"Street Pastors" - volunteer to help young people on the streets, but it'll cost you

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A group called “Street Pastors” came to my Church last Sunday during Mass to ask for more volunteers. Basically they are out on the streets late at night, particularly looking after young people out drinking or on the streets. They call for ambulances and taxis, give basic first aid as well as give out blankets and sensible shoes. They also try to calm confrontational situations, and claim to have been recognised by police forces as invaluable some nights. They said despite the name it’s not about preaching but being active Christians in the community.

I thought this was something I was really interested in. They are a Christian group of all kinds of denominations, they’ll give you training and they only need you out one night a month and are desperate for volunteers. I was ready to sign up then on the spot.

But then reality hit - they said if you want to be a Street Pastor you have to pay them over £300 (approx $472) for the training!

I understand that training people costs money, but to me this seems a ridiculously high amount considering that what they’re doing is very low-skill and they want volunteers. When they stated the amount it would cost, there was an audible gasp in the congregation and a few people shook their heads. I wonder what peoples thoughts are on both the group and paying money to give your time for free.

Street Pastor website - streetpastors.co.uk/Home/tabid/255/Default.aspx

A news article about them (2010) - independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/a-night-on-the-town-vomit-violence-and-god-1870208.html
 
LemonAndLime said:
A group called “Street Pastors” came to my Church last Sunday during Mass to ask for more volunteers. Basically they are out on the streets late at night, particularly looking after young people out drinking or on the streets. They call for ambulances and taxis, give basic first aid as well as give out blankets and sensible shoes. They also try to calm confrontational situations, and claim to have been recognised by police forces as invaluable some nights. They said despite the name it’s not about preaching but being active Christians in the community.

I thought this was something I was really interested in. They are a Christian group of all kinds of denominations, they’ll give you training and they only need you out one night a month and are desperate for volunteers. I was ready to sign up then on the spot.

But then reality hit - they said if you want to be a Street Pastor you have to pay them over £300 (approx $472) for the training!

I understand that training people costs money, but to me this seems a ridiculously high amount considering that what they’re doing is very low-skill and they want volunteers. When they stated the amount it would cost, there was an audible gasp in the congregation and a few people shook their heads. I wonder what peoples thoughts are on both the group and paying money to give your time for free.

Street Pastor website - streetpastors.co.uk/Home/tabid/255/Default.aspx

A news article about them (2010) - independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/a-night-on-the-town-vomit-violence-and-god-1870208.html
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Sounds extremely fishy to me. I would say the majority of people do not have that kind of money laying around. What in the world do they teach you that costs $472???
 
I’d be sceptical of such a programme. Many churches seem to run programmes similar to that without the high training costs involved, if any at all.

Surely any church that wishes to run such a programme would be more than able to both train volunteers and run the actual activities themselves?
 
Sounds like a growing organization and also it sounds like it can be pretty rough out there.
They don’t really preach they say but take care of the people on drugs, drinking, and in fights. I imagine some of the training is how to approach people , community resources and basic legal stuff, and how to protect one self. Sounded like the training is over several months, I would want to know more about it , the training and that before I’d pay.
 
LemonAndLime said:
A group called “Street Pastors” came to my Church last Sunday during Mass to ask for more volunteers. Basically they are out on the streets late at night, particularly looking after young people out drinking or on the streets. They call for ambulances and taxis, give basic first aid as well as give out blankets and sensible shoes. They also try to calm confrontational situations, and claim to have been recognised by police forces as invaluable some nights. They said despite the name it’s not about preaching but being active Christians in the community.

I thought this was something I was really interested in. They are a Christian group of all kinds of denominations, they’ll give you training and they only need you out one night a month and are desperate for volunteers. I was ready to sign up then on the spot.

But then reality hit - they said if you want to be a Street Pastor you have to pay them over £300 (approx $472) for the training!

I understand that training people costs money, but to me this seems a ridiculously high amount considering that what they’re doing is very low-skill and they want volunteers.

Street Pastor website - streetpastors.co.uk/Home/tabid/255/Default.aspx

A news article about them (2010) - independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/a-night-on-the-town-vomit-violence-and-god-1870208.html
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That’s disgusting, my methodist church use to constantly nag our church attenders to get up and join them and it would cost those who did absolutely nothing at all. Lots of them went.
When they stated the amount it would cost, there was an audible gasp in the congregation and a few people shook their heads. I wonder what peoples thoughts are on both the group and paying money to give your time for free.
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I’m surprised no one threw a tomato at them. 😃
 
anp1215 said:
Sounds extremely fishy to me. I would say the majority of people do not have that kind of money laying around. What in the world do they teach you that costs $472???
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I was wondering that too. I know things like First Aid courses cost money (as they’ll have to bring in outside teachers I suspect) and they did mention a few sessions on counselling/listening skills which could be an outside speaker too. From their website it seems some of the training focuses on the Bible. But I can’t imagine what the rest is about.

I was so disappointed as it was something I would have been really keen to do. If they had pitched their speech at my university they would have had loads of interest I’m sure. But no one can afford it. Like you say, who has that money lying around?

I at first thought when they quoted the price they meant that’s how much it costs them so they needed donations, but they didn’t even ask for any donations and said the quoted amount was “per person” so “come and talk to us if its something you are prepared to do.” There was no suggestion you had to pay anything less than the given amount.
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Kouyate42:
I’d be sceptical of such a programme. Many churches seem to run programmes similar to that without the high training costs involved, if any at all.

Surely any church that wishes to run such a programme would be more than able to both train volunteers and run the actual activities themselves?
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That sounds like a really good idea. But I’m not sure it’s something my parish would do. We’re not a small parish but I think for an individual Church to run it, they’d have to be a pretty large one.
 
Zundrah said:
That’s disgusting, my methodist church use to constantly nag our church attenders to get up and join them and it would cost those who did absolutely nothing at all. Lots of them went.
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I heard it was huge in London, which I see is where you are based. I imagine purely because of the higher population they’d find it easier to get volunteers and donations so the costs would go way down.

The speakers said that there currently wasn’t any Street Pastors in my town and they wanted to create a brand new presence here. I did wonder if that was the reason behind the high price (especially after what you’ve just said) but surely that would be a motive to lower any cost to encourage a quick recruitment?
I’m surprised no one threw a tomato at them. 😃
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I’m a vegetarian, that would cause undue distress to myself. “Oh no, all the culinary possibilities wasted!”

Save the vegetables!
 
I have emailed the Liverpool (UK) branch of Street Pastors to ask them if they charge. I’ll post when I get a reply. Not that I’m suggesting getting trained in Liverpool if it is free! But just so as we can check if it varies.
 
paperwight66 said:
I have emailed the Liverpool (UK) branch of Street Pastors to ask them if they charge. I’ll post when I get a reply. Not that I’m suggesting getting trained in Liverpool if it is free! But just so as we can check if it varies.
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That would be good.

I am considering emailing them myself to confirm whether they still charge, because I am really hoping that either the rules have changed or I misunderstood them, but it seemed very clear.
 
Street Pastors are fabulously successful where I live. It sounds to me as if training is locally organised, it maybe that in some areas the local Churches Together organisation foots the bill. Basic Listening and counselling skills training would cost in the region of £300 per person for 10sessions if given by a private provider.
 
paperwight66 said:
I have emailed the Liverpool (UK) branch of Street Pastors to ask them if they charge. I’ll post when I get a reply. Not that I’m suggesting getting trained in Liverpool if it is free! But just so as we can check if it varies.
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Follow-up. i have at last had a reply message from the Liverpool branch.

Just the word ‘No’.
 
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