Street Pastors

20.01.10

To date this year 2009/2010 Street Pastors in Derby have seen 2877 volunteer hours given for the city

15,852 conversations with people

3,421 with people working in the NT economy

1,162 pairs of flip flops 

191 people have received first aid treatment from us

We have picked up 3621 bottles

694 people have not been arrested as we were able to calm them

Sadly we put 89 people into Ambulances

We helped 450 people who were drunk and 164 people distressed or needing help

We have been tasked 166 times by our partners

The Independent have published an article on Street Pastors@
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/a-night-on-the-town-vomit-violence-and-god-1870208.html

Thank you
To all those who voted for the Street Pastors Project to receive funding from ‘Community Cashback Funding’. The Project has received a £20,000 grant from the Community Cashback scheme.

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Would you like to be a Street Pastor?

Would you like to be out onto the streets of the City, on Friday and Saturday nights till the early hours of the morning?
You meet lots of people, some will be worse for wear through alcohol or drugs, some will need first aid, some will be argumentative but lots will want to talk to you. You don’t get paid for your time, in fact you will have to make a donation yourself!
Does this sound an attractive way to spend a weekend? It’s what Street Pastors do.

Street Pastors is an inter-denominational Church response to urban problems, engaging with people on the streets to care, listen and dialogue. Whether those people are spilling out of the clubs and pubs or street homeless, Street Pastors offer themselves as people who will listen and offer practical support.

The scheme was pioneered in London in January 2003 by Rev Les Isaac, Director of the Ascension Trust, and has seen some remarkable results, including drops in crime in areas where teams have been working.

Areas of the Midlands which now have Street Pastor teams are Birmingham, Derby, Hinckley, Leicester, Lincoln, Loughborough, Melton Mowbray, Northampton, Nottingham, Rushton, Scunthorpe, Stourbridge, Wolverhampton and Worksop.

Each city project is set up by Ascension Trust and run by a local coordinator with support from Ascension Trust and local churches and community groups, in partnership with Police, Council and other statutory agencies.

Derby Street Pastors is a partnership of 25 local churches, Derbyshire Police, Derby City Centre Management, Derby Diocese, Derby Pub Watch, The Cathedral Quarter Company, Derby Community Safety Partnership, The Afro Caribbean Church Forum for Derby, Derby Youth with a Mission, and The Ascension Trust. Derby City Mission Trust administers and co-ordinates the project.

What do Street Pastors do?
Each team of Street Pastors goes out onto the streets one evening a month where they meet door staff, publicans and their customers. They engage with people where they are, both in terms of their thinking (listening to their perspective on life) and where they hang out. They make themselves available to people who want to talk and, perhaps surprisingly, people often want to talk about their personal lives and they use the opportunity presented to them to ask questions about God or the church. It is not unusual to be asked for prayer.

People often express surprise that this is something which churches and Christians get involved in; that they care enough to be there for them – especially when they realise they give their time for free!
Some comments include, “You guys are awesome!”, and “Why do you care about me?”.

In our culture there is often strong prejudice towards religion and church, people need to see faith in action; offering unconditional care with openness about God in appropriate ways, if barriers are to come down and they are to believe what we say about the God we believe in.

Please pray for the work of Street Pastors. Including physical safety and strength, wisdom, compassion, courage, good team work, relationships with police, door staff, taxi marshals, shop owners, night club owners and funding.

For more information visit www.streetpastors.co.uk or contact Joy Bates, Faith in Action, 01332 388686, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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Street pastors – by Nick Allgood & Alisdair Kay

