Inverness Street Pastors launch

Inverness is the latest city to have a team of Street Pastors drawn from local churches and working on the city streets at the weekends.
Thursday 17 January 2008 saw the initiative formally launched in Inverness Town House with senior police officers, deputy provost, councillors, drugs and alcohol forum and invited guests.

The team of street pastors is led by Mark Hatfield of Inverness Community Church along with leaders from four other local churches.
Members of the team are drawn from churches across the city and they are due to "hit the streets" on Friday 25 January offering support and care to people in the city centre between 10pm and 3am.

Inverness will initially have 22 Street Pastors who will work in teams of 4 every Friday from 10pm to 3am and initially also one Saturday per month. They will work in partnership with community groups, the Police and The Highland Council. Training started last August for the 22 volunteers who will be identifiable by their uniforms and ID badges.

The Street Pastors initiative started in the London Boroughs in 2003 as a direct response to increased violent crime and antisocial behaviour. Results showed marked improvements, so much so that the initiative is running in 55 locations around the UK, although this will be only the second to be set up in Scotland. Aberdeen launched their scheme a few months ago and Perth will be launched later this year.

Mark said: “The volunteers are all unpaid people who care about Inverness and its people. They come from 11 different local churches in the area, representing a broad spectrum of denominations. The Street Pastor is there to get to know people in the community and to build relationships with them to find out their needs and what can be done for them.”

On behalf of the Provost, Councillor Ian Brown attended the launch and met with the volunteers. Welcoming the initiative he said: