The Story of The Open Door
Beginnings
In 1982 Margaret (Peggy) Hunter, the first woman elder in Greenbank Church, and one of the first in Scotland, had a vision she shared with her Quaker friend, Margaret Gibbons.
At that time some patients from the Royal Edinburgh Hospital were free to wander during daytime and they needed a safe warm welcoming place where cheap food was available. Also, while Peggy was working as matron in the Sick Children’s Hospital her Mum was at home alone. She and others like her needed a warm welcoming place to meet with others, to be fed and entertained.
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And so the vision was born. In Peggy’s words:-
I have a dream …to turn loneliness into fellowship, isolation into recognition …
and bridge the gap between church and community.
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Peggy’s dream was accepted first by Greenbank Church and then by other local churches A property to rent at very reasonable cost was offered by another Greenbank elder John George, and we are still grateful for his continued support. So The Open Door (Peggy’s choice of name) became a reality at 420 Morningside Road. Fundraising was started to carry out renovations.
Development of our Services
In February 1982 the café opened to help with fundraising. The patients from the ‘Royal Ed’ came. Peggy’s mother and her friends came, and others from the churches and the community. The Café thrived. It was only the third one in Morningside at the time, and was run by volunteers; three per shift, two to make and serve the food and one to talk to the customers. It became a mini Citizen’s Advice Bureau, giving information on health care, housing problems, etc, and helping with form filling.
Soon the first of our Friendship Clubs, called the Good Neighbour Club, was started and met every Tuesday. Then as the number of clients grew and the range of needs expanded the Thursday Club was formed, and much later the Saturday Break, all still run almost entirely by volunteers, though after a few years we employed our first paid manager. The Saturday Break catered for dementia sufferers, on a one-to-one basis, and gave their carers a much needed day off.
Much more recently a number of the men attending decided they didn’t want to be in a group with ‘all these old women’ so the highly successful Men’s Group was formed and meets on Fridays. There have been a variety of less formal social groups too; Art, Walking, Theatre, Cinema, Tea Dances, as well as Christmas lunches and summer outings. These continue and frequently change as people’s desires for different social activities change.
(More details of our Services)
Funding
Fundraising has continued constantly from the very beginning, enabling continuing renovations to the building, as well as additions to furnishings and equipment. Statutory funding from City of Edinburgh Council, NHS Lothian and Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership is nowhere near enough and is augmented by unremitting submission of grant applications to many different bodies from the National Lottery to small family trusts. In addition we have held a great variety of fundraisers. There used to be a massive Summer Sale which lasted a week , with a smaller sale at Christmas. And there have been many events, illustrated talks, sponsorships, coffee mornings and much more.
We have also sometimes received donations in kind, with local supermarkets and other organisations donation surplus foodstuffs which have been used to provide meals in our Café and Clubs, or passed on directly to our club members.
(More details on Funding)
People
Things have changed a lot since the early days. A constant battery of new regulations and requirements have meant we’ve taken on more staff, both full and part time, with an Operational Manager, Day Services Manager, Café manager and several supporting staff.
Our Board of Trustees still includes representatives of our founding churches, now reduced from the original 8 to 6 due to amalgamations. These are Fairmilehead, St Fillan’s, Greenbank, Morningside, St Peter’s and South Edinburgh Quakers, who meet in The Open Door every Sunday. Trustees are all volunteers and over the years there have been many, who have all have provided dedicated service to The Open Door.
In common with other charities, since more women have gone out to work and more grandparents are childminding, it has proved harder to recruit volunteers. The Pandemic has made that a hundred times worse. However we are now gradually recruiting new volunteers for our Groups, our Café and other tasks.
(More About Us)
The COVID Pandemic
During the pandemic we were shut for almost 2 years. During all that time our staff worked from home, keeping in very frequent telephone contact with all our service users and volunteers. They checked up on health, whether they had family or carers visiting, and just generally kept them feeling cheerful and secure with chat and advice. And at need they contacted families, doctors and other organisations and services on their behalf. We were in the final stages of planning a very careful home visiting scheme for club members when the regulations lifted and we were thankfully able to open again.
The care and dedication shown by our staff during that time was second to none and the praise they received from our Club members and their families make wonderful reading.
Looking Forward
We are constantly looking for ways to expand our services, with plans for more Clubs on other days, and other ways of extending what we do in the community.