Ask any officer who has worked in Derby on a Friday or Saturday night, and they will tell you how different the night time economy is in comparison with that of the daytime.
As many as 40,000 people converge on the city on either of these nights, to enjoy the hospitality of the many bars and nightclubs our city has to offer.  Not all of these late night revellers end their evening how they would have wanted to when the night started.
Like many cities, alcohol related disorder is a problem in the evenings. Police officers find themselves dealing with a wide range of incidents, which can range from minor incidents of disorder to serious assaults.
This year saw another group of people patrolling the city centre, the Street Pastors.
Wearing an informal but distinctive uniform, the Street Pastors have been patrolling the streets since February 2009. They work in teams of 4 or 6, and on a Friday or Saturday night there may be 2 such groups on patrol between 10pm and 4am. They also work on bank holidays.
They will work actively in partnership with door staff, police and taxi marshals. Their role is not a security one, but rather a caring one. They are all trained first aiders, and have also been trained in issues relating to alcohol, drug and solvent abuse.
Since taking up my role in April on the City Centre Safer Neighbourhood Team, I have tried to make officers who work on these nights aware of what the Street Pastors role is. I have been asked many times what exactly they can do to help us.
They can administer first aid when needed. If this is at the scene of an assault it frees up the police officers who would have been doing this. There is also the scenario of someone being drunk and incapable – the Street Pastors will look after them until an ambulance is called.
They are trained in conflict resolution; provide a listening ear for those in distresses or for victims of crime. They will care for onlookers while police carry out the investigation at an incident.
They will act as intermediaries between the police and the public. As they are not seen to be from an authority, then sometimes people will open up more, as they are volunteers. This helps to improve initial communications between the police.
Because of the level of training they receive they are used to dealing with people worse the wear for drink, and how to handle them. They will also pass on intelligence to the police.
They are also trained to have a full understanding of Operation Argus, and the cities plan and responses to such incidents.
They are there to help people get into taxis, give directions and clear away broken glass. They give out flip flops to women who are walking bare foot at the end of the evening because their shoes are hurting their feet. They will hand out silver space blankets to help keep people warm on cold evenings.
In short, they are there to help everyone. The assistance they offer frees up officers.
As the role is purely that of a caring role they do not get involved in situations which will become physically violent. If a situation does become violent, it may be that the police are not on the scene, then they will contact the police via the CCTV office.
There are currently around 40 Trained Street Pastors, and a recruitment drive sees a course being run in October to train a further 24. The scheme started in December 2008 and is coordinated by Alisdair Kay, of the Derby City Mission.  Since they began patrolling the streets in February there has been widespread support being offered by licensees who provide bottled water for the team to hand out to revellers showing signs of dehydration, flip-flops as already mentioned,  and “spikeys” (devices to place over drinks to prevent them being spiked) have also been handed out to revellers.
Derby pub watch have also provided the teams with radios so that they can communicate direct with the city CCTV office, so that they can alert us to any incident without having to rely on the mobile phone network.
Since the scheme started, they have become well received by the community and attend other events, such as the Derby goes Pink festival, and the under 18 nights held at Zanzibar’s nightclub. Street pastors are an inter-denominational Church response to urban problems, engaging with people on the streets to care, listen and dialogue.
It was pioneered in London in January 2003 by Rev Les Isaac, Director of the Ascension Trust, and has seen some remarkable results, including drops in crime in areas where the team have been working.
Derby Street Pastors is a partnership of 25 local Churches, Derbyshire Police, Derby City Council, Derby City Centre Management, Derby Diocese, Derby Pub-watch, The Cathedral Quarter Company, Derby Community Safety Partnership, The Afro- Caribbean Church Forum for Derby, Derby Youth With a Mission and The Ascension Trust.

Derby City Mission administers and co-ordinates the project here in Derby.
A Street Pastor is a Church leader/minister or member with a concern for society. In particular for young people who feel themselves to be excluded and marginalised - and who is willing to engage people where they are, in terms of their thinking (i.e. their perspective of life) and location (i.e. where they hang out - be it on the streets, in the pubs and clubs or at parties etc).
Street Pastors will also be willing to work with others, with fellow activists, church and community leaders, and with agencies and projects, both statutory and voluntary, to look at collaborative ways of working on issues affecting youth, and initiatives that will build trust between them and the Street Pastors.
As the Street Pastor gets to know people in the community he/she will find out their needs are and what can be done to help. A presence of Street Pastors will earn credibility in the community, so that people know that the Church is there for them in a practical way.
The role is not about preaching heaven and hell, but one of listening, caring and helping - working in an unconditional way. To be a Street Pastor you need to be over 18 (no upper age limit), a church member and able to commit to the training programme.
In the months April – June, the Street Pastors have had over 6500 recorded contacts with members of the public, and over 1200 interactions with the police, Door Supervisors and Taxi Marshals. They have handed out over 450 pairs of flip-flops, over 150 hot drinks, over 3000 Spikeys, administered first aid on 58 occasions, handed out 29 safety blankets and disposed of over 1150 empty or broken bottles and glasses from the streets. They have had over 500 interactions with irate, arrested, injured drunk and distressed individuals.
Hopefully the Street Pastor scheme will be a regular presence on our city streets for years to come. It is reassuring to know that there is a group of people willing to give up their time to help others, and I would encourage all officers to interact with the street pastors and get to know them. Remember they are giving up their time to help others, and that help is also their for us as police officers.  

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