Monday 24 May 2010

Welcome to the New Street Pastors/ Training day with Les Isaacs




Ally Kay Director of Derby City Mission with Rev Les Isaacs CEO of Ascension Trust














Left to Right
Dave Simpson Derby Salvation Army
Andy Stewart New Life Christian Centre
Steve Tribe Belper Baptist Church
Angela Russell Ashbourne Road URC Methodist Church
Les Isaac Ascension Trust
Jim Kay St Alkmunds Kedleston Road
Dr Darren Leaning Woodlands Evangelical Church.



A big welcome to Derby's new Street Pastors as they begin their training with us. 4 of them will be working in our Estates Project and 2 of them will be owrking within the night time economy. They all bring real gifts and talents to the project and we are thrilled to welcome them. This now brings a total of 60 Street Pastors within Derby... Listening Caring and Helping our young people and communities.

Thursday 6 May 2010

Article from Todays Derby Evening Telegraph

Hi the Derby evening Telegraph have pblished an article on us here below. Just for clariffication we didn't spend £21,500 on a car we spent £3,500 slight differrence. We recieved a grant of £21,500 from the Criminal Justice board to recruit equip and train 15 Street Pastors and launch the Browning Circle project. The photo also isn't of Derby's Street Pastors.

Pastors: We bring peace to streets of the city

Street pastors
Street pastors

DERBY'S street pastors say they have stopped more than 850 revellers getting involved in drunken brawls in their first year of operation.

The Christian volunteers, who patrol the city centre on Friday and Saturday nights, say they have also picked up 4,688 pieces of glass and handed out 593 bottles of water.

The pastors say they try to calm situations which could lead to violence.

Alasdair Kay, who co-ordinates the scheme, said volunteers kept a record of "agitated" people to whom they spoke and, of 903, only 53 had gone on to get involved in a fight or arrested.

He said: "One of the things we do is let people rant and rave at us, as we are not going to react. We let them get it off their chest.

"What you find is that when people are drinking, something else misinforms their anger."

He said disagreements usually focused on race, girlfriends or family problems.

Mr Kay said: "They are the three main issues. Racial tensions are still a problem in the city, they haven't gone away. We get on the side of the person being targeted and tell people that they cannot say things like that.

"That is a lot of what we do. We also do simple things like tell them that there are CCTV cameras and police just around the corner and do they really want to spend a night in a cell? No-one really wants to do that."

Mr Kay said the street pastors were set up after two tragic incidents – the death of 17-year-old Shaun Dykes, who jumped from Westfield car park amid cruel heckling from onlookers, and the shooting of Kadeem Blackwood – in 2008.

He said: "After these incidents, I thought, 'we have to do something to make this city safer'."

The pastors were formed in February 2009, but have only kept figures since April that year. Pastors, who are trained in first aid, have treated 239 injuries – 111 of which needed hospital treatment.

The 50 volunteers meet for a briefing and prayer at 9.30pm and then patrol the city centre from 10pm until 4am.

Over the last 12 months, the street pastors have volunteered for 3,477 hours.

During this time, they had conversations with 18,347 people.

The pastors, who are supported by 25 churches in Derby, have also handed out 12,050 "spikeys" – which can be inserted into the top of a bottle to prevent people's drinks being spiked with drugs.

In addition, they have given out 1,405 pairs of flip flops to women who take their high heel shoes off as they walk home, to stop them injuring their feet on glass.

Following their success, the pastors were asked by police to extend their services to gang-plagued areas of Derby.

The group was given £21,500 to buy a car so that it could work in the Browning Circle area of Derby's Austin estate.

It was hoped that by providing a presence on Friday and Saturday evenings, the pastors could reduce tension and aggression and form relationships with young people and others in the community.

The project also aimed to develop a mentoring programme to offer non-violent activities as an alternative to anti-social behaviour, crime and gang membership.

Mr Kay said that when he helped establish the group, he had no idea it would be so successful.

He said: "I felt like I was up against a wall of scepticism – never did I expect it to have such an impact."

Mr Kay has since gone on to help set up similar schemes across the country, including one in Nottingham.

To find out more, visit www.streetpastors.co.uk

Monday 3 May 2010

For the First time I have Hope

One of the things that is so difficult when blogging the work of DCM is to tell the stories of what God is doing in peoples lives but at the same time keeping confidentiality. So many of the people we help are so very fragile and some of the people who come to Basics Bank so desperately broken that if ever the found out that we told their story on the internet they would be hurt even more. It is a fine balancing act. However in one week last week we had 32 clients come through the door of our debt clinics. Stories of families living in total poverty sometimes a family of four living in one room, no furniture no heat, no way to pay the bills. In the last quater we have helped over 71 people with severe debt problems and 14 of those are now debt free thanks to Debt Relief Orders and the work of Andy, Ruth and Sharon.

We have taken the decision to seperate slightly the Debt, benefits and welfare advice from the food bank project and to rebrand the Debt advice project. In future the Debt benefit and welfare advice will be known as the Jubilee project after Leviticus 25 The year where people were released from debt and justice was restored. It was to this year that Jesus referred in Luke 4 when he said
God's Spirit is on me; he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to
the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
to announce, "This is God's year to act!" Luke 4 The Message.

Our heart in DCM is not just to preach a message of forgiveness but deliverence from the oppression of sin.

The other day Daniel Cullen went to speak to a Neighbourhood watch group in Austin Estate and shared about the work that Street pastors were doing there. At the end a man of 80 years old stood to his feet and asked if he could say something. He then began " I've been coming to these meetings for 20 years, on the whole I find them depressing, tonight for the first time I have hope for my community" Daniel phoned me to share this story it moved me to the depth of my being because that is our heart. We believe the local church is the hope of the world. when hope comes back in to a Community of dispair we're seeing the Kingdom come.

John Augustine phoned me to tell me about the Caxton Arms in the middle of Austin and how they had a prayer meeting there. The first night the new landlords opened the pub it's windows were smashed. When we heard about it the Street Pastors went straight round. They asked can we pray ? So in the middle of one of Derby's roughest pubs, heads were bowed and hearts were lifted to heaven asking for peace on the estate and for the community to come back........... let's watch this space for Gods reply !