Aberdeen Street Pastors
Aberdeen Street Pastors is part of an inter-denominational church response to urban problems; engaging with people on the streets to listen, care and help. It was pioneered in London in January 2003 by Rev. Les Isaac, OBE.
In 2007, following discussions with Police, Aberdeen City Council, city churches and Aberdeen Inspired (the business community) and in response to violence and crime at night in Aberdeen city centre; Aberdeen Street Pastors was formed. Our management team retains strong links with our partner organisations in the city.
Street Pastors, all volunteers, are trained before going out onto the city streets from 10pm-4am each Friday and Saturday night. We are a Christian organisation and draw our volunteers from approximately 35 churches across the city and beyond. Our aims are to bring peace and a Christian presence to the streets of Aberdeen; building relationships in the night-time community and serving where we can.
We seek to listen to, care for and help those who are in need or have found themselves in difficulty. Where appropriate we offer prayer and we believe the Christian Gospel is relevant today and can speak into the lives of people who are burdened by some of their circumstances.
In addition we have a small team of School Pastors; supporting one of the city’s academies and its feeder primary schools.
In 2020, Aberdeen Street Pastors was awarded the Queens Award for Voluntary Services.
In 2022, we are celebrating 15 years of “gaan oot intae toon”. We welcome those coming into Aberdeen and hope you have a really enjoyable time. We hope you feel safe and remain in a good state. However, for those who perhaps are lost, or feeling vulnerable or perhaps a little worse-for-wear, we are available Friday & Saturday nights in the city to ‘listen, care and help’ as best as we can. We aim to have our ‘Safe Space’ truck in Union Street and a team walking around to support you. Hopefully, when we see you, it will be to say “Hi” and to hear how much you are enjoying yourselves but if not, we will endeavour to be there for you.
Aberdeen Street Pastors
Pete Turner
Director & Chair
Pete has been with Aberdeen Street Pastors since 2009 and took over as Chair of the Board in April 2022 where his main remit is oversight of governance and finance. He worked for thirty years as a geophysicist and geoscience manager in the oil & gas industry, followed by five years as part of his church finance team. Pete and his wife are planning their post-retirement adventures and they have four children who have flown the nest.
Hilary Cusiter
Office Manager
Hilary has been with Aberdeen Street Pastors since 2015. She joined Saturday Team 2 after training and is currently the Team Leader. Recently she took over the role of Office Manager for Aberdeen Street Pastors working 2 day per week in the office. She spent some 40 years working mainly in the Oil Industry as Secretary / PA / Office Manager. She is also involved with the administration of her church.
Adrian Rowett
Director & Coordinator
Adrian has been with Aberdeen Street Pastors since February 2014 and has served on the Board since February 2018. He is the Coordinator and is responsible for Operations, Recruitment & Training. He graduated from Imperial College in Engineering and worked in various major oil companies for 10 years. He studied part-time for an MBA in London and then spent 7 years with Barclays Bank on their Project Finance Team evaluating and monitoring the Bank’s investments in various developments. He then re-joined the oil industry and spent 23 years with major corporations in commercial and strategic planning roles. He retired from full time work in 2015 and now gives time to Street Pastors as Coordinator, to lecturing part-time at Robert Gordon University, and as an elder in a local independent church in Banchory. He is married with 3 children and enjoys time with his grandchildren.
Eleanor Forbes
Director
Eleanor has been with Aberdeen Street Pastors since it began in 2007. Over these years, in addition to being an active Street Pastors she was Volunteer Administrator for some time. She has been a team leader, recently stepping back and passing the team leader baton to Alan Law, who was her deputy for many years. She is also a member of the Management Team and a Directors of Aberdeen Street Pastors. In her professional life Eleanor was a nurse, midwife and nurse teacher. Much of her time in nurse education was in Aberdeen but also in Gloucestershire and Tayside. Eleanor was pleased, however, to be able to take early retirement from her post as Dean of Students at Dundee University. This opened up a new opportunity to serve as a pastoral assistant at Central Baptist Church in Dundee for 5 years. Her next move was a return to Aberdeenshire in 2005 when, in addition to joining Street Pastors she became a respite foster carer with Barnardos. Away from work, Eleanor enjoys hillwalking and has taken on some big challenges including a trek to Everest Base Camp raising funds for Street Pastors.
Stefan Heller
Director
Stefan worked in the oil industry for 40 years, mostly focused on the business development of relatively small service companies. Twice he was the first marketing guy hired by companies run by engineers and manufacturers. In the final 12 years of his career, he served as a country manager, regional director, and company shareholder. Today he considers it is a privilege to be part of the Aberdeen Street Pastors Board and Management team and to help maintain – and where possible, improve – services and relationships that the organisation has developed over the last 15 years.