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In this section
Projects
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Projects
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| Bill and Noble out walking, and a walking school bus. |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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
