Wednesday 14th May 2008

Bradford Street Angels save life

Bradford Street Angels made the front page of the local Telegraph and Argus newspaper on Monday, after saving the life of a woman who collapsed outside a nightclub.

Street Angels co-ordinator John Dinsdale was full of praise for the way his colleagues acted at the incident on Saturday, April 12.

He said: “Our medic team was first to the scene and, according to the paramedics, saved the woman’s life. The volunteers did an excellent, very professional job.

“Fortunately, this kind of incident is not common but we were involved in another serious incident just before Christmas when a young man fell in front of a car on Prince’s Way and was killed.

“We were first on the scene at that incident too and helped paramedics and police protect the scene. That’s what we’re there to do. We don’t want these kind of incidents to happen, but when they do we will hopefully be there to help.”

The full story is available at the Telegraph and Argus web site.

Saturday 11th May 2008

More volunteers urgently needed

Bradford Street Angels is looking for new volunteers, to start as soon as possible. We would particularly like to hear from anyone who will be available over the summer months, while a lot of our student volunteers are away. There will be a training evening on Thursday 3rd July at 7:30pm at the German Church on Great Horton Road¹, but we may be able to provide on the job training to anyone able to start before that date.

If you can give even one Friday or Saturday night a month, no matter how short term, please do get in touch.

1. Please note there will be no parking at the Church itself on this day. A pay and display car park is available at the bottom of Great Horton Road, next to the Love Apple Cafe, accessed by Randall Well Street.

Thursday 7th February 2008

More training available in March

There will be more training available for new volunteers on Monday March 3rd at 7pm in the hall of the German Church on South Brook Terrace, at the bottom of Great Horton Road. Previous training events have been great fun, and provided a great sense of what it means to become a Street Angel. If you're interested in coming along, do get in touch for more information.

Monday 14th January 2008

Bradford Street Angels so far

Bradford Street Angels have now been operating patrols on Friday and Saturday nights for six successive weekends, during which time we estimate that we have provided urgent care to between forty and fifty people, and minor assistance to many more.

As 2007 has come to an end and the weeks have continued to roll on there seems to be an ever increasing awareness of the presence of Bradford Street Angels amongst the users of Bradford City Centre. It has been great to see the relationships develop, both within the Street Angels team (most of whom didn’t know each other prior to starting work on the project), and between Street Angels and others on the streets. We are enjoying our new role, and really do appreciate every word of thanks we have been given as we go about it.

We have also been overwhelmed by the press coverage we have received. It seems that Bradford is very much behind us in what we are doing—something we consider a great honour. As well as a brief appearance on BBC Look North, we have also been reported on the BBC web site, and on at least three occasions in the Bradford Telegraph and Argus:

• Street angels to help revellers (BBC News, 20th November)
• Angels go on patrol (T&A, 22nd November)
• Street Angels take off (T&A, 7th December)
• Street Angels start patrols (T&A, 10th December)

There's also a Bradford Street Angels Facebook Group.

Finally, a word to say that we are arranging some more training, and dates will appear here once they have been finalised. In the meantime do continue to get in touch with John if you’d like to get involved, or just to come along for a visit and see what we do.

Friday 7th December 2007

Vacancies with Bradford Street Angels

Bradford Street Angels launches patrols tonight!

However, we still have a vacancy for a treasurer on our management committee, which we need to fill urgently. If you have the skills for this post and would be interested in taking it on, do please get in touch with any of us and we will be happy to answer your questions. The management committee meets once a month, and there would be no obligation to also take on patrolling duties.

We also still have space for more volunteer Street Angels. Please contact John if you’d like to join us. We’ll be looking to run further training in the new year.

Thursday 22nd November 2007

New training dates added

Due to high demand, we’ve added a new training date on Thursday 6th December. This is for new volunteers, so if you’ve already attended one of our internally run training sessions there’s no need to come again. As with previous training sessions, it will be held at 7:30pm in hall of the German Church on Great Horton Road. All are welcome, whether you know you want to commit to volunteering regularly or you just want to find out more.

There will also be a repeat of the police training held last night on Wednesday 28th November, this time at 6:30pm in the German Church hall. Places at this session are limited, though there are still some spaces available. We are asking that all volunteers receive training from the police, so if you’ve already made up your mind and want to get involved please e-mail John on volunteers@bradfordstreetangels.org.uk and let him know whether you can make it.

Friday 28th September 2007

Launch of Bradford Street Angels

The first public meeting of Bradford Street Angels was held tonight at the German Church on Great Horton Road. Interested parties and potential volunteers were given a chance to hear a bit about the successful scheme which has been running in Halifax and other UK towns, as well ask questions about the plans for Street Angels in Bradford.

Bradford Street Angels will be starting patrols on Friday 7th December. Training will be available for all volunteers on either 26th October 7-9pm or 27th October 2-4pm, with a further day in November.

For details of how to get involved in Bradford Street Angels see the Volunteer section.