Isle of Wight Street Pastors are supporting “Reclaim the Night” again this year.  Download the poster here for . . . → Read More: Reclaim the Night]]>

Isle of Wight Street Pastors are supporting “Reclaim the Night” again this year.  Download the poster here for more details

We have a series of exciting events coming up where you can find out more about what Street Pastors do and be one of the first to hear tracks from our new CD “Perfect Sense of Worship”.

We now have fifty Street Pastors and many more people support us in a whole range of ways.  Come and . . . → Read More: Find out More + CD Launch]]>

We have a series of exciting events coming up where you can find out more about what Street Pastors do and be one of the first to hear tracks from our new CD “Perfect Sense of Worship”.

We now have fifty Street Pastors and many more people support us in a whole range of ways.  Come and find out why.

You can hear about what a Street Pastor does, how they are trained and the difference it makes to our streets having Street Pastors out and about.  We’ll update you on progress so far with expanding the scheme from Ryde into Newport and recently Ventnor.  There will be information on what’s next for Isle of Wight Street Pastors, and we’ll set out how you could be involved, from becoming a Street Pastor or prayer pastor to becoming one of our regular financial supporters.

We’ll have live music with Street Pastor co-ordinator David Ouston playing tracks from the new album “Perfect Sense of Worship” and you can be among the very first to buy the new CD which will (hopefully!!) arrive just days before the first event. David will also explain why he wrote the songs and how he has been inspired by the people he has met on the streets of the Isle of Wight.  All income from the sale of CDs will go towards the work of Isle of Wight Street Pastors.

Whatever your interests in Street Pastors these should be great evenings, so whether you already know you want to apply to be a Street Pastor or you’d just like to find out what Street Pastors is all about, come along to:

Castlehold Baptist Church, Newport – Sunday 6th November 2012 (map)

The Apex Church, Cowes – Sunday 13th November 2011 (map)

St John’s Church, Ryde – Sunday 20th November 2011 (map)

St Catherine’s Church, Ventnor – Sunday 27th November 2011 (map)

In this edition:

Our third commissioning service was held in Ventnor on June 3rd to celebrate the commissioning of 15 new Street Pastors, and the graduation of 15 street pastors who had completed a year’s service. There were also about 20 prayer pastors commissioned on that . . . → Read More: More Street Pastors Commissioned]]> It’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog as we’ve been so busy!

Our third commissioning service was held in Ventnor on June 3^rd to celebrate the commissioning of 15 new Street Pastors, and the graduation of 15 street pastors who had completed a year’s service. There were also about 20 prayer pastors commissioned on that night too.  It was a fantastic evening, and great to see the new recruits starting out on their exciting journey as Street Pastors on the Island.

We now have 52 street pastors from 28 different churches, and approximately 50 prayer pastors. This means we can now have a team out every Friday night in Newport and Ryde, and a team every fortnight in Ventnor, plus we have a team going out once a month on a Saturday night in various locations.   This expansion means we will be helping a lot more people across the Island, and working in communities who haven’t benefitted from Street Pastors before.  This is great news, and big thanks must go to all the dedicated volunteer Street Pastors and Prayer Pastors for all their hard work, as well as to our many funders.  We are planning more expansion of Street Pastors just as soon as finances and supply of willing volunteers allow.

We also were on patrol for all 3 of the Isle of Wight Festival  nights, the opening night of the Island games and Ryde regatta.  We’ll also be out during Cowes week again this year.

If you are interested in becoming a Street Pastor, there will be another round of training early in 2012, and it’s certainly not too early to express your interest in joining us.  We are also actively looking for more Prayer Pastors to support us.  Just get in touch if you want to know more.

We also still need more support financially.  Regular givers are crucial to keeping Isle of Wight Street Pastors going.  If you can give each month you will help us get more Street Pastors out providing help and support to people where and when they need it.  You can download a form to complete and return here.

Tickets £6 (£4 concessions) available from the Box Office, Medina Theatre Tel. 527020 or online at www.medinatheatre.co.uk

Proceeds to: Street Pastors, IOW YFC & Love Russia Start Time: 19:30 Date: 2011-05-06

. . . → Read More: Isle of Wight Gospel Choir and Friends]]> Title: Isle of Wight Gospel Choir and Friends
Location: Medina Theatre
Link out: Click here
Description: An evening with the
Isle of Wight Gospel Choir & friends
with
STOP
IOW Youth for Christ Band
Renaissance Choir
Tim & Patience Wells

Tickets £6 (£4 concessions)
available from the Box Office, Medina Theatre
Tel. 527020 or online at www.medinatheatre.co.uk

Proceeds to: Street Pastors, IOW YFC & Love Russia
Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2011-05-06

There was a real diversity of stall holders there. The police, Fire Service, Environmental Health, Prison Service right through to Victim Support, . . . → Read More: Partners Against Crime]]> On February 12^th 2011, we were once again invited by the Isle of Wight  Community Safety Partnership to have a stall at the Partners against Crime road show, which was held at Medina High School.

There was a real diversity of stall holders there. The police, Fire Service, Environmental Health, Prison Service right through to Victim Support, The Gay Lesbian and Bi-Sexual support group, Domestic Abuse team, Neighbourhood watch and even the Community Chef. It was a wonderful day really showcasing how many people on the Isle of Wight really care about their local community and how they are trying to make it a safer, more supported place to live.

They estimate about 700 people came on the day, although it felt like many more than that to me. We had many fantastic conversations with the public, some who knew all about us, and many that had never heard of us. Lots of people did make a point of coming up to me and thanking us for our presence on the streets and wishing us well for the future. Indeed quite a few people came up and thanked us because we had helped them personally. It was real confirmation that we are being very well accepted by the people in our towns.

