A Street Assist volunteer has been hailed for their excellent work in assisting a young woman with a hearing impairment.
Lyle Donald, 21, only began helping out with the charity four weeks ago but has already earned his stripes as a valuable member of the team.
His quick-thinking allowed him to use his basic sign language skills that he acquired from his day job as an early years officer at a nursery in Fife.
Street Assist had been called to an incident close to Subway nightclub in Edinburgh’s Cowgate.
When they arrived they discovered a woman who was worse for wear due to a suspected over consumption of alcohol.
She appeared to be in a “heightened state of vulnerability and distress” and police were unable to communicate with her.
But after searching her bag, officers found a card identifying the young clubber as someone who was hearing impaired.
This led to Lyle sparking into action and using basic sign language skills to communicate with the woman, to ask her what she needed and to try to figure out how to get her home.
Lyle had developed sign language skills after discovering that a child in his group at work was hearing impaired and thought that having the skill would make the child feel more comfortable with a heightened level of communication.
On the incident, Lyle said: “When we turned up the bouncer at Subway told us that they felt the woman may be hearing impaired but felt they had no way of figuring this out.
“We have a partnership with Police Scotland and after they came along they managed to check the woman’s handbag for any details that may help us identify and get her home.
“Officers found a card that identified the woman as hearing impaired. I know some basic sign language through my daily job and that helped us to identify a way of getting her home and keeping her calm throughout the situation.
“It also helped the police as we were able to communicate with her to get a hold of her drivers licence that then in turn led to her father being called to come and collect her.
“Using my sign language I explained why we were there, how we could help, asked if there was anything they needed and explained that her dad was on the way.
“Traditionally this would have taken a long time to sort out but through sign language we managed to deal with it quickly and get them home safely.
“I learned sign language through my work as an early years officer in Fife. When I started there was a child in my group that was hearing impaired and I felt it would be great for improving communication to learn the language.
“Luckily I remembered this when I went out to the incident on Friday evening.
“I only started with Street assist back in March as I am looking to go into the police and felt it would be a good stepping stone by getting me accustomed to real life situations.
“It also gives me a good sense of giving back and keeping the community safe.”
And Lyle's heroics also drew plaudits from his fellow emergency first aiders at Street Assist. - who patrol the capital on weekend nights to help those in need.
Street Assist founder and director, Neil Logan said: “For me it shows the versatility we have within the project and how we are able turn our hand to most things that come our way.
“Having to use sign language is not something we do often but it's nice to know we have someone in the team that can do that.
“It is another skill to utilise to get people home.
“In terms of Lyle helping, the woman due to her situation was at a heightened state of vulnerability and stress and the fact he could pull that out the bag and calm the situation was amazing.
“The fact he could use his ability to track down a family member to come and collect her is what we are all about.
“It is something we will be looking at to see if we could make the training available to other volunteers.
“We have noticed that all the new volunteers are bringing new skills in with them. Lyle only started about four weeks ago but his ability has already made a huge impact.
“It is quite spectacular that he has been with us for such a short space of time but had the confidence to take control of the situation.”
Street Assist is a charity that helps people who become vulnerable during the night time economy hours of 10pm-4am Friday and Saturday.
Their role is to ensure that people return home safe, to relieve pressure from emergency services and to administer first aid where appropriate.
As part of this, they have thrown their weight behind the Noisy Night Out campaign event that will take place at 10:30pm at Lulu’s nightclub tonight.
The campaign is looking to connect female groups worried about the rise of spiking with night time economy actors as well as organisations like Street Assist to form a collaborative approach to tackling the issue.
The event tonight will also act as an opportunity to fundraise for charities that support survivors of sexual violence and local groups such as Street Assist Edinburgh who work to keep people safe on a night out and free from harm.
On the event, Rachel, the head of Urban Angels Edinburgh, an organisation that helped to organise the night, said: “It is an absolute must that the nightlife industry is safe and enjoyable for all.
“This cannot happen without venues having open conversations with organisations and engaging with the customers who attend them. Overall, transparency and compassion are key in achieving an inclusive and unhindered nightlife experience for all.”
Neil of Street Assist, added: “We are delighted to support this event. Since 2016 Street Assist Edinburgh have been working every Friday and Saturday night from 10pm to 4am to support our emergency services with the aim to reduce vulnerability within the busy night-time economy hours.
“We believe that a wider conversation needs to take place to make sure people taking advantage of the many brilliant nighttime venues Edinburgh has to offer can do so in the knowledge that there is a collaborative approach to keeping people safe.”
You can visit the Street Assist website here.
