Info for annual report to Charity Commission A ril 2023 p
Background
St Helens Street Pastors were registered with the Charity Commission on July 2016 and began patrolling in December 2016. It is constituted as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) and has a board of trustees drawn from various churches in and around St Helens and appointed by existing trustees. It is a licensed local branch of the Street Pastors movement, which is an initiative of Ascension Trust. The trustees aim to keep at least three months operating costs in reserve at all times.
Level of Activity
The Street Pastors teams offer a peaceful and compassionate presence, friendly conversation, and practical care to vulnerable people in the night-time economy. During the past 12 months, we have resumed our regular patrols as we have emerged from the Covid pandemic.
We aim to patrol the night-time economy of St Helens twice per month, usually on Friday evenings.
< One of our Street Pastors teams outside Ormskirk Street URC, which at tin between two of our main patrol areas, Westfield Street and Duke Street
Volunteers
We currently have 10 volunteer Street Pastors (trained and commissioned), and one trainee. In recent months, we have had several expressions of interest from more people wishing to volunteer as Street Pastors and we look forward to exploring this more with them in the coming months.
The volunteers are drawn from local churches, including Anglican, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Salvation Army, and independent evangelical churches. We are proud of our strong ecumenical spirit.
< Another of our teams patrolling at St Helens Central train station, meeting the last train back from Liverpool and helping people get home safely.
Summary of achievements for this period:
The most important success this year has been keeping the teams together despite the challenges posed by the pandemic and in resuming our regular patrols. We also trialled our new ‘Safe Space’ initiative at our base in St Helens Parish Church (pictured right), providing a refuge for anyone our Street Pastors meet in the night-time economy who may need somewhere warm and safe.
The coordinator and trustees were able to keep the charity progressing forward by holding social times for the team to meet together to pray and discuss where we were up to, continuing with relevant training to help strengthen them in their roles, and building relationships with a potential school so that we can broaden our impact as a charity. The Street Pastors stay in touch via a WhatsApp group between patrols to pray for our charity and those who we serve in the night-time economy.
We have been blessed to receive several grants in the last year to continue our charitable work. We have also been proud to contribute to St Helens achieving the 'Purple Flag' award. More details can be found about this here: https://nbcc.police.uk/partnerships/partners/purple-flag-scheme
Our chair had to step down in February 2023 ahead of moving to a new post in the Diocese of Blackburn. However, we were pleased to have a new chair in place quickly, Rev Rachel Shuttleworth, Vicar of St Helens Parish Church, which has enabled us to continue to build our relationship with the Parish Church as a new base of operations and grow our presence in the Town Centre. We have also recruited some new trustees this year who bring a diversity of gifts to contribute to the good governance of the charity.
Future plans
Aims for April 2023-24:
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Team - to continue to build team spirit and continue regular patrols
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Capacity - to recruit and train more volunteers, so that we can gradually increase to three patrols per month by end 2023, as well as being present at relevant special events in St Helens.
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Partnership - to continue working in partnership with St Helens Council and Merseyside Police in St Helens, and to further establish a sustainable base of financial support from local churches, individuals, businesses, and grant-making organisations.
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To explore different funding streams in order to help strengthen us financially.
St Helens Street Pastors contact details:
Email: sainthelens@streetpastors.org
Website: http://streetpastors.org/locations/sthelens
Facebook page: http://facebook.com/sthelensstreetpastors
Online Giving: http://my.give.net/sthelensstreetpastors
| St Helens Street Pastors Financial Accounts 6th April 2022 to 5th April 2023 |
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|---|---|---|---|
| Opening bank balance b/f INCOME Standing orders from individuals One off donations Donations from trusts, corporations and groups Sundry Other income EXPENDITURE Licence fees Insurance Rent No 2 account transfer Training courses run by Ascension Trust Coordinators salary Purchase of Uniforms Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Other costs St Helens Chamber membership costs Other expenses Closing Bank balance |
6th April 2021 to 5th April 2022 17,027.70 300.00 3,364.00 3,645.84 5,621.00 - 12,930.84 687.60 - - 1,000.00 - 6,864.00 - - 5,770.00 383.34 1,248.00 - 15,952.94 14,005.60 |
6th April 2022 to 5th April 2023 14,005.60 437.57 3,600.00 3,257.09 - - |
Apr-22 May-22 Jun-22 Jul-22 Aug-22 Sep-22 Oct-22 Nov-22 Dec-22 Jan-23 Feb-23 Mar-23 14,005.60 14,204.72 13,178.78 12,832.54 12,369.05 11,828.56 13,494.96 13,287.42 13,589.18 12,646.24 13,588.44 13,131.07 25.00 25.00 25.00 25.00 25.00 25.00 25.00 25.00 25.00 25.00 25.00 162.57 2,500.00 1,000.00 100.00 174.12 391.46 276.76 276.76 276.76 162.06 391.46 276.76 162.06 417.20 289.63 162.06 |
| 7,294.66 | 199.12 416.46 301.76 301.76 301.76 2,687.06 416.46 301.76 187.06 1,442.20 414.63 324.63 |
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| - - 48.00 - - 5,616.00 - 359.50 562.40 122.66 1,760.00 - |
24.00 24.00 1,248.00 624.00 624.00 624.00 624.00 624.00 624.00 624.00 141.25 218.25 194.40 250.00 118.00 122.66 1,130.00 500.00 130.00 |
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| 8,468.56 | - 1,442.40 648.00 765.25 842.25 1,020.66 624.00 - 1,130.00 500.00 872.00 624.00 |
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| 12,831.70 | |||
| 14,204.72 13,178.78 12,832.54 12,369.05 11,828.56 13,494.96 13,287.42 13,589.18 12,646.24 13,588.44 13,131.07 12,831.70 |
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