Some of the delights that await . . . → Read More: Spring/Summer 2011 Newsletter]]> The Spring/Summer edition of the Isle of Wight Street Pastors newsletter is now available.  You can view/download an electronic version here or look out for the printed version in local churches and elsewhere.  If you have an outlet for distributing newsletters and would like to receive a batch please contact us.  You can also download past newsletters on our downloads page.

Some of the delights that await within this edition’s pages are:

Pastors Praised by Community Safety Partnership

The Isle of Wight Community Safety Partnership is a group drawn from the three main emergency services and aims to find better ways of keeping Islanders safe.  They are clear that Street Pastors have a positive impact on crime and anti-social behaviour issues:  “One agency that has had a profound effect upon (our) strategic objectives…is the ‘Street Pastor’ scheme.”   >>>read more

What Street Pastors do

Happy New Year

A phrase that’s heard over and over again at the start of each year, but New Year often starts in less than happy circumstances, with many people ending up spending the start of a fresh year in the gutter or a police cell.  Street Pastors were out in record numbers for this year’s New Year celebration to try and make sure everyone had a happy and safe start to the New Year.   >>>read more

Help Street Pastors

While all the Street Pastors are volunteers and give their time freely, we still have a range of other costs, and rely on voluntary donations to keep going.  We are particularly grateful to our regular donors who give £10 a month and ensure we can keep helping people on the streets each week.   >>>read more

A phrase that’s heard over and over again at the start of each year, but New Year often starts in less than happy circumstances, with many people ending up spending the start of a fresh year in the gutter or a police cell.  Street Pastors were out in record numbers for this year’s New . . . → Read More: Happy New Year]]> Happy New Year

A phrase that’s heard over and over again at the start of each year, but New Year often starts in less than happy circumstances, with many people ending up spending the start of a fresh year in the gutter or a police cell.  Street Pastors were out in record numbers for this year’s New Year Celebration to try and make sure everyone had a happy and safe start to the New Year.

As well as our regular patrols in Newport and Ryde, three teams were out in Cowes, which always sees a huge influx of revellers on New Year’s Eve.  All the teams had a busy night, and made a real difference out there.

We saw a young woman looking lost and on her own. “Good evening, are you ok”, we asked , “No not really” she replied. “I’ve been split up from my friends and they are all at the Anchor, and I don’t know where that is.” “Would you like us to walk with you to find them?” we asked. Very gratefully she accepted our offer, saying that she wasn’t comfortable walking through the town on her own. She took a chocolate, and we walked together to find her friends. Re-united she thanked us and we move on. We see 2 groups of lads shouting at each other.  With a big smile we offer one group some lollipops saying how we didn’t want them to get into trouble tonight. After a minute or so, they are laughing and joking with us and give us a big hug.

These two interactions appear fairly simple and low-key.  Irrelevant almost.  The reality is that collectively these encounters lead to genuine change.  A young ladies evening was saved through a simple action that enabled her to get back to her evening’s fun without having to feel unsafe along the way.  The early intervention to diffuse anger and aggression potentially stopped a situation escalating into violence, injury, damage to property and diversion of the police from other activities.  Instead we had the opportunity to talk to this group of lads, relate with the real people under the “laddish” masks.

These changes are hard to quantify – how many fights do we stop?  How many people do we leave happier then before we met them?  What we do know is that crime has dropped in the areas Street Pastors operate, people report feeling safer with Street Pastors around, the police are adamant that we have a genuine positive effect.

If you’ve had a positive experience of Street Pastors, if a Street Pastor has made your life better in some way, please let us know.  We always love to hear back from people.  You can use the contact form on the website, comment on this post, or chat with us on Facebook or Twitter.

So, all that’s left is to wish you a happy, safe and fun year.  Let’s make our streets better places to bel in 2011.

All the Street Pastors give their time freely – around 100 hours a year each – but there are many other costs involved in running the scheme.   We have received support through various grants, awards and donations, but rely on individuals giving regularly each month to keep . . . → Read More: Help Transform our Towns]]> Street Pastors are making a real difference on our streets.

All the Street Pastors give their time freely – around 100 hours a year each – but there are many other costs involved in running the scheme.   We have received support through various grants, awards and donations, but rely on individuals giving regularly each month to keep Street Pastors going.

We have big plans to expand our work, but need help to achieve this. If you think you could help Street Pastors to transform our streets by giving £10 each month to support our work, then please download, complete and return one of our individual giving forms.

If you can’t commit to giving regularly you can make a donation online. If you’re not in a position to support us financially though, you can still contribute. Encourage one of the volunteer Street Pastors – whether you see them at church on a Sunday, at work in the week, or on the streets on Friday night. Pray for us, and the people we seek to help. Tell your friends about Street Pastors.

“Street Pastors have had a particularly positive effect around the issue of alcohol related crime in ‘hotspots’…deployment of Street Pastors and the way they operate have reduced the number of Police (and) Ambulance calls to these areas and allowed them to focus on dealing with more serious incidents.” (Chair, Community Safety Partnership”.

“Our tactics for policing the island’s town centres at weekends are based on preventing potential problems from escalating into crimes. The skills of (Street Pastors) reinforce our work in identifying situations where people are at risk of becoming victims or being arrested because of their behaviour.” (Inspector Terry Clawson)

“We notice the difference on Saturday when you’re not here” (Pub Manager, Newport)

“Street Pastors , got great respect for you guys” (Shouted from window as SPs passed)

In a gloomy economic climate and with local and central government cuts starting to bite the people who can make a real difference are us. You and me, together. Street Pastors is one small start in the community taking seriously the principle of “Love Your Neighbour as Yourself” and applying that in a way that will transform our streets.