Some simply need companionship, comfort or prayer. For others it may be a more obvious and urgent need, they may need intervention around their addiction or they may need taken to hospital. We can help with all of these things.

Our service users range from teenagers to pensioners, through people with young families. They come from all kinds of backgrounds and social circumstances. It never does to be judgemental, they are fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, children and friends, they all have a story and a reason for where they are. It could just as easily be you or I who finds ourselves in that kind of need.

Because of the sometimes difficult and broken background of some of our service users and because of the problems of drunkenness particularly and to a lesser extent drug use, there are very occasionally outbreaks of violence and aggression within The Grassmarket Mission. This is never tolerated, there is always an experienced member of staff present to deal with such things and repercussions such as people being suspended from using the service are always upheld. Occasionally the police are contacted, we have an excellent relationship with the local constabulary and they will attend very quickly if we request their assistance or if the law has been broken. In the five years that I have personally been running The Grassmarket Mission no volunteers have ever been hurt. Although, very infrequently, we find evidence of drug taking, foil or discarded needles, we have a very small problem with this compared to other similar agencies. We lay down strict boundaries and we stick to them, thankfully the vast majority of our service users respect themselves and each other enough to stick to them too.

Download Service User Case Studies