Official launch for Caithness Street Pastors initiative
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Street pastors will soon be offering help and support to the public in Caithness following the official launch of the initiative in Thurso.
St Peter and the Holy Rood Church hosted the well-attended event as Highland councillor Matthew Reiss and Police Scotland's Inspector Alasdair Goskirk endorsed the scheme and wished the pastors well in the challenges they face.
Street pastors go out in the evenings to help those who find themselves distressed. The volunteers will engage with people with mental health issues and victims of sexual assault and stalking, as well as rough sleepers, and although they will be mainly patrolling Wick and Thurso they will also help people attending events in other parts of the county.
Street pastors wear branded jackets and caps and carry backpacks containing flip-flops for women who have taken off their high heels because their feet are sore, Spikeys, a type of plastic bottle stopper to guard against date-rape incidents, and foil blankets for people who are cold.
They offer worse-for-wear revellers hot drinks, chocolate and lollipops to try and help them maintain their blood sugar levels, and are able to deal with many low-level situations that ordinarily would be handled by the police, such as calming down people who are being rowdy.
The catalyst for Caithness Street Pastors came from Alan Finch, who now coordinates the scheme locally. He served as a street pastor in Aberdeen for eight years and was on hand to bring to life the initiative which, according to Sandy Scrimgeour, chief executive of Ascension Trust Scotland, the umbrella organisation for Scotland's street pastors, had been "just bubbling away" for many years in Caithness until the right person came along.
At last Wednesday's launch, and following an opening prayer from Eamon Rice, a deacon at the Wick Baptist Church, the Rev Ellie Charman, of the Scottish Episcopal Church in Wick and Thurso, spoke of her days being a pastor. She emphasised that they were there not to preach but to listen and support.
Church members Margaret Finch and Ann Macarthur gave a short talk about how they got involved in the street pastor scheme and the work that they do, while the background to the church's involvement in pastoring was given by Mr Scrimgeour, himself a pastor for 12 years.
Caithness is the 24th area in Scotland to start street pastors and the local volunteers will be among 14,000 pastors in the UK who have given one million hours of free service in the past year.
Street pastors are drawn from local churches of different denominations and they generally patrol areas where bars and clubs are located on Friday and Saturday nights.
Those volunteering to take part will receive around 50 hours of extensive training covering first aid and skills that will help them provide a listening ear to people who are traumatised or distressed.
To meet the criteria, volunteers need to be 18 and have attended church for a least a year. All potential street pastors, as well as members of the management team, will have to become registered through the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme.
The teams, of at least three people, will offer reassurance, safety and support and will provide help where they can, while minimising the risks to themselves.
