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Walking the streets with the flip-flop angels
Street Pastors began as a pilot project in Brixton five years ago. There are now 100 projects in the UK. Julia McGuinness joined a new team in Chester
 Helping hand: on the streets of Swindon |
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IT IS JUST after ten p.m. on a sub-zero January night in Chester city-centre. Three people sit praying in a church hall. They are dressed for the outdoors, in distinctive navy jackets that have an identical logo. The three finish praying and prepare to leave, but they are not going home. One speaks into a small, portable radio: “Street Pastors to CCTV: going on patrol.” He listens into the earpiece for a response from the control room. On hearing it, he gives a nod, and they head out. There are now more than 2000 Street Pastors in the UK, involved in 100 projects, from Aberdeen to Plymouth and from inner cities to coastal towns. They comprise Christians of all denominations. Tonight, I am with Gordon, an Anglican; Alistair, a Methodist; and Carol, from the Queen’s Community Church in Chester, whose premises we have just left.The scheme was launched in the London borough of Lambeth in 2003 as a Christian response to urban problems. It is an initiative of the charity Ascension Trust, under its director, the Revd Les Isaac. His vision, he says, is to “get the church back on the streets to engage with people”. |
 A comforting word in Swindon |
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The Street Pastors scheme is one way of getting alongside those out and about after dark. Mark Thomas is co-ordinator of the project in Bridgend and minister of Hope Baptist church in Bridgend town centre. He says: “We knew it was time to act when there were more young people outside our building at night than inside during the day.”
Street Pastors follow Jesus’s example of care by “being physically where people are at”. It is also vital that they listen, Mr Isaac says: “The church can be far too busy preaching at people, but not hearing their cry and what they’re going through.”
Listening and offering comfort may be accompanied by practical help. This can involve simply finding someone a taxi home, or directing them towards more long-term support, such as a drug rehab centre. Street Pastors may point the spiritually desolate towards church. But “We go out with a holistic approach to people’s needs. We don’t want to beat them up with a four-by-four Bible. We have a genuine concern for their well-being.”
THE FIRST step in setting up a Street Pastors scheme is to establish an interdenominational alliance of at least four churches, in order to register with the Ascension Trust. Street Pastors must be over 18 (some are in their 70s); have a Christian faith; and have belonged to a congregation for more than a year. They also need to attend a 12-session induction course.
The Ascension Trust training-package provides material for three core sessions. These include clarifying the Street Pastors’ responsibilities and role-playing possible scenarios. The area project co-ordinator approaches agencies such as the police and drug and alcohol services to deliver the other course components.
Mr Isaac stresses the importance of detailed preparation: “Good management, quality control, and risk assessment are important. Christians can act too much ad hoc, and call that being led by the Spirit; but we have been given minds, and need to use them to equip people properly.”
The basic training costs £300, and funding typically comes from individuals, churches, or agencies. Chester City Council has helped fund Chester Street Pastors. In Lincoln, the City Council and Community Safety Partnership jointly funded the Street Pastors’ set-up costs, including their jackets and radio-link equipment.
Street Pastor teams have also made successful bids for other external funding streams, including the Faiths in Action grants programme, the Awards for All lottery grants scheme, and the Sainsbury’s Local Heroes Award.
The first Friday-night patrol in Chester took place last September. Tonight’s team has been out only a few times, but its members already seem familiar with the ways this historic city changes as its night-time economy takes over.
Quiet couples making their way home contrast with gaggles of girls tripping around on high heels, bare-shouldered and in flimsy dresses, and groups of lads letting out occasional whoops amid stage-loud conversation. Lively music emerges from club doorways that are silently inconspicuous by day.
We stop by two girls and a young lad who are giving out tickets entitling the recipient to a complimentary vodka. They say they are cold and bored. The lad comes off-duty at 10.45 p.m., but he is not sure how to tell the time. Alistair shows him where the hands need to be on the nearby clock-face before he can take a break. This conversation is later noted in the activity log.
IN THE first 15 weeks of Friday patrols, the Chester Street Pastors have had 496 conversations, including 19 of a specifically spiritual nature, and two requests for prayer. They have administered first aid seven times, and been involved in 11 acts of “significant reassurance”of individuals at risk, either from others or to themselves. This has often meant staying with them while calling for further assistance or support.
Tonight is a good opportunity to build relationships with security staff; so the team sets off on a low-key pastoral visit to pub and club entrances, and the taxi rank. At each stop, mutual smiles of recognition precede a brief chat.
