Inverness Street Pastors joined with those from Aberdeen and other areas of Scotland for the official launch of Ascension Trust (Scotland), the body that oversees Scottish Street Pastors, at the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh, on 22nd January 2010.

The various Street Pastors initiatives throughout Scotland now come under the auspices of the newly inaugurated Scottish end of the Ascension Trust, an umbrella organisation for a number of Christian initiatives, including Street Pastors.

The event was hosted by Murdo Fraser, MSP, and the keynote address was by Fergus Ewing, MSP, Minister for Community Safety who noted that Street Pastors is the fastest growing initiative in community safety at present in Britain.

Then the Rt. Hon. George Grubb, Lord Lieutenant and Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh spoke about the proven advantages of the conjoint work between the local authority, the police and the church.  Other speakers included Albert Donald, the temporary Assistant Chief Constable of Grampian Police, and the Rev. Alex Millar, Mission and Discipleship Council, Church of Scotland, representing the Moderator of the Church of Scotland.

Les Isaac, Founder of Street Pastors and CEO of The Ascension Trust, spoke, followed by Julaine Hedman, Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Ascension Trust.   Les Isaac then presented the Licence to Sandy Scrimgeour, the new Chair of The Ascension Trust (Scotland) who concluded the speeches.

The same night there were a further 19 new Street Pastors inaugurated in Aberdeen and 35 in Glasgow, with other groups throughout Scotland at various stages of development.

After a conducted tour of the Scottish Parliament building, the Inverness contingent returned to Inverness where the Street Pastor initiative began on 27 April 2007, when Les Isaac had visited and explained the rationale to a group of interested Christians.   Training took place through the following months and on 16 Nov 2007 the first Street Pastors patrol took place in the streets of Inverness.

Street Pastors brings practical Christianity to the needy on the streets of Britain.