An Edinburgh street charity that aims to make the nightlife environment safer has called on the local hospitality sector to support it with more donations.
Street Assist’s team of 170 volunteers are on-hand at night to help those in difficulty, whether from injury, overconsumption of alcohol and drugs, or domestic and sexual violence, and in so doing, take pressure off emergency services.
The charity has already provided First Aid and welfare to thousands of people it has found in need, but to continue this work, it requires donations of between £40,000 and £70,000 per year – and it wants to see more of this funding come from the drinks and hospitality sector.
Neil Logan from Street Assist said: “We have helped 5000 people since we launched in 2016. That’s a lot of people diverted from our busy ambulance service and A&E departments. But we are totally reliant on donations and don’t have the time or the money to doorstep individual companies for funding.
“We recently had 42 call-outs just in one evening and we need all the help we can get to fund more volunteers ”
The organisation is currently working with Edinburgh based Cold Town Beer which has donated £2000, encouraging other pubs and breweries to follow suit.
Louise MacLean from Cold Town Beer said: “Cold Town Beer is proud to support the work done by Street Assist. Even though only a minority of people find themselves in difficult situations on nights out, having the comfort of knowing there is help available is crucial.
“We know that the hospitality sector is facing difficult times but donating even a small proportion of revenue can make a big difference in helping Street Assist to ease the pressure on the emergency services.”
This kind of volunteer work has been shown to reduce the strain on NHS ambulance services and police forces – one study estimated that over the course of a year, ‘safe space’ schemes around the UK will ultimately save the NHS £100 million. Positive results are also found in the public sector, with every £1 in donations offsetting £9.31 in public sector costs.
There are currently around 45 safe space schemes available in the UK. A report by MAKE Associates estimated that the night-time economy would benefit from a total of 150 safe spaces across the country, with each of these schemes allowing ambulance services and A&E departments to redeploy a staggering £50k to £1m of resources.
