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​Under the Streetlights: 20 Years of Street Angels​:

Robbie Williams singing ‘I’m loving Angels instead’ is a song often serenaded to teams of Street Angels out and about on weekend evenings.

Street Angels, which started as a response to Halifax having a ‘Wild West of West Yorkshire’ reputation on weekend evenings, celebrated 20 years last November.

The ‘Wild West’ Years

Back in the day, between 8,000 and 12,000 people visited Halifax for a night out.

Energised by cheap alcohol and a large number of pubs and clubs in a small town centre, Halifax had become a must visit destination for a boozy night out.

Sadly sexual assaults, violence, under-age and binge drinking had blighted the town centre on weekend evenings leaving a lot of people who were or could become vulnerable.

‘Churches Together’ had asked the question ‘what are the needs in our town and what can the church do to meet those needs?’

Paul Blakey, challenged by the vulnerability within the nighttime, had an idea of opening a cafe, run by Churches Together and Halifax YMCA, as a safe place drop-in on Friday and Saturday between 9pm and 3am.

Sharing the idea with the Police, who were extremely excited and supportive, asked if we could launch in two weeks time – Friday 25th November 2005.

We said yes!

The Night Street Angels Was Born

On the day, 9pm arrived and so did 50 volunteers! Having so many people sat in our cafe base meant that anyone wanting to help couldn’t fit in to receive the help they needed.

Going out into the town centre was the logical solution and so Street Angels was born.

Safe people wandering the town offering help and assistance alongside the safe place drop-in cafe.
In our first six weeks we helped and supported over sixty people.

Dressed in hi-vis jackets and armed with flip-flops, low level first aid kits, bottles of water, lollipops and time to help, chat, listen and care, Street Angels became a welcome part of Halifax’s night-time economy.

Fast forward twelve months and violent crime had reduced by 42%. Halifax had become a safer night out with Street Angels a major factor in this.

Street Angels had landed and very quickly became a model of best practice that has gone on to be replicated around the world.

From Halifax to a Global Movement

By 2008 we had discovered others doing very similar work, including NightLight across Northern Ireland and Street Chaplains in Dundee, so a Network was set up, which launched at a Nightlife Conference, to facilitate this growth and explore new areas of work.

Street Angels very quickly attracted media attention and words of support from the highest levels of society, including a 2010 New Years Honours MBE for founder Paul Blakey in recognition of his ‘contribution to community safety in the Borough of Calderdale’.

On receiving this, Her Majesty the Queen, said [Street Angels] ‘sounds fascinating and much needed’.

Over our 20 years we have gone on to: work inside club venues with Club Angels; run Festival Angels at many of the UK’s largest music festivals; support our homeless communities; visit schools and colleges with our Alcohol and Safety education resource; share safety advice to help people have a SafeNightOut party; offer chaplaincy to pubs, clubs, strip-clubs and town centres; have teams at train stations which see a high rate of vulnerability; partner with young people around StreetSource period packs for women who are homeless; Ski Angels on the slopes of Meribel; Community Angels working around loneliness and isolation; set up #Do1NiceThing to encourage everyone to do small acts of niceness each and every day.

Loving the Person in Front of You

As another weekend passes, and our teams are serenaded with more drunken renditions of ‘I’m loving Angels instead’, our twenty year story is made up of tens of thousands of encounters with countless lives saved (sometimes from death) and changed through a family of amazing Angels who are on the frontline with a heart to make the difference through the simple, yet profound, act of loving the person in front of them.

One story of many:

“A lady approached us and told us the story of her grandson. He had apparently sat down on the steps of the doorway to ‘Harveys Department Store’ in Halifax town centre. Her grandson had fallen into a deep sleep and suddenly felt this shaking on his shoulder. He half opened his eyes, as you do when woken from a deep sleep, and saw three glowing figures standing in front of him. She told us that because they were standing underneath the street light they also looked to have haloes! One of the Street Angels leant towards this boy and said, “Excuse me son, are you ok, can we take you to a better place?” He woke and sobered up quite quickly!

Angels, whether they are on the streets, inside club venues, at festivals, alongside the homeless community or at train stations, have taken people and communities to a better place for just over 20 years.

Paul Blakey MBE, founder Street Angels

For more info, check out www.streetangels.org.uk/ or www.festivalangels.org.uk/.

You can donate to our work, find a project local to you, download a free book on the story of Street Angels or look at how we can support you to set up Angels in your local town.