The Care Shelter

The Care Shelter began as a two week initiative over Christmas and New Year 1996/97. In 1999 the Care Shelter covered 12 winter weeks from December to February and it has operated during this period ever since. City centre churches offer their premises and any church can offer a team of volunteers to prepare and serve a hot meal and chat with service users during the evening. The shelters are staffed by paid workers from Bethany Christian Trust who stay overnight to ensure consistency, reduce behaviour problems and start to build relationships with the people who use the shelter. You can find out more on Bethany Christian Trust by clicking here to visit their website (this link will open in a new window).

Each evening (at 9.15 pm and 9.40 pm) the Shelter team provides transport from the Care Van stop on Waverley Bridge to the church hall in use where volunteers serve hot food between 9.30 pm and 10.30 pm. Breakfast is served the following morning before the Shelter closes at 7.30 am. In a typical year over 300 different people use the shelter, the average stay being about 4 nights. On average about 20 people use the shelter each night, but this varies from 10 to 40. Currie Kirk provides teams for two of these nights.

If you would like to know more about Currie Kirk’s involvement with the Care Shelter, or volunteer to join our Care Shelter team, please contact Jim Ure on 0131 4496498.

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