Paul was at the final celebration event for Camberley Street Angels . The evening included stories and memories from volunteers and coordinators from across the 14 years the team has operated. Messages of support were shared from police, councillors and local MP Michael Gove. One speaker spoke how he looked upon Street Angels as manure: helping the community and people grow; spreading widely; impacting and changing the culture. Paul thanked the volunteers and said the stories and memories have shown they have made history in Camberley through the dedication, passion, investment and by loving the person in front of them. Gifts of engraved paperweights were given to the volunteers (one hundred and twelve people over fourteen years). Thanks to all - the legacy of lives changed and community impact will last for generations to come.

Final Call for Leeds Festival Lost Property:

As Leeds Festival 2023 becomes a memory the Festival Angels are putting out a final call for people to claim items that have ended up in Lost Property.

Hundreds of items have already been returned to owners and it is hoped the final push will see the majority of items returned to the owners before the 1st October closing date.

Along with assorted clothing, bags and jewellery, the Festival Angels Lost Property also has:

52 wallets,
25 mobile phones,
109 full and provisional driving licences,
hundreds of bank cards,
3 passports,
dozens of sets of keys.

Festival goers are invited to visit leedsfestivalangels.org.uk to access the LiffHappens database of unclaimed items. Most of the items are photographed but some deliberately have no image so that we can match descriptions with the item.

Unclaimed items will be donated to St George's Crypt, the relevant agencies or destroyed.

​Festival Angels, who this year had two hundred and five volunteers working at Leeds Festival, have successfully reunited hundreds of items both at and following Leeds Festival.

Two hundred and five Festival Angel volunteers spent a week at Bramham Park, North Leeds as part of the welfare support at Leeds Festival.

The Prayer Cafe, offered unlimited drinks and a Festival Angels mug for £7, and proved to be a god-send to festival goers.

Lost Property, which this year encouraged people to pre-register phones, reunited items and owners and will continue to do so for the next few weeks.

Detached teams and AIR (Assistance, Information, Response) Hubs offered support on the campsites and helped hundreds of festival-goers over the week.

The chariot team offered hot drinks and chat to security based around the massive festival site.

​See pictures here

The festival also honoured Kate Dickinson who had the vision and inspiration for a Prayer Cafe at Leeds Festival at the age of 79. Kate passed away earlier this year and we unveiled a plague in her memory: 

Apologies for the lack of newsletters from ROC Angels - summer is our full on busy season with several Festival Angels teams alongside supporting Street Angels, etc. 

This year has seen over 400 volunteers serve at 14 music festivals either as Festival Angels or through teams that ROC Angels support. Between us we have met and engaged with tens of thousands of people - many of them young people - in our heart to show and share that Jesus Loves Festivals! Thank you to all our summer volunteers and those who serve our communities year round.

Street Angels and other News Stories:

​Maaate (Phase two of the Mayor of London's Violence Against Women and Girls campaign)

Guildford Street and Community Angels Summer Newsletter
​
The Sanctuary Seekers of Bradford - an amazing film worth a watch to help gain an insight into asylum seekers and refugees who have fled horrendous situations and are looking to make the UK home. 

First night for Rhyl Street Angels

Guildford Street / Community Angels having a fundraising quiz night with curry on Friday October 13, 7.30 - 10.30pm at St Saviour's Church, Guildford, with a prize draw for a weeks holiday for 6 in Devon. Details can be found at https://gtcc.org.uk/angels-quiz-night/ We'd love to see you there and you'd be supporting all our amazing community projects. Bookings now live. Thank you!

New Street Angels are launching in the next few weeks in both Accrington and Chester. Please contact Paul if you would like to be involved in these 2 new teams and pray for the steering groups pulling these new teams together. 

Paul - the founder of Street Angels - recorded a PodCast with Always Better Than Yesterday - you can find it on Spotify, YouTube, Google Podcasts, etc - go via abty.co.uk/podcast?

Third Space Ministries, who head up Club Angels and Illuminate Soho, recently held a celebration reception in Lambeth Palace. Pictured is Carolyn Skinner, the founder, with Archbishop Justin Welby. Third Space also ran 'Love All Serve All' in the famous Wimbledon Tennis Queue. 

​A team from Bristol University joined the Street Angels Spain in Magaluf over the summer. 

Volunteers from several projects were part of a Street Angels team at Royal Ascot keeping the race-goers safe and supplied in flip-flops after they left the races. 

Eighteen local projects benefited from flip-flops donated to ROC Angels by Street Pastors. 

Maidenhead Street Angels and Thames Valley Heartbeat have joined together to donate a new defibrillator at St Mary’s Church in Maidenhead town centre. Thanks also to Windsor and Maidenhead Christian Trust for their support.

