Volunteers

Out on the Street

How to Volunteer

Sign up on the rota

Training

Protocols

Other Resources

Bedford Street Angels Volunteers

Volunteers from various Churches seeking to demonstrate the love of Christ: to be ‘salt and light’ in the community when many other Christians are tucked up warm in their beds! They go out in teams of 3 onto the streets of our town centre each Saturday night between the hours of 10.30pm and 3.00am. They supplement the work of the paid emergency services and are part of the wider team of ‘official professionals’ whose role it is to help keep the town safe at night.

Each volunteer wears a red jacket bearing the distinctive logo, thus they are easily identified as ‘safe’ people to approach if help is needed. Since going on the streets in February 2009, the project has been able to assist an amazing number of people, out to enjoy the clubs and bars around the town centre. Many have expressed their appreciation of the support offered and we have developed good relationships with the other bodies also ‘on duty’.

Out on the street, what might the team get involved in?

• Give directions, or accompany folk to the nearest safe taxi or hire car rank

• Hand out bottled water to those suffering from too much alcohol. Sometimes wait with them until they are more in control

• Supply flip flops where stilettos have caused blisters and girls are walking bare foot

• Offer simple first aid, or call an ambulance

• Wait with vulnerable individuals until their lift home arrives

• Listen if folk want to off load or share their story

• Respond to NiteNet radio calls, asking for BSA’s assistance, or conversely bring a concerning situation to the attention of Police and CCTV

• Give encouragement to other ‘officials’ on duty

How to Volunteer

There is a lot more information about volunteering in the volunteer recruitment handbook. For example, it contains FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), our Commitment to Volunteers and our Expectations of Volunteers. The full handbook is currently unavailable whilst under revision. However, one section is available What Type Of Person. There is also detailed information about the duties of volunteers in the Protocols section later on this page.

To volunteer, please download the application form. Please print the form, fill it in, sign it and post it to BSA at the address shown on the form.

Sign up

Volunteers already enrolled onto the project can sign up for duty on the 2011 or 2012 Schedules. The 2011 spreadsheet has been moved from Google Docs to Zoho.com, because some people could not access Google Docs. You can view, but not edit the 2011 schedule below. To be able to edit and save changes, you need both the following:

1. To register at http://sheet.zoho.com with your usual email id. Registration is free. If you have a Google id, you can use that instead of registering with Zoho.

2. To be an authorised editor of the sheet. To become authorised, or if you need any help using the schedule, please email webmaster@bedfordstreetangels.org.uk. You must use the same email id as for registering.

Once you have these, you may click here to edit the sheet. (People have had problems accessing the new 2012 sheet, so it has been withdrawn and you can sign up for 2012 in the 2011 sheet for the time being). There is also a quick link in the side bar of this page. Please enter your first name and surname initial only on the sheet. Do not press the Click to Edit button - it does not do the right thing.

Prayer Volunteer Role Description

Duties of a Prayer Team Member at the base, before and during the patrol.