Integrate

Integrate
c/o City Church
49 Gilcomston Park
Aberdeen
AB25 1PN

01224 646424
07703472904

info@integratescotland.org

Our Staff

Caroline Crombie is the Senior Community Chaplin employed by Integrate. Caroline has worked with marginalised and disadvantaged individuals for many years having a growing commitment and vision to working with those who have been convicted of offences.

At the age of 19, when Caroline became a Christian, she had growing sense that God had a purpose for her life that was more than the horizons she had perhaps placed on herself. A growing burden was placed on her heart to work with people who present challenging behaviours, specifically offending behaviour.  Caroline felt drawn towards helping people break away from offending behaviours and move towards more constructing and purposeful lives in the community.  Caroline acknowledges that she had limited experience and knowledge of working with people who were convicted of offending and initially placed this desire, as it were, ‘on the back burner’ before moving to Aberdeen to study psychology as people, behaviour and motives had always fascinated her. 

A year or so later, whilst on a trip to Albania, Caroline was reminded of the call she believed God had placed on her life when she witnessed a particularly violence crime.  Caroline was aware of a drive to understand such behaviour and was somewhat surprised at a growing compassion for the perpetrator that simply went against the grain.  Upon returning to Aberdeen Caroline pursued what was on her heart and following some research applied successfully to become a volunteer with an established charity that undertook work in prisons.

For the first few years, mentored by an ex-offender who was now a worker for this charity, Caroline learnt an enormous amount from him about working with people who have experienced addiction problems and those caught in a cycle of offending behaviour. It became obvious that there were many of the same faces in and out of custody on a regular basis and known as ‘revolving door’ prisoners.  Whilst working with people in prison and supporting change seemed worthy work, Caroline had a growing realisation that without the same level of contact and support upon liberation such individuals often returned.  The transition between imprisonment and release for those that wanted to sustain change was difficult and many such individuals felt very isolated, vulnerable and simply unable to cope often returning to known patterns of behaviours and acquaintances which often lead them back in into the cycle of offending.

In a nutshell therefore, Caroline started looking for ways to extend the support for people so that it did not simply cease when the prison gate closed behind them and they were liberated, but continued in the community as people began to resettle. And so the work of Integrate began.