Street Pastors could be patrolling the streets of Wick and Thurso on Friday and Saturday nights by the summer, the Church of Scotland has announced.
The volunteers, already a presence in Aberdeen, Elgin, Inverness, Orkney, Peterhead and Stornoway, patrol towns late at night and in the early hours at weekends to help people.
They carry a kit containing items ranging from hot drinks and foil blankets to ward off the cold, to flip flops for people with sore feet – and generally aim to defuse situations.
The Reverend Sandy Gunn of Ascension Trust Scotland, the umbrella organisation of Street Pastors, said local councillors and the police in Caithness have indicated that they are in favour of the ecumenical support scheme being rolled out.
“In an age when many feel that they are just a number, Street Pastors seek to show and share the care of Jesus who noticed and valued all kinds of folk,” he added.
Street Pastors are drawn from local churches of different denominations and they generally patrol areas where bars and clubs are located from 10pm to 4am.
They wear branded jackets and caps and carry backpacks containing flip flops for people who have taken off their high heels because their feet are sore, an anti-date rape plastic bottle stopper, and foil blankets for people who are cold.
Volunteers also offer worse-for-wear revellers hot drinks, chocolate and lollipops to try and help them maintain their blood sugar levels.
The volunteers, all over 18, are able to deal with many low-level situations that ordinarily would be handled by the police such as calming down people who are being rowdy.
Mr Gunn, a former minister at Pulteneytown and Thrumster Church in Wick, said that although volunteers would be patrolling Wick and Thurso they would do their best to help people in distress safely return to their homes in outlying communities.
Ascension Trust was one of the six organisations that the Church of Scotland Guild supported between 2015-18 and members raised £131,804.
Iain Whyte, secretary to the Guild, said: “The Guild was delighted to have worked with the Street Pastors as they seek to be alongside people, mostly young people, at times of stress, vulnerability and even danger.
“We see the work of the Street Pastors as a living out of the Guild’s tenets of worship, prayer, fellowship and action and as a practical demonstration of our call to serve.”
Anyone in Caithness interested in volunteering should contact alan.finch@maydayconsulting.co.uk