Training and Pride weekend

We want to keep growing.  We continue to get a team out every Friday night.  We have just completed a new training course and hope to start another one later this year.

This weekend, Pride, 2 & 3 August, we had teams out on Friday and Saturday, both busy nights.  The Friday team had good conversations with the many revellers in the city and with the police.  On Saturday, it was hard to move in some places, the crowds were so big.  The atmosphere was great.  We had to take to Safe Space several people who were not at all well through excessive drinking.  Safe Space is a brilliant facility run by YMCA Downslink staffed by para-medics as well as amazing volunteers.  Several people expressed their appreciation for what we do.

BBC Radio Sussex

On 19th July, I was on BBC Sussex Radio, Neil Pringle’s show, at about 8.30am, when I was able to say a little about our work in Brighton & Hove.  You can hear it again on BBC Sounds.

News from Plymouth

Recently, a Plymouth Street Pastor had a long conversation with a couple of former rough sleepers who had spent many years in several cities throughout the UK.  When he said that he was a Street Pastor in Plymouth, one of the men’s eyes lit up; he said that he had met many Street Pastors.  On several occasions, he believed he had been saved by Street Pastors who helped him by simply being willing to be beside him, sitting quietly and listening while he had talked and offloaded his troubles and worries about his past and future.  He said something like, “You Street Pastors give your time to be there for whoever needs to be helped, to be loved. You saved me by being there when I thought there was no one who cared, no one who would want to bother with me”.

I like to think that one of the cities was Brighton; certainly, that’s what we try to do for our rough sleepers.