Vibrant Health Advocates – North Star guides recently arrived migrants and new Inverclyde residents through the NHS and local health services — in their own language, at their own pace, from day one.
Get in touchGreenock has always been a port of arrival. We sit alongside newly arrived people — translating not just words, but systems — so that every new neighbour feels at home in their own health.
Greenock has always been a port of arrival. For generations, people have come to this stretch of the Clyde bringing different languages, different health histories, and different understandings of how care works. Vibrant Health Advocates – North Star exists because that journey into the NHS and local services can be bewildering even for those who speak English fluently — and genuinely dangerous for those who do not.
We help families register with a GP, understand a prescription, navigate a mental health referral, prepare for a hospital appointment, and connect with the community organisations in Inverclyde that can support them. We are not a medical service. We are the human bridge that makes medical services reachable.
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Greenock, Inverclyde
Our trained navigators meet people where they are and walk every step of the path to healthcare — so that language is never a barrier to wellbeing.
Our trained health navigators meet newly arrived residents where they are — at home, in community centres, or at a GP surgery — and walk them through every step of accessing NHS care. We follow up, we translate, we attend appointments when needed.
We provide interpreting and translated written resources across the languages most commonly spoken by Inverclyde's arriving communities, including Arabic, Pashto, Tigrinya, Polish, and Portuguese. No one should leave a consultation without understanding what they were told.
Healthcare does not happen in isolation. We connect people with Inverclyde's wider network of support — from mental health services and welfare rights to food banks, mother-and-toddler groups, and English language classes — so health and wellbeing grow together.
Port Glasgow workshop
Community centre, Greenock
Our volunteers
North Star grew from a gap that frontline workers in Greenock had identified for years: people arriving through the asylum dispersal system, or coming to join family, or seeking work, were registering with services weeks or months late — sometimes never.
A small group of community health workers, interpreters, and people with lived experience of migration began meeting informally in 2017. By 2019, the demand was undeniable and the model was working. Vibrant Health Advocates – North Star became a formal SCIO in 2020.
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Greenock, since 2017
A young mother from Syria describes how a single appointment with a Vibrant Health Advocates navigator opened the door to the care her family had been missing for months.
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Registering with a local doctor is one of the most important steps any new arrival can take — and it is simpler than it might seem.
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Our health navigators do far more than translate words — they translate worlds. Follow Fatima through one Tuesday in Greenock and Port Glasgow.
Read the storyWhether you need support, want to volunteer, or simply believe in what we do — there is a place for you at North Star.
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