Archbishop and London Mayor to join inaugural Street Pastors conference

Street Pastors is gearing up for its first ever Practitioners Conference which is aimed at church leaders, heads of church departments and lay members interested in impacting their communities with social initiatives that meet local needs.

Speakers at the three-day event in London next month include the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. Joining them are Rod Jarman, the Deputy Assistant Commission of the Metropolitan Police, criminologist Professor John Pitts, Street Pastors co-founder the Rev David Shosanya and CARET chief executive Oliver Nyumbu.

The Street Pastors Practitioners Conference is the brainchild of Rev Les Isaac, CEO of the Ascension Trust and co-founder of Street Pastors.

He said, “We’ve decided to hold a Practitioners Conference because during the six years of leading and developing Street Pastors we’ve learnt much about what it takes to set up and run social initiatives which impact local communities.”

He continued, “We aim to use this conference to share what we’ve learnt so that we can inspire more church leaders and lay members to engage with their local communities and show them how they can do so.”

The conference will hold workshops on issues like effective fundraising, serving the community, policing, and gangs.

Rev Isaac said he hoped the conference would have a major impact on those who attend.

He said: “I believe people who attend this conference will leave with information that will enable them to establish social initiatives and projects that have the potential to touch and transform the lives of people within their communities.”