​Sadly a lot of our towns and cities have seen a massive increase in homelessness over the years. We are supporting this new initiative The Homeless Pastors to help offer pastoral support and care to those within the homeless community. If this is your heart, or as a local project you want to do more to pastoral support locally, please follow The Homeless Pastors Facebook page.

Aylesbury Street Angels were donated sleeping bags by the Salvation Army charity shop to hand out to rough sleepers they come across in the town. 

​To keep up to date with ROC Angels news and that of our local projects follow us on socials - rocstreetangels (Facebook, Insta, TikTok, X and Threads). 

Blog written for ROC website

Angels have appeared at music festivals across the UK over the last few months!

Festival Angels started life as a Prayer Cafe, the inspiration of the late Kate Dickinson. Aged 79 she had a vision to run a Prayer Cafe at Leeds Festival which was held every August Bank Holiday weekend in the neighbouring village. 

The first year, 2011, proved so successful that in year two it was rebranded Festival Angels with volunteer teams beginning to take on more roles across the Leeds Festival site. 

Kate, who passed away earlier this year, will be honoured by Festival Angels and Festival Republic with a special celebration and plaque unveiling on the Wednesday afternoon of Leeds Festival 2023. 

​The ministry and work of Festival Angels has grown at Leeds Festival and several other music festivals across the UK. The 2023 season started with a team at Porthleven Food Festival in April and has included Tunes in the Dunes, several festivals in Upton-upon-Severn, Download at Castle Donington, Parklife in Manchester, Yarty Party in East Devon, Kendal Calling, a DJ Back to Back Relay in Manchester, Creamfields North and, the biggest team of over two hundred volunteers, at Leeds. Festival Angels also supported the work of The Church at Glastonbury and Street Pastors at Reading Festival. 

​Paul Blakey MBE, the CEO of ROC Angels, who oversee Festival Angels, comments, "Music festivals are one of the biggest mission opportunities in the UK with tens of thousands of people taking time out, relaxing, enjoying great music, trying new experiences and meeting new people. Our Jesus Loves Festivals tattoos and selfie banners are a big hit with many asking questions or sharing thoughts on Jesus and faith. It is an amazing privilege when festival goers approach you to say that the reason they had the confidence to attend the festival was that with the Festival Angels on site they knew they would be safe and looked after. My thanks to all the amazing volunteers who make Festival Angels happen."

Temporary tattoos, proclaiming that Jesus Loves Festivals, have proved a must have festival accessory with many requests from people to 'give me Jesus!' The offer of a tattoo has sometimes led to in-depth conversations around Jesus, faith and life. 

​The 2023 festival season has seen over four hundred Festival Angel volunteers of all ages invest thousands of hours to be part of welfare support. 

Some of the Kendal Calling team posed for a selfie with musician Example, after his main stage performance, which became the lead photo on his Insta and Facebook profile reaching thousands of people. 

​For more details visit festivalangels.org.uk or search festivalangels on Facebook and TikTok or festivalangels1 on Instagram. 

Forty six Festival Angels were in the fields for our fourth year at Kendal Calling. Set in scenic Lowther Deer Park the team were on hand running a Safe Hub in the campsites and detached patrols across the whole site. Festival Angels were part of the welfare offer to festival-goers.

Over the six days we engaged and supported festival-goers in a variety of ways including: helping people find space and set up camp; handing out essential items such as sanitary products and plasters; giving out Jesus Loves Festivals tattoos; filling pot noodles so people could have food; supporting welfare and security with a wide range of incidents; making time for people to ensure that they had a safe and enjoyable Kendal Calling experience. 

Several festival-goers said to us that they would be safe at Kendal Calling because the Festival Angels were on site and security thanked us for sorting out several issues before they became a major problem. 

A Festival Angels team selfie with musician Example was shared on his social media with over half a million followers on his Instagram alone. 

Thanks to the amazing team who went and beyond time and again. ​

Phase two of the Mayor of London's Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) campaign launched this morning. Last year’s ‘Have a Word’ campaign influenced men to change their behaviour and call out misogyny. It was viewed more than 15 million times, and 85% of men who saw the campaign said they would call out misogyny if they witnessed it.

So today, the Mayor’s launched phase two, which provides men with a simple everyday intervention to adopt – ‘Say maaate to a mate’ when their behaviour towards women crosses the line. New research we’ve commissioned shows that though many men still don’t know how to call out misogyny when they see it. 

‘Say maaate to a mate’ is created based on insights from a behavioral science study commissioned by the Mayor and shows how this one word can prevent low-level misogyny in male groups of friends, without damaging relationships.     

This morning, the Mayor launched an interactive film that will help men test and understand when and how to intervene in instances of misogyny. Directed by Koby Adom (Top Boy), the film demonstrates multiple scenarios of casual misogyny that are too often left uninterrupted and gives viewers the opportunity to intervene. 

For more information, please visit the website - www.london.gov.uk/maaate