More than 500 vulnerable people in Weymouth have been helped by a vital night-time service.
Following the news that funding has been paused for their Weymouth town centre base, the Safe Space unit, the Street Pastors have revealed how many people they were able to assist last year.
See: 'Street pastors concerned as Safe Space taken away'
Every weekend Weymouth Street Pastors, who are volunteers, patrol the town’s streets trying to make a difference and before the funding freeze were able to set up a base at St. Mary's Church, which enabled medical service Acute Medical Care to offer its help.
Dorset Council has paused the service's funding, while Weymouth's night-time economy 'has slowed down' because, it must be 'prudent with the funding to make sure it is spent in the most beneficial way'.
The street pastors, who are all volunteers, care for vulnerable people including those suffering with their mental health, homeless people and often those who have had too much to drink.
From January to December, the group helped around 511 vulnerable people - dealing with approximately 150 alcohol and drug related incidents, 38 mental health or concern for welfare incidents and helping around 155 people who were unwell or upset.
The team works in partnership with door staff, police, paramedics, and CCTV.
As part of their patrols, the street pastors talk with revellers and hand out lollies, flip flops and water.
Across 2023, the group gave out 302 pairs of flip flops, 20 space blankets and 660 bottles of water
A spokesperson for the Weymouth Street Pastors said: “We have had an amazing 2023, and we were so blessed to have worked in partnership with Safe Space from January right through to December.
“We think we have given out at least a thousand lollipops and hundreds of Kit Kats - but we lost count.
“Our teams have undertaken 1,502 hours in the night-time economy listening, caring and helping with zero pounds on administration, wages and management as we are all volunteers - it’s our privilege as we love our town.
“We are so privileged to be Street Pastors and we cannot wait to continue our work in 2024.”
The group also make sure to remove any glass they find on the street and across the 12 months cleared up 452 glass bottles, 293 glasses, 249 cans and swept up 120 lots of broken glass.
The team further spoke with and supported around 50 rough sleepers, accompanied 10 individuals for safety reasons, engaged with six at-risk young people and gave general advice and pastoral care to 102 others.
Teams remain out on the streets of Weymouth whatever the weather, even if it’s cold, raining or warm.
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