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Street Pastors

The Church in action on the streets

A growing number of cities and towns in the UK have "Street Pastors" in their town centres on weekend nights from late evening into the early hours, to give care and assistance to young "clubbers" and others who may need some help.  Christians on the streets (trained, and identified by "Street Pastor" clothing) can deal with people in ways that the Police are unable to.  In places where Street Pastors are active, crime decreases in those areas at that time. 

Street Pastors in Harlow

In Harlow the churches together launched Street Pastors in September 2010.  The project has the full support of the local and county Police and of Harlow Council.

If you would like to get involved as a Street Pastor volunteer you will need to be sponsored by your church and be prepared to give, as a minimum, one night every 4 weeks to serve in this way.

There are costs for training and clothing which you will need to provide.

Now One Year Old!

In the first year of patrols, the Harlow team have engaged in conversations or prayer with 167 men and 63 women, helped 42 men and 63 women get home and gave first aid assistance to 62 people.

They have handed out 96 pairs of flip flops and 22 "space blankets" and cleaned up 400 bottles and 137 glasses from streets in the town centre.

Sergeant Chris Gould of Essex Police said -

"The team’s "immeasurable" efforts had helped slash the number of incidents of anti-social behaviour in the town centre on Friday and Saturday nights by 17 per cent."