Harrow Street Pastors was officially launched on 26th January 2012, and we did our first intrepid patrol on 17th February, which I can still remember vividly.

Twelve years on there are now 25 fully trained Street Pastors and we are able to patrol six times per month. We have expanded the number of patrols to match volunteer availability. We patrol the streets of Harrow and Wealdstone on Friday nights from 10:00pm to 2:00am and occasional Saturday afternoons from 2:00pm to 6:00pm with the aim of “caring, listening and helping” those in the community that we meet. We patrol in the main town centre area of Harrow and along the main road to Wealdstone. We have kit bags to respond to individuals needs (flip-flops, blanket, water, lollipops etc), and signposting information to local services.

We have now been operating for twelve years, and it has been a real privilege to work as part of a team of enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers from all wings of the Christian Church. Without the many significant contributions from over 40 individuals from 23 churches we would not be able to perform this service of simply ‘listening, caring and helping’ on the streets of Harrow and being the church on the streets.

Statistics for 2023:

• 71 Street Pastor patrols.
• 881 volunteer hours out on patrol.
• 507 volunteer hours of prayer support.
• 103 people helped on the streets.
• 62 lots of broken glass swept up.
• 2 anti-social incidents attended.
• 48 referrals made for people to be signposted to other organisations (e.g. homeless/drug support/hospital etc.).

Of the 48 people we have been able to signpost to other organisations many of them have been homeless people in real need of help. We have referred most of them to StreetLink, and in the winter months have worked directly with FirmFoundation who run the winter night shelter. We are also working more closely with Harrow Council by participating in the annual ‘Rough Sleeper Count’ and being involved in the Single Homelessness Forum and Housing Strategy.

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