'This is our city and we’re trying to make it a little bit better': Meet the Newport Street Pastors

For seven years, Newport’s Street Pastors have been a calming influence in the streets of the city; they talk, listen and re-assure those who are out in the streets.

The pastors are volunteers from 17 different churches in the city who, apart from giving a hand to those on a night out, they spend time talking to the homeless.

“We get a lot of respect from people,” says 61-year-old Ruth Flynn, of Moorland Park, in Lliswerry, who has been a Street Pastor for around six months.

“People tend to be quite impressed that we do this voluntarily," he said.

“I thoroughly enjoy it, I’m a social person and I like meeting all kinds of people. I like helping people.

“I have interesting conversations with homeless people.

“Some people try to apologise to us for having had a drink, they say they didn’t want to get that drunk.

“It’s so easy to have that one drink that tips you over.

“I don’t judge anybody at all, that’s not what we do.

“If Jesus was here, he’d be out in the streets helping people, he’d not be in church.

“This is our city and we’re trying to make it a little bit better.”

She says that there are situations where people are extremely vulnerable and that she remembers one night when they saw two men with a young lady.

Ms Flynn says they didn’t think much of it until one of the men turned around and told us they didn’t know her.

“She had had too much to drink and didn’t know where she was going,” she says. “She had lost her friends, but we managed to re-unite them after one of the friends rang her.

“We told them where she was. I wonder what would have happened to her if we hadn’t been there.”

Phill Jones, one of Newport’s Street Pastors co-ordinators, believes that they’re not trying to replace anyone and that their job is to provide additional support.

“Because money is tight everywhere, there’s less availability for professionals to do everything that’s needed,” he says. “There are a lot of vulnerable adults on the streets at night – amongst others, rough sleepers, young people who are out and may have lost their friends and don’t have a phone.

“We spend time listening to people – time which emergency services may not have as they have other emergencies to attend.

"We try to take the pressure off the ambulance and the police.

“We’re a calming influence, we’re able to talk, listen and reassure people – which can stop things from escalating.”

The group gives out a lot of water as well as lollipops and flip flops.

Every night, they pick up around 50 glass bottles people take out of bars.

“The streets at 3am aren’t the nicest and there may be broken glass,” he says. “We also give out hundreds of lollipops – because everybody loves them. Also, they’re a sugar boost and can help get people round. They’re a good distraction.

“We give up to 50 lollipops every weekend and 15 flip flops, but it varies on the weekend.

“It depends on many factors, such as the weather, the time of the month.”

For example, last Saturday, they spend some time talking to two teenagers at a bus stop who were waiting to sober up as they weren’t allowed to go home “tipsy”.

They gave them a bottle of water and a lollipop.

Just up the road, they bump into a group of girls, who shout at them “we’ve been looking for you, can we have some flip flops, please?”.

The girls change their high heels for the flip flops, before going to the next bar.

“We get to see Newport in a different light, it’s fascinating,” says Mr Jones. “I’ve been doing this for about seven or eight years and I can tell you there used to be a lot more trouble.

“It’s very rare we see a fight and, if we do, we don’t get involved.”

The group has around 60 volunteers, including 35 trained street pastors. Ideally, every Friday and Saturday, from 10.30pm till 4am, they have a group of four men and women patrolling the streets.

They have a support team in a hall just up the road, who prepare teas and coffees. They also have people praying for them from home.

They spend their night walking, they don’t stay still, and Mr Jones says that some nights they walk up to eight miles.

For instance, they always walk down to Friars Walk to make sure all waitresses that have just finished working in the restaurant get home ok.

Last Saturday, there weren't many waitresses, but they bumped into Alan, a middle aged man who approaches them and tells them that what they're doing is commendable.

Alan says that he has had a drink but that he is a church goer.

The street pastors spent a few minutes talking to him about the curry he says he is going to have now.

“Before going out on the streets, we’ve an intense training programme covering different topics,” says Mr Jones, who was a street pastor before becoming a co-ordinator. “It’s quite a hard thing to get involved in.

“The training covers a lot of different things – for example, rules and regulations, what Street Pastors stand for, basic first aid, safeguarding of vulnerable adults, and understanding of mental health issues.”

Denebo Wario, 37, from Maindee, became a street pastor a year ago. “I am from Ethiopia and arrived in Newport as an asylum seeker in 2013,” he says. “As I wasn’t allowed to work, I was trying to occupy myself and went to the community church.

“One week, there was an event to celebrate the work of street pastors.

“I was moved by what they do and I became involved straight away.

“I enjoy it, I like to talk to anybody and help people who are struggling.”

Mr Wario says he enjoys providing company to homeless people and that he tries to remember their names. He says he asks them how they are and how their day has been.

Last Saturday, Mr Wario spent some time talking to a man who had never been on the streets before. Saturday was his second night sleeping on the streets.

The man, who says he has been thrown out of his house, is waiting for emergency accommodation.

Mr Wario says he remembers once there was a man who was threatening to jump off a high wall. He says they spoke with him and that, in the end, he didn't jump.

“We don’t talk to people about the church until they mention it,” says Mr Jones. “We’re here to help.

“As our logo says; Care, help, listen – the church in action on the streets.”