About Us

Portsmouth Street & School Pastors

Street Pastors (Portsmouth) is a registered charity (No: 1120012) and company (No: 06196054) which develops and coordinates teams of Christians who volunteer their time to visit Portsmouth’s night time economy and secondary schools. Street Pastors (Portsmouth) employs a small number of part time staff to coordinate the street and school pastor initiative and provide administrative duties, and is governed by a board of trustees, while coming under the umbrella of The Ascension Trust. 

Portsmouth Street Pastors

Origins

Portsmouth Street Pastors first launched in 2007 as a response from Portsmouth’s churches to prayerfully seek opportunities to come together and be the hands and feet of Jesus in the night time economy of our city. We are still closely linked to the One Body Portsmouth group from which we were born.

Volunteers

Since 2007, hundreds of Christians from Portsmouth and beyond have spent time patrolling the city’s hotspots and supporting other events as trained volunteers. Some of our current team have been there from the beginning, while others are now training and taking their first observations in preparation to joining a team.

Volunteers complete one patrol every four weeks on average.

Patrols

Our volunteer teams visit night time economy hotspots in the city including Guildhall Walk and Guildhall Square (and sometimes Albert Road and Palmerston Road). These patrols normally take place between 10pm – 3am. In addition, Street Pastors are often requested to provide a presence at local festivals and events. In recent years this has included Victorious Festival and the D-Day 75th Anniversary celebrations.

During 2020, Street Pastors cooperated with local police and authorities by adapting the usual patrols to provide a presence along Southsea seafront, between Old Portsmouth and Eastney, as well as the Common and Palmerston Road. This took place across the summer to assist in engaging with local residents as they dealt with the anxieties and challenges of COVID-19.

Purpose

Our volunteers, with the support of Prayer Pastors, seek to provide a listening, caring and helpful presence. Practically, this includes supporting people who have lost their friends, are struggling due to alcohol or drugs intake, are experiencing upset or pain, or appear to be under threat and vulnerable in their current state. Spiritually, we are patrolling under the guidance and protection of the Holy Spirit, sharing the heart of Jesus Christ through our actions and words, to provide a calming presence where it is needed most.

Support and Security

Every new volunteer will take part in official training which is overseen by The Ascension Trust, and organised at the national, regional or local level. Training sessions, which include a combination of online and in-person events include:

  • Roles & Responsibilities
  • Safeguarding
  • Active Listening
  • Mental Health
  • School Pastors and Youth Cultures
  • Drugs & Alcohol Awareness
  • Safety on the Streets
  • A Biblical Basis for Street Pastors

All volunteers are required to complete a refresher training session at least every 3 years from first being licensed. Each volunteer provides a church leader and general reference, and carries a DBS certification which has been registered within the last 3 years.

Impact

In 2024 we recorded 4,988 ‘contacts’ counted during patrols through conversation and help, which was made up of:

  • 145 incidents of alcohol or substance
  • 44 vulnerable people
  • 74 potentially agressive situations requiring ‘active’ or ‘passive calming’
  • 97 faith conversations

We also collected 5,252 discarded bottles and cans and handed out 94 pairs of flip-flops plus numerous water bottles.

Portsmouth School Pastors

Origins

With Portsmouth Street Pastors well established, we were seeing a growing need for a similar presence in Portsmouth’s secondary schools. In 2016, 5 newly trained and licensed volunteers completed their first visit to Charter Academy in the city centre. In 2018, with a growing volunteer base, 2 of the original team members joined another 2 new volunteers to begin visits to Miltoncross Academy to the east of the city. In 2020, school patrols were stopped during COVID and didn’t resume at Charter afterwards.

Volunteers

At the beginning of 2025, we had 6 trained volunteers visiting Miltoncross at lunch and break times. Our teams of between 3- 4 come from a range of local churches, , with a range of ages and different life and career experiences. We are actively recruiting new School Pastors because we have been invited to patrol again in Ark Charter Academy from September 2025.

Patrols

Our normal visits currently include Tuesday break times at Miltoncross. These visits are spent walking around the school communal areas, such as playgrounds, canteen areas and libraries, and enjoying conversation with familiar and new faces.

Purpose

Our volunteers, with the support of Prayer Pastors, seek to provide friendship, safety and care to the whole school community. We are there as an impartial, non-judgemental adult presence, happy to talk about whatever is on children and staff members’ minds. This can range from introductions and light jokes, through to the very real anxieties and challenges of being a young person or teacher today. We do not promise to ‘keep secrets’ to those who talk with us (and maintaining open links with safeguarding personnel), but we do aim to provide trustworthy support where it is needed.

Support and Security

Every new volunteer will take part in official training which is overseen by The Ascension Trust, and organised at the national, regional or local level. Training sessions, which include a combination of online and in-person events include:

  • Roles & Responsibilities (joining with either Street or School Pastors for their first training session)
  • Safeguarding
  • Active Listening
  • Mental Health
  • Youth Cultures
  • Drugs & Alcohol Awareness

All volunteers are required to complete a refresher training session at least every 3 years from first being licensed. Each volunteer provides a church leader and general reference, and carries a DBS certification which has been registered within the last 3 years.

Impact

In 2019, we recorded 6,063 ‘interactions’ across the 2 schools, which was made up of:

  • 135 visits
  • 3,645 greetings with staff and teachers
  • 2,418 conversations with students

Portsmouth PRAYER Pastors

Origins

With prayer being a vital part of our ministry, Prayer Pastors have been part of our work right from our beginning in Portsmouth in 2007.

Volunteers

At the beginning of 2025, we had 27 Prayer Pastors praying for our teams. Some have been with us for many years, but quite a few are recent recruits.

Patrols

Our Prayer Pastors pray in different ways and at different times. Some are on a WhatsApp group, which receives live updates from the Street Pastors when they are out on patrol on a Friday and Saturday night – we have a small group of brave Prayer Pastors who stay up through the night to pray for things as they happen. Others read the group messages the next day and pray about the issues raised by the team. All Prayer Pastors receive our weekly reports from both Street and School Pastors, as well as a weekly prayer suggestion email.

Purpose

Prayer is the unseen key to the success of every ministry of the church. As we aim to be light in the darkness, our Prayer Pastors provide spiritual protection, direction and blessing upon our teams, both on the streets and in the schools. The importance of this ministry cannot be overstated!!

Support and Security

In the past, there was little training given to Prayer Pastors. Now, we encourage every Prayer Pastor to undertake some training, but we do appreciate that not everybody can manage all of these things. The official training is overseen by The Ascension Trust and organised at the local level. We encourage our new Prayer Pastors to do as many of the following as possible:

  • Roles & Responsibilities (for either Street or School Pastors, depending on who you pray for)
  • Prayer Training (delivered locally on a Saturday)
  • Go out as an observer with either a Street Patrol or a School Patrol (depending on who you pray for)

All volunteers are required to provide a church leader reference.

Impact

It’s not really possible to measure the impact of prayer using numbers, but members of the team can share many testimonies about prayers that have been miraculously answered. One of those was a prayer request for somebody who had lost their bag with all their ID & money in and the Street Pastor patrol found the bag only minutes later! We know the time invested in prayer will have brought about many miracles that we never find out about, because prayer is powerful and God answers prayers.