UPDATE ON ACTIVITIES TO SEPTEMBER 2026

·         RECRUITMENT OF NEW VOLUNTEERS WELL UNDER WAY

·         THE LISTENING SERVICE EDINBURGH HITS THE HEADLINES!

Recruitment: With active volunteer listener numbers having dropped to 30 we have been busy with our latest recruitment round, looking to find up to 6 new people to provide the “listening ear” in the Sheriff Court.

 Many thanks to the Volunteer Scotland website and the Volunteer Edinburgh Fair on 1 September for providing the forums for us to advertise our service. We had an excellent response to our call for new volunteers who are currently going through the careful processes - interviews, training days,, disclosure checks, and monitoring  – that we need to ensure the integrity of the service. We were in fact sorry to have to disappoint some willing potential volunteers.

Meantime, the work goes on with 487 significant conversations noted between May and July, and more going forwards in August and September.

Headlines in the Scotsman!

We were delighted to welcome Karyn McCluskey of The Scotsman to visit us on a normal day in the Sheriff Court and very pleased with the resulting article on 22 September – see the link (https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/how-a-small-group-of-pensioners-make-a-real-difference-at-edinburgh-sheriff-court-9124643) – though not sure about the headline mentioning OAPs!