Our Spring newsletter is now available online from our downloads page, or click here - Newsletter 7, Spring/Summer 2013. Printed copies should be winging their way to us as I post.
News and Updates
School Pastors Information Evening
School Pastors is expanding. After a successful pilot project we are aiming to help more students and bring safety and reassurance to Island schools. Come along and find out all about our vision to support students in Island schools
Wed 13th March 7.30pm, Castlehold Baptist Church, High Street, Newport
We now have opportunities for people to join us as volunteer School Pastors and Prayer Pastors. Find out more at the information evening or contact School Pastors coordinator Rebecca Kelly on 07428 399866 or email rebecca@iowstreetpastors.org.uk
Isle of Wight Street Pastors support Olympic Torch relay
Isle of Wight Street Pastors coordinator David Ouston was an Olympic Torch bearer as the torch passed through the Island on Saturday, while volunteer Street Pastors provided support during the Needles section of the event. It was a real privilege for those who took part to be involved with this amazing event, and a great honour for Dave to be asked to be a Torch Bearer. Dave was delighted to have been allocated the Needles section of the route; “The Needles is known all over the world really, and to be given this slot was just wonderful”. He also saw his presence in the Olympic torch ceremony as being representative of the whole of Isle of Wight Street Pastors; “I’ve got seventy volunteers, many of them here and I’m running for all of them”.
You can see interviews with Dave and clips from his section of the relay in the videos below.
http://youtu.be/YBHCZE_koQY
23 New volunteer pastors commissioned
A packed Castlehold Baptist church in Newport came to witness the commissioning of 13 new Street Pastors and the first 10 School Pastors on the Isle of Wight. The service included presentations from the coordinators of each project, the High Sheriff, Chair of Isle of Wight Council, Isle of Wight OCU Superintendent and Director of Parent and Community at Medina College.
Isle of Wight School Pastors will be one of small but increasing number of initiatives around the country supporting school communities. Here on the Isle of Wight we are delighted to be piloting this initiative in partnership with Medina College in Newport.
School pastors will be patrolling after school initially on a Tuesday, Thursday and Friday outside Medina College and on the routes the students walk home. School Pastors will be available to offer practical support by listening, helping and caring for students and people in the wider school community. We will be working closely with the College and Police Safer Neighbourhoods Team to see how we can continue to best support the College community. Whilst school pastors are on patrol they will be supported by fellow team members who will be praying for them and the situations they encounter.
The new Street Pastors will allow us now to extend the Street Pastors scheme on a Saturday night in Ryde , so we can patrol 3 out of every 4 Saturday nights, plus give extra support to the schemes already running in Newport and Ventnor.
It was wonderful to have so many people there on the commissioning evening, giving their support to these wonderful people who give so freely and put themselves in sometimes quite difficult situations.
We’ll be looking for more volunteers to start training early next year, and it’s never to early to express your interest in joining the awesome Street and School Pastors team.
School Pastors Launch – 20th Feb
Isle of Wight School Pastors Official Launch – Mon 20th February 6pm @ Medina Theatre, Newport.
School Pastors comes to the IOW
After a lot of preparation, research and discussions with local schools and other groups, we will be piloting School Pastors on the Island this year. School Pastors will start in Medina College from early summer, following a comprehensive recruitment and training programme over the next few months. School Pastors aims to promote safety and help reduce crime and anti-social behaviour before and after school hours.
Volunteers will work in and around the school site, focusing particularly on hot-spots identified by schools, local police, parents and students. They will provide support to students who are experiencing difficulties with their school and community life.
We’re delighted to welcome Rebecca Kelly as our newly appointed School Pastors’ coordinator. She’ll be working hard over the next few months promoting the scheme, recruiting volunteers, training them and working alongside schools to make the scheme a success. Rebecca has been a volunteer Street Pastor since Street Pastors started on the Isle of Wight, and is enjoying the challenge of setting up the new scheme.
Volunteering Opportunities
We’re looking for a number of people to join us as volunteer School Pastors. School Pastors are Christian volunteers who work around local schools, helping students and providing reassurance to them, parents and local people. Each School Pastor will work one day a
week for about 2-3 hours. A full training programme and ongoing support is provided. If you would like to find out more then please click here to contact us.
We’ll be making a few changes around the website over the coming weeks to give quick and easy information to both Street and School Pastors.
