Into the West
Restorative breaks on the islands and in the Highlands of west Scotland, beginning on Arran and shaped around the individual, with time, choice, nature, community and connection at their heart.
Discover Into the WestAbout RUSS
A grassroots response built around connection.
Rise Up Sanctuary Scotland is a voluntary community group responding to rough sleeping in two connected ways: practical action through Into the West, and collaborative work for wider change.
Two connected strands
Doing something useful now, while pushing for better solutions.
RUSS grew from years of frontline experience, thinking and dreaming - and from frustration that responses to rough sleeping can become too distant from the people they are meant to help.
Working together for change
Networking and campaigning alongside other grassroots groups, with lived experience and frontline knowledge at the heart of the search for solutions. RUSS also aims to offer advice and guidance to statutory bodies, including government and local authorities, on policy and practical, cost-effective ways to reduce rough sleeping.
Work with RUSS
What we believe
Recovery grows through connections.
There is no one-size-fits-all route to recovery.
People are individuals
What works for one person may not work for another. Support should make room for individual needs, choices, hopes and ambitions.
Experience matters
People who have experienced rough sleeping, together with frontline workers, hold knowledge that should help shape solutions rather than simply receive them.
Relationships matter
Connection to other people, community, land and nature can create breathing space from which healing and lasting recovery can begin.
Why RUSS?
A name carried with love.
RUSS takes its name from Russ, whose memory is woven into the beginnings of the project. The name is a reminder that the people we meet, support, learn from and care about do not stop mattering when they are no longer with us.
Deep connections never fade.
Russ died on 27 April 2025. His name is carried forward in RUSS as a tribute to the relationships that shaped the people behind the project and continue to shape what it stands for.
Russ · 13 April 1973 - 27 April 2025
Russell's parents would like to acknowledge King's Lodge Centre for Complex Care, which was his home during the final three years of his life. His family are deeply grateful to the staff for the care they gave him, with special thanks to Patience.
How RUSS works
Grassroots, voluntary and collaborative.
One of RUSS's principal aims is to operate as part of a wellbeing economy, without financial motivation. RUSS is committed to remaining 100% voluntary, with no paid staff, and to working alongside other like-minded grassroots organisations and individuals rather than trying to do everything alone or in competition.
The aim is to keep lived experience, frontline knowledge and ordinary human relationships close to the centre of decisions. RUSS is starting small, learning as it goes and building community before bureaucracy.