Edinburgh charity Street Assist are looking for new volunteers to join their dedicated team that assists vulnerable night goers in Scotland’s capital.
The charity specialises in helping those that find themselves in a precarious position during the night-time economy hours on Friday and Saturday nights.
In a Twitter post, the organisation has said that they are looking for welfare officers, first aiders, fundraisers and a fleet supervisor, with the responsibility of looking after four vehicles.
A number of people sign up to help Street Assist over the weekends with the aim of gaining experience to join the emergency services.
Other volunteers are members of the Edinburgh community that already work in healthcare who use their expertise in order to help those in difficult positions on nights out.
Alongside them are individuals without any experience of the emergency services or healthcare, who just want to ensure that those in a difficult state are not left abandoned or putting an unnecessary strain on already struggling emergency services.
Speaking to Edinburgh Live earlier this month, Neil Logan, the current charity director, who founded the organisation in 2016, said: “We provide welfare and first aid to those who become vulnerable during the busy night time economy hours. We deliver our service every Friday and Saturday from 10pm to 4am and we work closely with the council, CCTV, NHS and emergency services.
“As an example, this means that we can reduce the amount of time that police officers would need to spend assisting people who have over consumed. We also 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.
“It costs around £500 for officers to babysit someone that is intoxicated and if we can be there then it frees up cost and they can go deal with other issues. We can also take on a duty of care as the cost of an ambulance, paramedics and a bed in A&E to sleep off a hangover is about £2,500. So if we are able to administer first aid and get them home safely then we are saving the taxpayer money.
“All in all we have saved close to £3.2m for the taxpayer through our services. We found this out after doing a study to break down the cost benefits and savings that our care brings. We do all this on a £20,000-a-year budget.
“Our project contributes to a significant saving on time, resources and money to the public purse.”
Those interested in applying for the advertised roles are invited to visit: streetassist.co.uk/volunteer-application/