Burly door-staff stamp their feet, complaining about the low temperature and sparse clientele. Mike, at the Watergate Bar, asks for a Street Pastors’ card: the previous week he had seen a distressed young woman, alone, who seemed the worse the wear for alcohol, and he was unable to respond; an approach from him could have been misinterpreted.
Shards of broken bottles litter the walkway outside another club — a parting shot from two youths who were ejected and “got a bit gobby”. Carol takes a dustpan and brush from Gordon’s rucksack to sweep up, adding one more to the total of 204 bottles the Street Pastors have removed from the city streets. |
 Lightening things up in Brigend |
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The rucksack also contains pairs of flip-flops to hand out to girls who have abandoned their high-heeled shoes after a few drinks. Flip-flops not only protect their feet, but also save A&E from one more patient.
Adele, on the door at McDonald’s, calls Street Pastors the “flip-flop angels”. She had never heard of them before last September. “At first, I was very sceptical. I thought they’d be ignorant of what they were about, and could be in great danger.”
She changed her mind as she got to know them. A few weeks before, she had listened to a Street Pastor calling in on the security radio-link as he dealt with a girl who was feeling suicidal. “What would have happened to her otherwise? She’d have broken her heart crying, and maybe got frozen out there.”
No Street Pastor has ever been injured while on duty since the scheme started. But Adele still fears for their safety, and warns them if she senses any hostility brewing. She breaks off to issue a sharp rebuke to a young couple talking loudly near by, whose conversation is peppered with expletives. “Don’t use words like that. You’ll offend the Street Pastors.”
GORDON hears radio-link talk of trouble further along the street. Outside Wetherspoon’s, at least eight police are in action: a stag party has just been thrown out. One reveller is in handcuffs; a couple more are on the verge of being arrested. The Street Pastors wait close by, ready to engage with anyone in distress; but the matter is dealt with and the group disperses.
Police Sergeant Paul Bluck, who helps train the Chester Street Pastors, says that while they need to be aware of police procedures and resources, the Pastors’ ministry may be more about prevention than cure.
“When groups congregate as the nightclubs close, Street Pastors may spot the signs of a situation flaring up into a fight, and can use their communication skills to defuse tensions and draw people apart.”
In Lincoln, a Street Pastors scheme began in autumn 2007. Chief Inspector Daryl Pearce, who is in charge of community safety, agrees that they are a positive presence on the streets. “The police are often busy responding to incidents, and moving on to the next job; so people are left at the scene — perhaps the partner of someone we’ve arrested, who’s now alone and needing support in getting home. Street Pastors have filled that gap. They provide a resource in listening and talking with people.”
Mr Pearce says that violent crime in Lincoln is falling. While it is hard to isolate the Street-Pastor factor on Friday and Saturday nights, he says: “They’ve really grown into their role. I can’t imagine what it would be like without them.”
As well as contacts on the street, the Street Pastor initiatives have opened up other avenues of community involvement. Joy Liddle, co-ordinator of the Lincoln Street Pastors, is part of Lincoln’s Community Safety Partnership of agencies. She was also invited to join Pub Watch.
In Bridgend, which has had Street Pastors since December 2007, Mark Thomas was last year named Community Safety Volunteer of the Year. He is also chaplain to the local St John’s Ambulance branch.
St John’s Ambulance and Bridgend Street Pastors work together particularly at Christmas, on Bank Holidays, and on Rugby International weekends. On these occasions, St John’s Ambulance sets up a triage treatment-centre in Hope Baptist Church. Some Street Pastors stay there; others go out looking for people in need of the treatment centre’s services.
AS INITIATIVES develop from the common starting point of the Ascension Trust, they may develop different elements that reflect their own community’s needs. The high incidence of death among the young in Bridgend prompted Mr Thomas to call in Assist for extra training on suicide intervention. And after four such deaths in close succession last summer in Bettws, near by, the Street Pastors were asked to visit boys’ and girls’ clubs in the village to talk with the young people.
Ms Liddle, who is co-ordinating the Lincoln project, has supplemented the basic training. “Having witnessed several incidents of domestic violence, we invited Women’s Aid to give us a training evening on the issue.”
Charting the long-term impact of Street Pastors is not easy. But, like many Street Pastors, Ms Liddle has had some particularly fruitful encounters, from someone who was helped on to an Alpha course, to a pub manager who asked for prayer and is now hoping to become involved with a church.
“We meet needs where they are, and get thank-you emails and offers of money; but you never know where things might go.”
