Communities living injury free
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Activities
Recent
Watch Out People About project
Communities Living Injury Free and Auckland City Council's
road safety team were approached by a local Mt Albert pedestrian and local
celebrity, Bill Pike to discuss pedestrian issues in Mt Albert. From these
discussions and further talks with other Mt Albert residents the main issue for
the group was confirmed as Mt Albert drivers not giving way to pedestrians as
they exited their driveways.
A project team was formed and the Watch Out People About
campaign was born. A flyer was designed in the shape of a foot with Bill and his
guide dog Noble featuring prominently. The flyer was a friendly reminder to
residents of Mt Albert that pedestrians have the right of way on the footpath
and to please be more careful to give way when exiting their driveways.
The campaign was launched at Everill Orr retirement village
in Mt Albert. Included in the guest list were Councillor Cathy Casey and
Methodist Mission staff. Directly after the launch and in the weeks following
people from the project team and volunteer walkers delivered the flyers to Mt
Albert residents.
The evaluation of the project has shown that the flyer
caused quite a stir in the community with residents still stopping
Bill in the street to thank him for the campaign. Bill and his fellow walkers
have seen a decrease in near misses as they walk along their local footpaths.
Due to local publicity this campaign has been picked up by
three other communities with business associations taking the lead.
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| Bill and Noble out walking, and a walking school bus. |
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Whanau Swim project
A project team led by Communities Living Injury Free and
including collaboration with WaterSafe Auckland, Hilton Brown Swim School,
Public Health Promotion, Public Health Early Childhood Settings and Plunket has
been busy implementing a family swimming lessons and water safety project in Mt
Roskill.
Families were offered a series of five free swimming
lessons in the second week of the April 2008 school holiday break. The lessons also
incorporated relevant water safety messages for the parent/caregiver and child.
For families to register a parent or caregiver had to
commit to being in the pool with their child. This led to some amazing
testimonies:
- parents and grandparents learning to swim with their children/grandchildren
- a Chinese mother who had never had her face under water but ended the week far more confident being in and around water
- a young Pacific Island boy who, at the beginning of the week was fearful of water and by the end of the week, was swimming the width of the pool.
The evaluation of the project is currently taking place, however preliminary findings indicate parents, caregivers and children gained
amazing skills and safety knowledge in the five days of lessons.
The project team have decided to replicate the project to two further Auckland pools.
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| Swimming lesson and learning water safety |
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Western Springs cycle safety event
2008
250 families converged on Western Springs Park in February
for the annual cycle safety event. A collaborative project team which consisted
of Auckland City Road Safety, Communities Living Injury Free, Auckland Regional
Public Health Service, Auckland District Health Board and Plunket were on site
to ensure everyone had a great time and a safe event.
Children were broken into three age groups. Preschoolers
were taken around an obstacle course on their trikes and bikes and were given
safety messages from Fairy Clare. The 6 to 9 year age group were entertained by
Jiggles the clown while having their bikes and helmets checked for safety and
correct use. Led by Jiggles, they then took off on an awesome ride around
Western Springs Lake with adults in tow.
The older age group also had their
helmets and bikes checked and were off on a road ride with police and adults on
bikes. The two older age groups of children were also encouraged to enter a
prize draw with a range of prizes from bike vouchers to bike accessories.
Bigfoot cycles was on site taking children, on their bikes, around an obstacle
course which helped build road riding, confidence, road rule knowledge and
balance skills.
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| On the obstacle course and riding around Western Springs
Lake |
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Past
Safety forum
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Auckland City Council's road safety
co-ordinator talks about staying safe
on
the road. |
|
To celebrate Safety NZ Week in September 2007, Communities Living Injury Free staff joined with Accident Compensation Corporation,
WaterSafe Auckland, the NZ Fire Service and Auckland City Road Safety to bring a two day safety forum to the Selwyn College Refugee
Education for Adults and Families (REAF) programme. In the course of the two day event, participants took part in interactive workshops
and learned vital tips for staying safe in the home, on the road and around fire and water.
Students in the programme also had the opportunity to learn about the dangers of kitchen fires, with the Fire Service demonstrating what
not to do with a kitchen fire on their kitchen fire simulator. The simulator was also popular with passing Selwyn College secondary school
students. Another feature was a half hour session of Modified Tai Chi, which is used to build up strength and reduce your risk of a fall.
Initial feedback shows that students and teachers alike enjoyed the opportunity to learn about safety in a holistic way, and the team
will look at providing a 'refresher' next year.
Train the trainer
Communities Living Injury Free, in partnership with Safekids and Refugees as Survivors Trust, has been developing and piloting a visual
resource and train the trainer programme for new settler communities. The resource, now in draft form and being piloted with local community
groups, is entirely visual, and accompanied by teaching notes in English. This is to enable trained facilitators to give injury prevention
messages to their own communities in their own language.
A total of seven workshops have been held now, with the Burmese, Somali, Sudanese, Afghani, Burundian and Iraqi communities, along with
one workshop held in English for a multi-cultural group. Workshops have been received with huge enthusiasm from community members, with many
people suggesting further topics to be covered in the resource or requesting similar resources for other topics. We acknowledge the support
of Safe Waitakere in supporting the two workshops that have been held in Waitakere City.
The current resource contains information on falls, pedestrian safety for children, burns and scalds, dog safety, car restraints, driveway
run-overs, and electrocution. Requests have also been received for issues such as choking, fireworks safety, jammed fingers, sun safety and
cutting/piercing injuries to be covered.
ACC has also been very supportive of the resource, with four ACC cultural advisors (from Chinese and Korean communities) being trained
in its use. The advisors commented that it was good to have information about preventing injury available, along with the information they
give out on making ACC claims. The resource is also going to be developed along similar lines in Wellington, with the support of the Injury
Prevention Network of Aotearoa NZ (IPNANZ), Wellington City Council and Refugees as Survivors Wellington.
The project team is also delighted to see Refugees as Survivors' input to the project recognised through a Mayoral
Community Safety Award, presented in a ceremony during Safety NZ Week. The project
was also a finalist in the Te Puna Oranga National Community Development Awards.
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| Drive-way Runover prevention kit |
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New community resource launched to raise awareness of Drive-way Runover prevention
On 5 September 2007 at Hoani Waitiiti Marae in Waitakere an Auckland regional drive-way runover prevention resource was launched.
Auckland has seen an increase in admissions of young children injured or killed having been run over in their own driveways. Because of this
an Auckland regional working group was formed to look at how, as a region, we could bring these statistics down.
The group included representation from Communities Living Injury Free (Auckland City
Council), Injury Free Counties Manukau, Safe Waitakere, Plunket,
Public Health and the Child Safety Foundation NZ.
Strategies were developed one of which was to develop a community resource that could be an interactive kit. This would be made available to
community groups free of charge to help them raise awareness in their communities around three key messages:
- check where the children are before reversing your vehicle
- supervise children around places where vehicles are
- separate children's play areas from driveways
The kit enables people to get into a vehicle and see how much they can see through their rear vision and side mirrors. It raises their awareness
that, in most cases, children behind a vehicle cannot be seen.
Contact us if you would like to book the Auckland City Council kit.
Updated August 2008
