About The Open Door

The Open Door is a small charity in Morningside, Edinburgh. Our mission is to bring Care Love and Laughter into the lives of frail elderly people, those who are lonely, those suffering with Dementia and other additional needs; and to their carers.

We do this in various ways:-

Through our Friendship Clubs, which bring vulnerable elderly people into our premises where we provide a meal, activities, care, stimulation, fun and friendship in a bright, warm and comfortable setting.

Through a well supported Volunteering programme. We have places for volunteers who themselves have additional needs, and they are overseen and assisted to provide them with a great volunteering experience.

We are governed by a Board of Trustees, about half of them appointed by local churches, thus maintaining the contact established at the time we were founded (see Our Story). Our Staff is small, and mainly part-time and we could not continue to exist without the help of our many volunteers. We enable people of diverse ages, abilities and backgrounds to contribute to their local community through volunteering in our daycare services, café and other projects.

We are proud of our reputation for delivering high quality care and support services. We were awarded Grade 5 (Very Good) for all categories in our last inspection by the Care Inspectorate (details here.)

We were founded in 1982 by a retired nurse, Peggy Hunter. So we've been here for over 40 years and hope to have at least another 40 serving the community of Morningside and Edinburgh.

Watch our activities and hear the voices of our service users in this wonderfully inspiring film, made in 2019 by Trina McKendrick of Written in Film (www.writteninfilm.com). Our very grateful thanks and acknowledgement to Trina and her team.