Plans to introduce street pastors in Caithness moving forward
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PLANS to have street pastors patrolling the town centres in Caithness took a step forward this week following a meeting in Wick.
Caithness Street Pastors coordinator Alan Finch said that Monday's meeting at the Baptist Church had been positive, with a launch date towards the middle of next month agreed.
He said a number of churches in Wick, Thurso and Castletown had already come on board with the initiative, along with Police Scotland, local councillors and politicians.
Mr Finch, who was a street pastor himself in Aberdeen for eight years, said the response to having the volunteer-based initiative operating within the county had been good.
Sandy Scrimgeour, chief executive of Ascension Trust Scotland, the umbrella organisation of the initiative, travelled up for the meeting.
He said one of the aims of the visit was to help get the management team organised as well as make sure people locally were happy with what they were signing up to.
Mr Scrimgeour said: "Street Pastors is about local people addressing local issues. We don't go to them, they come to us. The three key words are listen, care and help."
Although they go out with the "gospel in their hearts", he said their primary aim was to provide practical care.
Pointing out that the idea for street pastors in Caithness had first come up a number of years ago, Mr Scrimgeour said: "It has been just bubbling away until the right person came along."
Local coordinator Mr Finch said: "I was the catalyst. I am keen and would like to make sure it gets off the ground. I am hopeful that we'll get eight people from Wick and eight from Thurso to go through the first stage of training."
If all goes to plan the first street pastors in Caithness should be in operation by the summer.
To meet the criteria, volunteers need to be over 18 and have attended church for at least a 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.
They 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.
The teams, of at least three people, will offer reassurance, safety, support and provide help where they can, while minimising the risks to themselves.
The local coordinator, a lay preacher with the Episcopal churches in Wick and Thurso, pointed out that the initiative could operate differently in the two towns, with possible evening patrols in Wick carried out in some residential areas from 6-10pm.
"We can help the police by taking the pressure off them," Mr Finch said.
At the first meeting held in the Wick Baptist Church last November, the Rev Sandy Gunn, a director of Ascension Trust Scotland, outlined the work of the street pastors and explained how it might work in Caithness.
Mr Gunn, a former minister at Pulteneytown and Thrumster Church, stressed the importance of listening and said volunteers will engage with people with mental health issues and victims of sexual assault and stalking, as well as rough sleepers.
He pointed out that although volunteers would be mainly patrolling Wick and Thurso they would do their best to help people in distress attending events in other parts of the community.
They 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.
Volunteers offer worse-for-wear revellers hot drinks, chocolate and lollipops to try and help them maintain their blood sugar levels.
Street pastors 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.
Anyone in Caithness interested in volunteering should contact alan.finch@maydayconsulting.co.uk
