 Safe Waitakere
Safe Waitakere is a city/community safety team that works
within the Community Wellbeing Directorate of the Waitakere City Council.
What's New?
Parents needed for a
research project on a seminar series for parenting
young teenagers
The Triple P Research Group at the University of
Auckland is running a study evaluating the
effectiveness of the Teen Triple P (Positive
Parenting Program) Seminar Series. These seminars
are designed especially for parents of teenagers who
are making the transition into secondary school.
What is Triple P?
Triple P is a system of easy to implement parenting
solutions that helps solve current parenting
problems and prevents future problems before they
arise. Triple P is backed by over 30 years of
international research, and has been shown to be
effective for many different families, with many
different problems in many different circumstances.
What are the seminars about?
There are 3 90-minute seminars in the series:
- Raising Responsible Teenagers
- Raising Competent Teenagers
- Getting Teenagers Connected
The series will teach you about the principles of
positive parenting and positive strategies for
managing the behaviour of teenagers and improving
family relationships.
We are looking for parents to participate in the
project who:
- have a teenager who is about to start or who has
just started high school;
- are interested in attending 3 seminars on parenting
teenagers;
- and are willing to come to the
Kelston Community
Centre for the seminars.
As part of the research project, parents will be
asked to complete a number of questionnaires to
assess the effectiveness of the seminars. Your
teenager will be invited to participate by
completing questionnaires about family
relationships.
The seminar series is free of charge and parents can
keep all the materials that are given to you.
Seminars will be conducted at the Kelston Community
Centre over 3 Monday evenings in May and repeated
again in July. Parents will be picked randomly to
attend in either May or July.
If you are interested in volunteering for the
research project or would like further information,
please contact Nalini Chand on (09) 623 8899 ext.
83042.
For more information on Triple P, please visit:
www.triplep.net.
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Triple P Poster (Size 179K)
Approved by the University of Auckland Human
Participants Ethics Committee on 20th August 2009
for 3 years. Reference 2009/284.
What is Safe Waitakere?
The primary functions of Safe Waitakere are centred around
the principles of partnership and collaboration with key
community and government agencies. Together, the team
identify shared strategies and goals for addressing various
community health and crime prevention issues. The Safe
Waitakere team focuses on harm minimisation and preventative
outcomes.
The Safe Waitakere Team is positioned within the Community Wellbeing
Directorate of
the Council alongside other Social,
Cultural and Wellbeing functions and the councils broader strategic functions.
Safe Waitakere operates in a collaborative way and a core
function of the team is to establish and maintain key
partnerships with community, agencies and others. As a
result most of the portfolios within the team also have
either an advisory group or governance group which consists
of various community partners.
What are the key community issues Safe Waitakere tackles?
Within Safe Waitakere there are five focus areas or
portfolios. To find out more on a particular portfolio,
follow the links to find out more on the work of each:
Background
In 1999 Waitakere
applied to become New Zealand's first World Health
Organisation (WHO) accredited Safe Community. Safe Waitakere
organised the first Community Safety conference in New
Zealand, bringing together many agencies and communities
from all over the country. The conference was held at the
Kura Kaupapa at Hoani Waititi Marae, symbolic of the close
partnerships established over the foundation years. One
outcome of the conference was the subsequent establishment
of the Injury Prevention Network Aotearoa New Zealand.
The culmination of the conference was the ceremony at which
Waitakere was presented with its accreditation by Leif
Svanstrom of the Karolinska Institute, representing the
World Health Organisation.
In September 2006 Safe Waitakere started on the journey of
seeking re-accreditation as a WHO Safe Community.
In December 2006 Waitakere was successful in its application
for WHO Safe Community re-accreditation. A re-accreditation
ceremony took place at the Council and all
stakeholders involved in the consultation process were
invited to attend. Attendees at the ceremony also included
representatives from the project steering group, working
group and members from the various advisory/governance
groups.
Safe Waitakere's international
standing
Mark Maxlow, Safe Waitakere Team Leader, says the work of
this team has been internationally recognised, and this sits
well with Waitakere's globally recognised status as an Eco
City and a City of Peace.
"Waitakere was re-accredited as a World Health Organisation
(WHO) International Safe Community in 2006. Waitakere was the
first community in New Zealand to receive the award back in
1999 and it was great to reflect on our history in the
"safety" arena and share the experience with everyone that
was able to attend the re-accreditation ceremony. This is a
major coup for Waitakere on the international stage," Mark Maxlow says.
 How is Safe Waitakere funded?
A significant amount of funding that supports the 10-person
Safe Waitakere team, and its associated activity, is sourced
through long-term contracts secured between the Waitakere City
Council, the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Ministry of
Justice (MoJ):
Although the Safe Waitakere Team is sited currently within
the Community Wellbeing Directorate, the scope and scale of the team's work
necessitates strong relationships across the council.
Also the team works across the Waitakere community,
utilising a focused evidence-based approach.
Safe Waitakere's Mission
As part of its mission, the council has adopted five strategic
priorities. These are regarded as overarching, so everything
the council does must take them into account.
These
priorities include:
- The Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti O Waitangi)
- Sustainable Development
- First Call for Children
- Safe City
- Lifelong Learning
While all have an impact on community safety and the work
of the Safe
Waitakere Team, the First Call for Children and Safe City
priorities have and continue to play major roles.
Safe Waitakere contributes to the council's 10-year plan.
The Long Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP).
Under the provisions of the Local Government Act 2002 all
local authorities are required to undertake a consultation
and planning process culminating in the production of a Long
Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP).
This identifies the
community outcomes of the city, and provides a long term (10
year) focus for the local authority's decisions and
activities.
In Waitakere, the current 2006 -2016 LTCCP is built on eco city principles. The council's core and discretionary
services and activities have been grouped into nine
strategic platforms:
- Urban and Rural Villages
- Integrated Transport and Communication
- Strong Innovative Economy
- Active Democracy
- Strong Communities
- Green Network
- Three Waters
- Sustainable Energy and Clean Air
- Zero Waste
Strong communities and community safety
The one platform most directly concerned with community
safety is Strong Communities.
This means that community safety is woven into the long
term goals of the city and should be considered at times
when key decisions are being made. The activity of the Safe
Waitakere team - at both a strategic and operational level -
is directly related to the Safe City strategic priority.
The
vision for this strategic priority is:
Waitakere - a safe place to be.
In summary this priority requires that in addition to formal
occupational health and safety considerations, the general
safety of the community is integral to all of the council's
activities and planning, and that the council advocates for
and supports safety initiatives with its planning partners.
A core purpose of the Safe Waitakere team is to:
- Provide a working unit within the council focusing on the Safe
City priority.
- To perform the role of catalyst and connector for
community, agencies, partnerships and Central Government in
all City Safety issues.
- Develop programmes and initiatives that provide positive
city safety outcomes.
Contact information
For
more information email
safe.waitakere@waitakere.govt.nz.
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