Southampton Street Pastors and members of the public pose for a photo

Southampton Street Pastors have been patrolling the city centre on Friday and Saturday nights since May this year. There 48 volunteers are each out once per month from 10pm to 4am helping people to stay safe and have a good time. Over the last four months they have helped nearly 100 people in different ways.

They are holding an information lunch for anyone who would like to get the latest information about what is happening. This event is for anyone who wants to know more about Street Pastors. You may be thinking of volunteering yourself, or you may just be curious.

Southampton Street Pastors Information Lunch
Saturday 26th September 2009
11am to 2pm
Millbrook Christian Centre, 51a Wimpson Lane, SO16 4QF

11.00 – Refreshments and registration
11.15 – Street Pastors – the national context, roles and responsibilities
11.45 – Stories from the streets – hear about what has been happening in Southampton
12.00 – Volunteering – training, being a street pastor; other help that is needed
12.30 – Lunch – opportunity to chat with existing street pastors
13.30 – Question and Answer time
14.00 – Close

Please RSVP to Richard Pitt by Monday 22nd September if you want to go to this event by email to: southampton@streetpastors.org.uk or telephone 023 8099 9896

Please tell them where you saw this advert, and if you decide to get involved, come back and tell us all about it!

The teams that go out on the streets on those nights have been making a considerable difference to the people of Southampton. In the first 3 months of operation they have;

• protected 36 people who are vulnerable, usually women who are drunk and are lot or on their own;
• cared for 72 people who were unwell through drinking too much;
• comforted 41 people who were upset.

Every night that they operate there is a prayer team backing them up at the Street Pastor base. Many times the task presented to the street pastors has seemed impossible, and yet a successful outcome has arrived through the work of the prayer team.

At the moment they only have enough people on the prayer team to get two people praying at their base while the Street Pastors are out. If someone is ill it leaves one person praying on their own.

On one occasion the Street Pastors were trying to help a man who had been assaulted with a baseball bat. He had refused to go to hospital in an ambulance, despite a broken nose, and being unsteady on his feet. The street team phoned in to the one-man prayer team (it was one of those occasions where the second person was ill). In a short while a friend of the injured man happened to walk past, and he was able to speak sense to him, persuading him that he needed to go to hospital.

The Street Pastor Prayer Team nees another 12 people to join it. Each person volunteers to pray once per month. If they have 12 more people on the team they will be able to have 3 people on the rota each night.

If you are in or near Southampton, and you think you could be one of them, please contact them by email: southampton@streetpastors.org.uk

“Thanks so much for the flip flops. They arrived safely and were beautiful. They were much nicer than the cheap ones we buy in bulk. They were given out like little treasures among all the normal ones… God is blessing us in His endeavours. Its wonderful to see the church getting out on the street and serving. Such a privilege to be part of it. My prayer is that we keep our ear attentive to his leading.

Thanks for the encouragement, and may you wonderful “mothers” keep up the good work.”

In their first two months of operation the Southampton Street Pastors have been working on Friday and Saturday nights between 10.30pm and 4am. There are 48 pastors on the team, from 30 different churches across Southampton, working in 10 teams of 4-5 people, each team working about once a month.

They work in conjunction with the police and night staff in the city centre, providing basic welfare support to any members of the public who may need it. Their purpose is summed up in the phrase “listening, caring, helping”.

Each night of operation there is a support team (totalling 28 volunteers at present) at Street Pastor HQ whose main objective is to pray for everyone in the city centre. They are on hand to pray specifically for any difficult situations that arise during the night.

In their first 21 nights of operation the Southampton Street Pastors have given out 188 flip-flops, helped 50 people you were unwell due to drink, protected nearly 30 vulnerable people, calmed 28 aggressive situations, and been invited to pray with 17 people. They have also cleared up nearly 500 broken glasses and bottles!

For more background click on the “tag” labelled Street Pastors (on the left of screen). If you wish to help the Street Pastors in your region, please go to the scheme’s website via the “link” (also on the left). They would also welcome our prayers.

Given that this idea was arranged by ‘word of mouth’ and internet at short notice, members are thrilled with the collection.

Follow our tags to find out more about Street Pastors. The posts now include feedback from the first Street Pastors night in Southampton for which we’re really grateful. If you want to donate more flip-flops direct to local groups please follow the links they have provided from the ‘comments’ section on the following post: Is there an urban trinity near you?

The idea is that in the short term they will take a share of the flip-flops collected at our Festival Service at Winchester Cathedral at 11am on 29th April, and give them to their local Street Pastor group.

In the long-term it would be good if these people could build up closer links with Street Pastors, especially linking local Mothers’ Union groups with their prayer needs.

If you feel you are in a position to help in this way, please contact us as soon as possible using the link in the bottom right of this site.

We think that such a link is already possible in Basingstoke through a Mother’s Union member whose daughter is involved in the Street Pastor scheme. Members from Basingstoke who will be attending the Festival Service will be returning on their mini-bus with flip-flops.

This appeal is in response to a presentation last week about Street Pastors who provide these items free to those who would otherwise walk home barefoot from nightclubs among the broken glass of our late night city streets.

After our Festival Service (at which Street Pastor groups will also be remembered in prayer), all the Flip-flops collected will be divided among local groups of Street Pastors.

For more information about Street Pastors, take a look at our previous posting!

Groups operate ecumenically with the support of their local police and council, as an ‘urban trinity’, moving among young people on the streets late at night in some of the hottest spots for drunken, offensive and dangerous behaviour. In small groups they seek to transform the spiritual climate of the streets by providing help to those struggling home after a night out, supporting those they find distressed, and diffusing situations before they become violent. To do this go armed with only the love of God, a few basic bits of first aid equipment and spare pairs of flip-flops (for girls whose shoes have become too painful to walk in!)

Three groups of Street Pastors are now operating in the region covered by the Diocese of Winchester: in Basingstoke, Eastleigh and Fair Oak. A new group is being launched in Southampton later this month.

If you live near to one of these groups, please make contact with them and support them in prayer, as they need this to surround their work every night they operate (usually Friday and/or Saturday nights). If you live outside our region, please look at http://www.streetpastors.co.uk/ to discover which groups operate in your area.

More details of what it takes to be a Street Pastor, the training required and the impact of these groups on the night-life of our towns and cities, is available at their national website (see above), and will be featured in the next issue of our ‘Archway’ magazine, due out in July.