Taking Jesus' love to the streets

As Rugby Elim trains new recruits, we invited two key people from the organisation to tell us a little more about what’s in store for them.

A bouncer asks for help with a girl unconscious from drink – what do you do? How do you help someone who’s high and distressed? Drug and alcohol awareness is a crucial part of Street Pastors’ training.

This month, as Rugby Elim readies new recruits to serve on the streets, we find out more.

Dawn Thurkettle, Rugby Street Pastors lead

Rugby Elim’s Dawn Thurkettle helps co-ordinate Rugby’s interdenominational team of Street Pastors and is on the organisation’s national leadership team too. Here, she shares about training her team, serving on the streets and why this work matters.

Our Street Pastors have been actively patrolling the streets of Rugby for 16 years. We go out on Friday and Saturday nights to support clubbers and people who might be lonely, but in recent years we’ve also started doing market patrols on Friday mornings and going out after school on one estate.

We’ve got 42 volunteers, backed by 26 prayer pastors.

Each week we have loads of interventions, conversations and help keep people safe. Most of that starts with a smile and a hello, whether that’s on the streets at 2 a.m. or on a bench mid-afternoon.

This month we’ll begin preparing our new volunteers, who will complete 50 hours of training before they’re commissioned.

Within that, they do a module on drugs and alcohol awareness, taught by Rachael from Hope UK.

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