Welcome to CNI (Christian Nightlife Initiatives) Network!

This short booklet provides an overview of some of what CNI Network can offer to local projects, church, community and partners. Please do take a few minutes to read it as the CNI Network you know about may only be a small part of all CNI Network is doing.

I am always amazed that we do so much on so little! Our 2018/19 accounts show an income and expenditure of around £40,000! This booklet shares how CNI Network is: supporting a wide variety of local projects around the world; linking church, community, police, local authority, volunteers, festivals and others together to serve and make a difference; celebrating good news in the media and on social media; making relevant resources available to share the Christian message; facilitating networking and partnership working; getting alongside to offer wisdom and support.

I invite you to stand with us anew. Grant funding has made a lot of what we do possible but moving forward we need to be less reliant on the maybes of that and build up our regular giving base. I also invite you to pray, to partner, to follow our social media, to volunteer - to be part of the movement of making our streets (and clubs, festivals, people) like new again!

Paul Blakey MBE - founder and CEO - CNI Network

Local Projects

The most well known aspect of CNI Network is the work of Street Angels. Serving on the frontline of communities, mainly within the night-time economy, these volunteer teams offer help and support to anyone and everyone who is or may become vulnerable. The teams work in partnership locally with Police, Local Authority, BID (Business Improvement District), Purple Flag, pubs and clubs. Our street teams are all locally driven with a range of uniforms and names including Town Pastors, Street Chaplains and NightLight.

The role of CNI Network is to offer support and resources to new and existing Street Angels teams. We support a local area to take the idea of working within a community at night to a reality as we present the vision, network with partners and share resources. To some we offer local branch status which means a local group is under the charitable status and insurance of CNI Network. Ongoing we offer as much help and support as a local project needs and celebrate good news stories via our social media, newsletter and blog. We also promote the idea of setting up regional clusters which encourage strategic working and partnerships.

The original vision for what was to become Street Angels was for a safe place drop-in. However due to the number of volunteers we quickly became a two-fold approach of street patrols alongside the drop-in which developed over the years to include first-aid provision, a town centre base for emergency services, counselling, prayer support and much more.

Many of our local projects run a safe place drop-in alongside street patrols. These drop-ins include buildings such as a church or cafe and mobile units including a coffee van, minibus, double decker and a converted mobile doctors surgery! Some Street Angels also run support schemes for those who find themselves homeless. Staffed by our volunteer teams they are a much welcome oasis of peace in the night-life busyness.

Festival Angels is our fastest growing ministry within CNI Network. Music festivals and major events are growing in the UK so CNI Network has developed Festival Angels since the local church started a prayer cafe at Leeds Festival in 2011. In 2019 we ran or supported Festival Angels at 16 music festivals including Big Church Day Out, Kendal Calling, Creamfields, YNot, Boardmasters, Eastern Electrics and Leeds.

Festival Angels is flexible to meet the request of the festival organisers and we can look like detached teams, safe hubs, prayer cafes and lost property.

CNI Network is involved in the running of Festival Angels at the larger festivals (generally those with an attendance of 25,000 - 110,000) and support the local church or local projects to run teams at smaller festivals. Our model can also be used at sporting events and community events.

This year our work at Leeds Festival featured on BBC Yorkshire news with a social media clip having over 180,000 views - see festivalangels.org.uk for details and to watch the video.

With a simple mission of ‘help, chat, listen, care’ the teams of Club Angels hang out inside nightclubs and pubs to do just that for visitors and staff.

Club Angels is a partnership between CNI Network and Third Space Ministries. They offer a listening ear, help with those who become unwell, ensuring people have a safe way of getting home as well as praying for the club; for situations to calm and sometimes with those out clubbing and staff. Club Angels seek to love the person in front of them in whatever way they can - clubangels.org.uk

Paul, CEO of CNI Network, had the vision to encourage more links between faith communities and the police service. Sharing this vision with Debra Green from ROC (Redeeming Our Communities) and Lee Russell from Christian Police Association we set up #FaithAndPoliceTogether. Acting Inspector Marie Reavey, a seconded police officer, has worked on this vision and in 2019 a conference at the College of Policing saw 91 delegates from policing across the UK look at how the police can broaden the thinking around how faith communities can contribute towards social cohesion. For more information see faithandpolicetogether.org.uk

CNI Network run the #Do1NiceThing Love Your Streets challenge. This was set up as part of a new Street Angels launch on Valentine's Day a few years ago which also marked the start of Lent. We developed a Lent-full of simple ideas that help people to do one small act of kindness that makes a difference for others and the wider community.

#Do1NiceThing has featured in The Sun (with every day’s challenge listed) as part of a feature on Lent. In 2019 CNI Network produced a Lent Prayer Guide to tie in with #Do1NiceThing. Find the Lent challenges at loveyourstreets.org.uk or the Lent Guide at cninetwork.org/lent

The flexibility of CNI Network means that local projects are supported to trial new ideas to best meet local areas of need. As CNI Network we offer support and resources that have helped make ideas a reality for local projects that help them serve communities and people in pioneering ways.

