Street Pastors from across South Yorkshire are coming together to celebrate five years of patrolling the streets of South Yorkshire.

For over five years volunteers from numerous churches across South Yorkshire have gone out at night to care for people on the streets by listening and offering practical help. This Wednesday, 15th July, they are coming together to celebrate this ministry.

The celebration will take place at 7.30pm at the Mañana-Mañana Club in Lazarus Court in Doncaster. Rather than holding the celebration in a church, the Street Pastors decided to hold their celebration in a night club as this represents the area in which the Street Pastors work, and demonstrates the support that Street Pastors offer to those who work in the night time economy as well as to those who frequent the various pubs and clubs as their customers.

Although completely independent of the police and local authorities, Street Pastors work in close partnership with them both, together with the licensees, venue managers and security staff who work in the night time economy, to make our town centres safer places to go to enjoy an evening out at the week-end.

The guest speaker at the celebration on 15th July will be Eustace Constance, who is the Operations Manager with the Ascension Trust, under whose license all Street Pastor initiatives operate.

The celebration will be attended by Rev Dr Alan Billings, the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, who will give a word of encouragement to the Street Pastors. Superintendent Natalie Shaw and other senior officers from South Yorkshire Police will attend, as will Inspector Tracy Metcalf from British Transport Police.

Also in attendance will be Councillor Ros Jones, the elected Mayor of Doncaster, Councillor Paul Wray, the Civic Mayor of Doncaster, with his Mayoress Mrs Elizabeth Marsden, and Councillor John McHale from DMBC, in whose ward the Doncaster Street Pastors operate.

Malcolm Meek from Full Effects Security, which provides many of the door security staff in Doncaster, will also attend, as will representatives of Doncaster Pubwatch

Street Pastors operate across South Yorkshire as four independent initiatives operating in Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield.

Teams of trained volunteer Street Pastors patrol the streets during the weekends, typically from 10.00 pm to between 3.00 am or 4.00am as the need demands, helping and supporting people on nights out, such as those who have had too much to drink or have become separated from their friends.

The coordinators from the four initiatives meet together regularly to coordinate activities and volunteers from all four initiatives train together on a regular basis.

If you are interested in finding out more about the work of Street Pastors, contact the local coordinator in your town (Barnsley : 07581 412405, Doncaster : 07763 167311, Rotherham : 07739 638457, Sheffield : 07931 562442) or go to www.streetpastors.org and follow the “Our Network” link.