Street pastors in good Company
GUARDIAN angels who patrol Torbay's club land have come out top in Company Magazine's Get Home Safely Awards.
Torbay Street Pastors is the winner in the national campaign to make Saturday nights out safer.
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Delighted coordinator Ros Ede said: "This is really the age group that we help the most so it is really special to be recognised by them in such a high profile magazine.
Volunteer street pastor Zoe Yates, 31, nominated the scheme.
The Torbay Hospital radiology support worker said that she sometimes shocked at the vulnerability of some clubbers on a Saturday night.
"Sometimes we have quiet nights but there are other times when you intervene when a stranger tries to get into a cab with a woman and you know you have made the difference.
"It is amazing to part of a team that is out there looking out for people's best interests."
Cosmopolitan was impressed when the street pastors came to the aid of a 22-year-old who was being followed when she decided to save the taxi fare and instead walk home.
She was assisted by four street pastors who asked if she was OK, sending the stranger on his way.
Ros said: "Stories like these are quite common. We accompany women home or to a taxi and we take holiday makers to their hotel.
"We have had girls being stalked and they have approached us and we have managed to get them home safely.
"When we see them getting into a taxi and getting home safely, we know we have done our job."
The street pastors patrol busy nightspots between 10pm and 4am on Friday and Saturdays.
It has been running for less than two years and already has 66 volunteers.
Trainee Street Pastors from all over he country are sent to Torbay to learn from the scheme.
4 Comments
by Sara, Torquay
Tuesday, October 27 2009, 12:56PM
“Well said, MaryG.
So Street Pastors is an organisation set up by churchgoers? There's nothing at all to stop 'Innocent Bystander' 'setting up his own organisation, with any membershop qualifications he cares to impose.
The simple fact is that the street pastors help anyone who needs it, regardless of faith, colour, creed, or any other criteria you could think of.
They are completely un-judgmental in the help and advice they provide. Unlike 'Innocent Bystander'.”
by MaryG, Torquay
Tuesday, October 27 2009, 11:15AM
“Maybe the fact the Pastors are Christians is why they voluntarily go out on the streets to help others. I don't think before doing so they would ask that person whether they were gay, muslim or whatever. It's a charitable service offered I would imagine with no strings attached. Perhaps if anyone has been assisted by a pastor they could either support or contradict my comment. Why when anybody tries to help another does it have to be analysed and dissected trying to find an ulterior motive? Some people are just good and no I'm not a churchgoer”
by B, Torbay
Tuesday, October 27 2009, 11:13AM
“Well done the Street Pastors!”
by Innocent Bystander, Torre
Tuesday, October 27 2009, 9:42AM
“While Street Pastors are fairly harmless, it needs to be recognised that they cannot be in receipt of public funding. In other parts of the country Council grants have been withdrawn as the Pastors openly discriminate against people of other faiths and of no religious belief.
Even if they don¿t openly proselytise, Street Pastors are only recruited from "individuals with a Christian Faith" and are only open to those "whose relationship lifestyle is in keeping with mainstream Christian teaching" ¿ i.e. no atheists, humanists, Muslims, Jews, gays or lesbians, or people 'living in sin'.
Accordingly, public bodies such as the Council and the Police need to take care when dealing with organisations that don¿t recruit volunteers equally and which deny membership to the majority of Torbay¿s population.”