Nottingham Street Pastors

This week’s feature blog has been written by Nottingham’s Street Pastors, who Unipol will be supporting for another year. But what’s it all about?

Our story

The Malt Cross Trust was founded as a Christian charity in 2003 by a consortium of city centre churches who had a vision of improving Nottingham’s nightlife by: 

Our charity’s home is a Grade II listed former Victorian music hall, which we preserve as one of the last remaining original music halls in the country; it is still used to provide live music and entertainment for the people of Nottingham today.

Our music hall has benefited from two significant Heritage Lottery Funding Grants in 1997 and 2014, which have been vital in supporting us in preserving this site, sharing our story and facilitating our charitable works.

How do we improve Nottingham’s nightlife?

Hands on help

Nottingham Street Pastors, set up in 2010, is affiliated with the Ascension Trust and is a project where 70 volunteers go out between 10pm-3am on Friday and Saturday nights to, alongside the emergestreet-pastors-infographicncy services, care for and look after the 30,000-40,000 people who use Nottingham’s night life on an average weekend. 

In 2016 we also ran a project creating homeless survival packs to be given out by our volunteers and ran a Christian gift bank to create gifts of practical provisions for those in need.

Over a 12 month period our volunteers have:

  • Provided first aid to 134 people
  • Handled 110 violent incidents
  • Gave drug and/or alcohol advice to 359 people
  • Had 1,826 conversations about life circumstances with individuals
  • Assisted 482 intoxicated people
  • Gave out 1,225 bottles of water to prevent dehydration
  • Gave out 1,146 spikeys (bottle stoppers to prevent drink spiking)
  • Gave out 380 pairs of flip-flops (to people who had lost/broken footwear to prevent foot injuries from glass bottles)
  • Helped 294 people get home safely after a night out went wrong
  • Signposted 340 to specialist agencies for longer term issues.

 

Creating an alternative

We also offer an alternative experience in Nottingham’s nightlife through our not-for-profit licensed bar & kitchen, where all its operational surplus is donated back into the work of the Malt Cross Trust. Our vision is to create a city centre venue that promotes creativity over consumption and is a place people visit to find themselves through art, heritage and music.

It also engages with improving our city through a Suspended Meal Scheme (where our customers can pay it forward to someone in need), the use of our gallery and workshop spaces as an arts hub, and our heritage tours and events that share the story of the Malt Cross Music Hall.

 

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How can I get involved?

If you would like to support us with either a regular or one-off donation you can do so via JustGiving or contact us on info@maltcross.com

You can also support us by hiring one of rooms, joining us for one of our many events or simply eating and drinking with us.

 

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