Did you know that Crew has been around since 1992 and started as a grass-roots response to drug related harm? Young people in Edinburgh noticed that people around them were taking drugs but there was no information for them to reduce the risks – so they started making their own. Crew began with a group of volunteers handwriting and photocopying information about drugs and harm reduction – handing it out across Edinburgh – focusing on nightlife settings and festivals.
Here we are more than 25 years later with a strong contingent of volunteer providing peer led harm reduction outreach and interventions in nightlife settings and in the wider community and festival welfare. With our professional counselling and training services reaching 1000s each year we are built on the foundation of a dedicated group of young people’s passion.
The group of volunteers also launched a large scale survey across the city to ask people about their drug use. You can hear more about that survey and the beginnings of Crew in this BBC video from 1993 which features some of our founding volunteer team.
To celebrate the next 25 years of Peer Power driving harm reduction, Crew volunteers from our birth in 1992 to the present day, joined forces with Media Education to create an amazing film about their experiences. Volunteers past and present discuss what led them to join Crew and their hopes for the future. Huge thanks to Ania Urbanowska and Media Education for their incredible support, and all the fantastic peers who make Crew what it is.
Join Crew
If you would like to get involved with the work of Crew please read more about volunteering with us and fill in our volunteer application form!
