Community Safety And The Protecting Our ... - Auckland Council

1. BACKGROUND TO COMMUNITY SAFETY AND THE PROTECTING OURTAMARIKI PROJECTWaitakere City Safety PlanWaitakere has a long history of collaboration in community safety. In 1999, Waitakerewas accredited “Safe Community” status by the World Health Organisation for its effortsin promoting community safety. The City’s first interagency safety plan (led by SafeWaitakere) was produced in June 2000. Involving over 20 agencies, this plandocumented for the first time, the breadth of safety activity that (mainly government)agencies were involved with.Waitakere Safe Under 5sA gap that emerged from the City Safety Plan was the area of under 5s. Concern aboutincreasing levels of injuries in this age group led Safe Waitakere to facilitate the creationof the Safe Under 5 Plan. Through this process, a range of community and statutoryagencies shared information and their plans for making the lives of the under 5s safer inthe 2001-02 year. A number of new projects also resulted from the Safe Under 5planning process including 1 :qqqqqa redirection of existing work so as to target the under 5 population groupthe creation of a “Drive-over prevention project “ by Housing NZ to ensure cautionsignage was visible in all of their larger propertiesa safety forum for pre-schools and early childhood centrespeople and agencies working together that may not have beforepreparation of an information pack on child health and safety issues for pre-schoolsand entertainment venues for under 5sDevelopment of Protecting our TamarikiFrom the Safe Under 5 process another major gap emerged, this time in the area offamily violence. Discussions between Safe Waitakere Injury Prevention and theWaitakere Safer Community Council Trust in 2002 resulted in joint funding for a newtargeted initiative – “Protecting our Tamariki”. Though spanning the general area offamily violence, the main focus of this project has been on:qqqyounger children (under 5) and their families in Waitakere City.primary prevention of violence, rather than focusing on identified ‘at-risk’children/families, or on children who have already come to the attention of medicalservices, support services, schools and/or the police.preventing violence against children within their home environment.In December 2002, an interagency advisory group was brought together by SafeWaitakere to guide the development of the Protecting our Tamariki project. Bydeveloping a strategic and citywide approach to primary family violence prevention, itwas hoped that the City would be in a better position to:1 For more detailed information please see the Safe Under 5 Evaluation Report May 2002PAGE 1