become vulnerable through circumstance. That could be anything from over consumption of drink/drugs, having a drink spiked, losing contact with friends, lost property like purse/wallet/phone which affects your ability to get home safely, victim of assault/sexual assault/domestic abuse, mental health. Whatever the circumstance we aim to help any individual with either welfare/first aid interventions and help the individual to return home safely from an evening out. We work closely with the Council, CCTV, NHS and Emergency Services to make sure that we can assist in reducing the amount of time Police Officers need to spend assisting people who have over consumed which allows them to focus on dealing with community safety/protection matters. We aim to help reduce the number of calls to the Scottish Ambulance Service for non-emergency calls and we aim to reduce the number of people attending Accident and Emergency for non life threatening ailments. Our project contributes to a significant saving on time, resources and money to the public purse.