This winter, your time can give someone the urgently needed safety, support and belief to build a life beyond homelessness. With your help, we can support people to go from crisis to home.
Find your volunteer roleCrisis works at Christmas and all year round to support people in Edinburgh to build lives beyond homelessness.
Join our friendly and supportive volunteer community that’s passionate about ending homelessness. With many volunteer’s returning year after year, the connections you make this Christmas can be long-lasting and the relationships you build with people experiencing homelessness can be lifechanging.
You’ll gain skills, have inspiring experiences, build confidence, and above all, help someone as they build a life out of homelessness and go from crisis to home.
Every year thanks to the Christmas appeal we offer much needed warmth, healthcare, food and company to people experiencing homelessness. Our Christmas services work alongside the specialist support we provide all year, which includes helping people to find their own stable home, to access education and training.
This Christmas we are planning to support our members and their families.
We will be:
Your application will be reviewed and you will receive a notification once this is complete.
Once an application has been approved you can select your shifts. If your role requires a disclosure check, you will be asked to start this process.
We have a welcome session for all volunteers and a suite of e-learning to ensure you’re well prepared for your volunteering.
Once all the steps are completed, you can begin your volunteering with us.
All Edinburgh Christmas volunteers attend a welcome session to learn more about Crisis and our Christmas services. There is also a suite of e-learning tailored to your role.
All shifts have a briefing at the beginning to ensure you know who will support you on the day and have any information relevant for your shift. We also ask that you attend a debrief just before the end of your shift to give any feedback, report concerns and to give us a chance to thank you for supporting us.
Our Christmas services are only available to Crisis members and service users of some of our partners. If you are a Crisis member, we will be in touch with you before Christmas to let you know what services are available. You can also speak to your lead worker.
You can self-refer to Crisis if you need support with your homelessness.
Please visit us at 271 Canongate, Edinburgh, EH8 8BQ or telephone 0131 209 7700.
If you would rather make a financial contribution, get your community together to fundraise or find out about events we have coming up please email julie.sutton@crisis.org.uk.
We don’t provide any residential offer in Edinburgh, but we work closely with the Bethany Christian Trust who do, and we provided Christmas meals to their guests in 2023.
Please email ccedinburgh@crisis.org.uk or call the office on 0131 209 7700.
We will be delivering hot three course Christmas meals to Crisis members on 25 and 26 December.
A wellbeing day with vital services and fun activities will take place.
Gifts and essential items will be delivered to our guests.
You can find out more about volunteering at Crisis on our volunteering landing pages.
If someone is rough sleeping, you can refer them to Streetwork, or their local council homelessness service for emergency accommodation.
For everything else, they can visit our office: 271 Canongate Edinburgh EH8 8BQ or call us on 0131 229 7700.
You can refer them to Streetwork for support.
The voice and expertise of people with lived experience is vital in ensuring our service is truly meeting the needs of our members. We encourage anyone with lived experience to apply for our volunteer roles.
We also involve members and people with lived experience of homelessness in opportunities across the organisation including our Experts by Experience panel. For more details, please speak to your local Volunteer and Involvement Lead.
Some of our roles require previous experience or qualifications and others do not.
Professional service volunteers, such as those completing health checks or haircuts will require the relevant qualifications and public liability insurance.
In some roles we may be looking for volunteers with experience of supporting people who are homeless or other vulnerable adult groups. Information about each role will be listed on our website and throughout your volunteer application form. Please check this information before applying to ensure you are applying for the most suitable role for you.
We do not ask for references for Christmas volunteers.
At Christmas, due to the volume of volunteers recruited, we are unable to provide detailed references. We will only provide a start and finish date for those who have completed a volunteering shift in the previous two years. The only exception to this is for the lead / senior volunteers who work closely with Crisis and members of staff beyond the Christmas service delivery period.
At Christmas, due to the volume of volunteers recruited we are unable to cover expenses except mileage (if you are driving for us as part of your volunteering e.g as a Delivery Driver Volunteer, then we can cover the mileage used while volunteering).
Many of the roles in our services will require a disclosure check, (either basic or enhanced) - you will be able to see this on the role description. If the role does, you will receive an email from uCheck to complete this on their system. Please check your spam folder and contact us at ccedinburgh@crisis.org.uk if you haven't received one.
If you have a criminal conviction, this does not automatically mean you cannot volunteer for us. However, we may need to ask you more about the conviction to be able to do a risk assessment and decide if you can or cannot volunteer.
Of course, you are welcome to volunteer in a new shift, location or a different role if we have space available.
It’s great that you want to support us this Christmas! There are lots of opportunities to support us through fundraising or campaigning work. To find out more, click on our Other ways to support buttons below or visit the Crisis at Christmas webpage.
If you are feeling poorly we urge you to not volunteer until you are feeling better.
As we prioritise the health of everyone, volunteers who display any symptoms will be asked to leave their shift.
Unfortunately, due to the limitations placed on us by our insurance, we are unable to offer volunteering opportunities to those not based in the UK.
There’s more than one way to make a difference this Christmas. If you can’t volunteer with us, your donation, event participation, or fundraising support can help change lives and end homelessness for good.
