A delegation of Antiguan Government ministers, police officials and church leaders are due to arrive in the UK this weekend for a meeting with the organisers of the ‘Street Pastors’ scheme, a church-based project that sends pastors to counsel and care for the everyday people they encounter on the streets.
Street Pastors was launched in January 2003 by the Rev Les Isaac as a response to the shooting of four teenagers outside a hairdresser in Aston, Birmingham.
The Antiguan government expressed an interest in introducing the scheme in their own country as a part of their latest crime prevention campaign and crackdown on the growing gun violence on the island, reported Ekklesia.
Rev Isaac said: “I visited Antigua earlier this year and was pleasantly surprised by the positive reception the Street Pastors scheme received from Antiguan government officials and the police force after I shared it with him.”
The reverend explained that the Antiguan Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Baldwin Spencer, was particularly receptive to the Street Pastors scheme and expressed an immediate interest in the project and its introduction in Antigua.
The reverend is hopeful that the delegation, sent by Mr Spencer to learn more about the scheme, will be inspired by their forthcoming visit to the UK.
Major Byron Maxam of the Ministry of Housing, Culture and Social Transformation and Detective Sargeant Jeffers of the Antiguan Police Force will lead the delegation which also includes the Rev Selina Joseph of the Antiguan Christian Council and Jocelyn Martin, representing the Antiguan High Commission.
The visit will include the opportunity to join the Street Pastor patrols in the London boroughs of Hackney and Southwark, as well as take part in a Street Pastor training programme. The week-long trip will also incorporate a visit to Brixton prison.
Street Pastors is interdenominational and has seen great success in reducing the severity of street violence and turf warfare, as well as reaching out to drug dealers, prostitutes and vulnerable young people during the Friday and Saturday night patrols.
The 300 Street Pastors actively engage with the wide range of people they encounter on the streets of London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leicester and Southend by offering prayer, support, mediation, or even just casual chit chat. The more serious cases are referred by the street pastors to government and statutory agencies.