Other projects that are part of the CNI Network family include:

NightChurch - opening a church building within clubbing areas to offer space for spirituality, prayer, conversation, creativity and coffee.

Community Angels - working within housing estates, supporting those who are lonely, helping those in need of further support to find the right agency, running Youth Angels (detached youth work) and much more.

Pub and Club Chaplaincy - many of our teams have become chaplains to those who work within the night-time economy - making time to listen, have coffee and offer long term support.

Daytime patrols - working on market days or special events - using the Street Angels model during the day!

Ski Angels - as part of our worldwide family we have Ski Angels working in Meribel (run by Altitude Mission). We also have Street Angels / similar projects working in places such as Magaluf, Tenerife, Seychelles and with projects linked through YWAM’s Summer Nightlife Outreach. We are currently planning how we expand in USA.

Sharing Good News

CNI Network is a great believer in ensuring that good news stories are shared regularly with the aim of showcasing positive activity of local projects and the Christian church. We work tirelessly with the media, especially at key times of the year such as Christmas and the summer festival season. Our work has featured in a wide range of publications such as Woman and Home, Sunday Mirror, Financial Times, The Sun, The Times, Sunday People, The Independent, The Guardian, Sorted, Woman Alive, Liberti, Inspire, podcasts, national and regional TV and radio.

CNI Network is active on a number of social media platforms where we share stories from local projects and partner organisations as well as our own news and updates. Our blog is updated with stories as they happen and our regular newsletter further showcases our achievements and influence to local projects, supporters and friends.

We believe that we should be the ones making the news not just watching the news and CNI Network is successful in creating stories that news outlets feature.

As a Christian organisation our heart is to make known that people are amazing and have a plan and purpose in life. We believe Jesus is for people and loves people. Through prayer and action we have seen communities and people changed and CNI Network is committed to seeing this in all the places we work.

As part of our mission we have several resources that help unpack the Christian faith including our Jesus Loves Clubbers and Jesus Loves Festivals design and Gospels (we find at festivals people love a selfie with Jesus!!!). We also work with other organisations such as the FlyJesus banner plane.

Our founder and CEO, Paul Blakey MBE, is in great demand as a speaker. He shares with humour and passion the story of how Street Angels was set up in 2005 and how, through CNI Network, the vision has expanded to include Club Angels, Festival Angels and more across the UK and overseas. Paul also shares about receiving his MBE in 2010 (and how he made Her Majesty the Queen laugh!). Several of our local projects also give talks on work locally.

Our book -‘Street Angels - the amazing story from binge to better’ - has sold over 3500 copies, has been the subject of book groups and presented to several Prime Ministers and members of Royalty.

CNI Network has developed an Alcohol and Safety resource for presenting in schools, youth groups, etc. This introduces young people to our work through local projects as well as discussing safe drinking.

We have worked with several musicians over the years to help tell the story of faith in action through song and video. These are then made available to local projects as well as for radio / podcast / website use.

CNI Network has developed SafeNightOut.party a web site and poster design with safety tips that were contributed by our local projects. These are available free of charge and are often shared on various social media at busy times of the year as well as in church and community magazines.

Network & Partnership

As the name suggests CNI Network is a networking organisation. We network local projects with other local projects often encouraging the setting up of clusters within Policing regions. We provide opportunity for networking through occasional conference events. We network with a wide range of organisations (including statutory bodies, faith, business, charity) where we offer mutual support and encouragement as well as working together towards seeing communities changed for the better. CNI Network believe in unity and that we are stronger together!

Throughout the 12 years of CNI Network we have built a strong partnership with several other organisations. These partners offer further support and resources to our local projects or help CNI Network to showcase the amazing work of our volunteer teams at the highest levels.

Benefits to local projects of partnership include competitively priced insurance via Access Insurance; reduced entry cost to Big Church Day Out; free British Red Cross first aid course; legal help via AFVS and much more - cninetwork.org/resources

Our CEO and founder Paul Blakey MBE has over 15 years experience of night-time economy and frontline community impact work.

Paul’s experience includes: setting up Street Angels; growing the project in a local setting; envisioning others to see the ministry replicated in local communities around the world; setting up a charity; marketing and social media expertise; seeking wisdom that enables the best outcome for the project and the community it serves.

Trustees of CNI Network also have a wealth of expertise available to local projects.

CNI Network offers free or low cost consultancy that will get alongside your project, church or charity to help strengthen the work and the impact it can make. Our heart is to equip, resource, support and celebrate!

Stand With Us

This is a sample of all that CNI Network is up to! Our heart is supporting, pioneering, celebrating and equipping as we journey together towards #MakingCityStreetsLikeNewAgain

We would love for you to stand with us. CNI Network has an annual expenditure of around £40,000 which is extremely good value for all that we do! We invite you to stand with us… pray for us, follow us on social media, sign up to our newsletter, volunteer with one our local projects or support us financially (Co-Operative Bank / 08-92-99 / 65462379 / Street Angels - Christian Nightlife Initiatives).

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