Eastleigh Street pastors have been on the streets since 10 July 2009. We initially had 19 people trained. One has recently stood down, but 6 more have been trained and were commissioned on 23rd April 2010 (five of whom are in the picture above). We also recently held our first AGM. A presentation given there can be found in the links to the right of this page. At that meeting Chris Harvey stood down as chair of Eastleigh Street Pastors with the Revd Tony Parkinson taking on the role.
With the new trainees we have now started to try and cover later on a Friday evening for two weeks in four. On weeks with one team on we are out from around 8.30pm to 12.30am. On weeks with two teams we have one team out early from around 8.00 to 11.30pm and one from around 11.30pm to between 2.30 and 3.00am.
If you are interested in becoming a Street Pastor please contact the co-ordinator Steve Smallwood. While Eastleigh don't have any immediate plans to run more training it is hoped that training can be co-ordinated across the Solent/South Hampshire area later in the year.
Eastleigh Street Pastors came into being following meetings between the churches in 2008, and the success of Street Pastors in our neighbouring area Fair Oak. Our launch event took place on 30 January 2009 at the Litten Tree pub (see video below). This venue was chosen as it is at the heart of the town centre, to be neutral so that the project is not seen to be driven by any one church, and to demonstrate our commitment to being out in the community. Finance is in place with many thanks to the generous support from our partners Hampshire Police and Eastleigh Borough Council, as well as from the local churches involved. Do contact us if you would like to know more. The commissioning service for the first Eastleigh Street Pastors was held on 3rd July 2009 at Eastleigh Baptist Church. On the 10 July the first patrol went out onto the Streets of Eastleigh. A document with a report of the first night is available as a link on the right hand side of this page. A photograph taken after the commissioning service and of the first team out are in the photo album. A short video montage of the launch event and the first training series can be found below. A DVD of the commissioning service is available from the co-ordinator. |