As the Street Pastors’ initiative grows from the original team of 18 who started out in Brixton in 2003, the challenge is to train more volunteers to expand the initiative. Many established urban projects typically have teams of 40 to 50 volunteers.
Gabrielle Heavisides is the first member of the congregation at Chester Cathedral to undertake Street Pastor training. She says that the scheme needs more Anglican support in Chester, particularly from the centrally situated cathedral.
Ms Heavisides currently works as a student counsellor, but says that becoming a Street Pastor offers a new challenge. “It’s a way of working hands on with young people who are vulnerable and at risk. I’ve always worked in a protected environment. If I’m in a city late at night, near rowdy people, I don’t show my best side. This is a chance to get out of my comfort zone and ‘just do it’.”
In Lambeth, the co-ordinator, Kennedy Roberts, says that recruitment is currently his biggest challenge. He is especially hoping to recruit more men to a 40-strong team where the women outnumber the men by two to one — a ratio, he says, that is broadly reflective of church membership generally.
This year, Lambeth Street Pastors intend to expand the initiative in the borough by starting up teams in Kennington, Streatham, and Clapham. Such new Street Pastor initiatives are among the 40 or so already in the pipeline for 2009 across the UK. New developments also include a School Pastors’ scheme being piloted in Lambeth and Purley.
This year the first National Street Pastors conference will be held in November at the Emmanuel Centre, Westminster. The Archbishop of York, Dr Sentamu, is to be among the speakers.
It is a sign that the movement is becoming established, and reflects Mr Isaac’s determination to stay the course: “Christians are good at short-term mission. We take two years to plan one, two weeks to do it, two years to recover, and then another two years to talk about whether we should do it again. Street Pastors is about being a visible, consistent, and relevant presence out there.”
BACK AT BASE in Chester, Gordon keeps listening to the radio-link as we drink hot soup. Various clubs are signing off early. He decides that the team should do one last patrol around the night-spots. Very little is happening; so it is not worth staying out much longer.
The trio handing out complimentary vodka tickets still have stashes left. As we stop to talk, a man standing near by asks, in slightly slurred speech, whether we are out “spreading the word”. Gordon explains that Street Pastors simply want to help anyone in need. The man starts reminiscing about Sunday school, before ambling uncertainly off. |
 Contents of a Chester backpack |
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It is time to call it a night, and we go back to base. It is 1.30 a.m. Alistair is off to unwind by going shopping at Tesco. Gordon and Carol are going home. By 2 a.m., I am safe and warm in bed, thinking about Adele, who is still outside McDonald’s.
For conference information email conference@ streetpastor.co.uk
www.streetpastors.co.uk
Pastors for schools |
 Daytime patrol: the Revd Pam Bryan, with Lucy and Oli |
| WHEN the Revd Pam Bryan, Assistant Minister of Purley Baptist Church, who chairs Churches Together in Purley, heard the Revd Les Isaac share his vision for Schools Pastors, she thought it was “perfect for Purley”. With two large schools near by, the town centre receives an influx of children around its shops and bus-stops in the afternoon. Ms Bryan says that the community, particularly the elderly and shopkeepers, were finding this “a bit threatening”. So, since September, she and her team of six from the Baptist church and Christ Church, Purley, have been piloting this latest development of the Street Pastors’ initiative. Schools Pastors work in partnership with specific schools. In Purley, the head teacher at Thomas More RC School, John Casey, was quick to offer support: “Children are calm on the school site, but when they leave that tends to disappear. I’ve sometimes been anxious about children going home safely.” Each Monday, the Schools Pastors are at the school gates at 2.30 p.m. “We walk down to town with the children, and spend time around the shops and bus stops with them till about four,” Ms Bryan says. As the team seeks to build relationships, responses have ranged from teenage enthusiasm to embarrassment; but Ms Bryan says that Schools Pastors are making an impact, whether helping to resolve an incident where a child was mistakenly accused of shoplifting or stepping in where two boys were squaring up for a fight. Since the Schools Pastors scheme started, Ms Bryan has been told that there is less call on the police in Purley town centre on a Monday. She also hears reports that the community is grateful that someone is taking positive action to promote its welfare. Ms Bryan now wants to expand the team, and eventually go in to school assemblies. “Church members are a bit reticent. They say ‘Aren’t you brave?’ But I don’t feel it’s brave to ask children clogging up a pavement to move along a bit.” Mr Casey agrees. “Youngsters are often insensitive to others’ needs when they’re on the phone, or in large groups talking or eating crisps. They don’t realise how it looks to others. But they can respond positively if they’re told to be more considerate.” |
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