Safe Waitakere Alcohol Project (SWAP)
Safe Waitakere is addressing ways to reduce alcohol
related crime, in response to the high incidence of alcohol
related offending in the Waitakere area.
Background
The Safe Waitakere Alcohol project originated in the late
1990s as a community pilot programme aimed at reducing
alcohol related harm. The project's key goals are to support
and promote the council's strategic objectives and those
expressed in the Safe Waitakere Alcohol Project contract
with the Ministry of Health, which involve:
- Strong community leadership on alcohol-related
issues
- Advocacy and partnership management on behalf of the
council and the residents of the city;
- Managing a specific portfolio of projects to reduce
the level and likeliehood of alcohol related harm
amongst residents of Waitakere.
Alcohol in Public places
The Waitakere City Council is examining ways of reducing the
amount of alcohol related offending in public places. There
is a range of options that could be considered including
some of the following;
- Increased lighting,
- Increased CCTV (cameras) in hot spot locations,
- Implementation of liquor bans in areas of concern,
- Advocating for more police resources,
- Increased paid security patrols,
- Examining locations and opening hours of licensed
premises,
- Status quo (do nothing).
The Planning and Regulatory Committee of the council met on
the 10th June 2008 to consider reviewing the Control of
Liquor in Public Places Bylaw 2003. At present liquor bans
are only in place at Piha during the summer. The Planning
and Regulatory committee have considered a report
recommending that a further 24 locations be included, and
the committee have asked that the public be officially
consulted with on the proposal.
Reducing alcohol related crime in
Waitakere - Project Respect
Project Respect originated after an analysis of the crime
statistics showed that a disproportionate amount of
alcohol related offending was committed by Maori and Pacific male youths,
aged between 15 to 24 years.
To reverse these trends, Safe Waitakere became part of a
multi-agency collaboration, known as Project Respect.
A working party was established comprising Safe Waitakere,
Police, Accident Compensation Corporation, Waitemata Maori
wardens and the District Licensing Agency.
A multi-tiered strategy was developed, comprising:
- Targeted controlled purchase operations in licensed
premises (on and off)
- Targeted shoulder-tap operations at venues that have
a known problem with youth congregations outside
licensed premises
- Maori and Pacific Island warden patrols in hot spot
locations during key times of day/night
- The development of specific marketing messages aimed
at Maori and Pacific Island parents and older adults
(Supply) and the offending age group
- Focused distribution of the Waitakere Parent Pack
- Research related to youth trends (late 2007)
- Research related to public perceptions of safety in
town centres
- High visibility police-led operations and multi
agency operations in hot spot locations at key times
- Liquor Ban implementation within key spots in the
city is being addressed through draft bylaws, after
indicative research showed over 80 per cent were in
favour of introducing liquor bans in known hot spots
around Waitakere
A six-month pilot was conducted from November 2006 to May
2007 and the results saw a reduction of alcohol related
crime in Glen Eden and New Lynn. Due to these positive
results the council has allocated further funding towards
the continuation of patrols on the street by the Maori and
Pacific wardens.
It's too late to cry! - Maori and
Pacific social supply marketing message
SWAP, in conjunction with community partners, has developed
a message aimed at parents and older whanau that supply
alcohol to their kids. The image is designed to highlight
the major consequence of supplying alcohol to kids, and that
is death.
The message was recently evaluated and found to be hard
hitting and believable. The message was developed in Maori
and English and has now been translated into five Pacific
Island languages.
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| Cook Island
version(Size 1231K) |
Maori
version
(Size 1230K) |
Niuean
version
(Size 1232K) |
Samoan
version
(Size 1232K) |
Tongan
version
(Size 1232K) |
Tuvaluan
version
(Size 1230K) |
The Parent Pack
The pack was designed for parents and contains tools and
information to help them understand and manage issues
pertaining to their teenagers.
Topics include:
- Raising teenagers
- Alcohol
- Drugs
- Sex
- Parenting parties
- Tagging
- Violence
- Internet safety
- School stand-downs
- Bullying
- Depression in young people
The pack has been produced following community feedback and
an analysis of current information available. SWAP has
identified that a large number of the issues faced by
teenagers show alcohol as a key component. The pack has now
been finalised via collaboration with CAYAD and a large
number of other agencies and community groups, including;
Police, CADS, Health West, West Auckland Youth Services,
Altered High, Hoani Waititi Marae and many participating
parents.
30,000 copies of the parent pack have been printed for
distribution in the Waitakere community. Within the first
week over 10,000 copies were supplied to schools within
Waitakere.
Hard copies of the packs are available by emailing
safe.waitakere@waitakere.govt.nz or you can
download a copy below.
Note: You will need to have 
Adobe Acrobat Reader
installed on your computer in order to view and print this document. For
help opening PDF files or tips on copying information see Helpful
Tips.
The Parent Pack
(Size K)
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For
more information email
