What do City Pastors do?
City Pastors is an initiative that involves volunteers from local churches working in partnership with Birmingham’s Westside & Southside Business Improvement Districts to ensure that the city is a safe and vibrant environment for everyone who visits.
Since November 2010, the team of around 60 volunteers has been serving the night-time economy (NTE) every Friday and Saturday night. They provide a calming, caring presence in the city and work alongside Street Wardens, paramedics, Police, and door staff. The volunteers offer support to clubbers, diners, concert-goers, homeless people, tourists, and anyone else they encounter on the street who might become vulnerable.
Depending on their location, each volunteer will cover a shift when they are able to on a Friday or Saturday evening. On Westside, this is from 10:00 pm to 01:00 am, and on Southside, it is from 09:00 pm to midnight. The teams work as two mixed pairs patrolling the areas where the nightlife is most active.
Our role is five-fold
Pastoring the streets
- Providing a friendly, caring, helpful presence
- Assisting people getting home safely
- Spending time with anyone who needs particular care and attention.
Protecting the vulnerable
- Looking out for anyone who could become vulnerable - Proactive
- Providing support for people in vulnerable situations - Reactive
- Signposting to other services in the city
Partnering with key services
- Assisting the street wardens, police and paramedics in any way we can
- Discerning when we need to call on other services
- Supporting future developments
Planting seeds of hope
- Helping people to feel loved and cared for
- Demonstrating a non-judgemental approach
- Providing a caring, pastoral presence to everyone we engage with - being "pastorally proactive and spiritually reactive"
Preventing Crime
- Advising the street wardens, city watch or local security cameras of dangerous or criminal situation that we observe
- Helping keeping the street clear of glass and bottles