This was the slightly slurred greeting to our team on patrol from a young man recently. Or part of it – some repetition and words of emphasis have been omitted! He insisted on shaking our hands and thanking us for being there to keep an eye out for people like him. This is something our volunteers are encouraged by every time they go out as we seek to build up a regular Friday night presence in Manchester City Centre.

We are nodded to, waved at, greeted, thanked, and some great conversations can result. We would love to do more. Recently a request from a night club to be outside when vulnerable young people were leaving, sometimes on their own, had to be turned down as the club was outside our patrol area and we cannot stretch any further. Now, with more volunteers…