How to start your own Neighbourhood Support group

It is not always necessary for members of the community to be approached by Neighbourhood Support or Police to set up a Neighbourhood Support group. Many existing groups started off their life without reference to anyone in Neighbourhood Support or otherwise. This website offers guidelines in the shape of objectives and a contact for each District to offer avenues of assistance where a bit of personal help may be needed.

We thought it would be a good idea to provide a simple rundown on How to Get Started:

Step 1 Make contact

Contact your local police station, council, or a Neighbourhood Support contact person

If you live in an area where there is no Neighbourhood Support coordinator nor Community Constable to help you set up a group, we will do all we can to assist at arms length to support you during your set up period.

Step 2 Find members

The local Neighbourhood Support coordinator will help:

determine a practical size for your group
coordinate invites to join the group
set up the initial group 'get together'
identify the volunteer contact person and a deputy for the group

Step 3 Start Up meeting

The local Neighbourhood Support coordinator will attend the first meeting and:

explain how a Neighbourhood Support group works
distribute information packs and street signs
help gather details for a group contact list
stay in contact with the group via the contact person

Step 4 Follow up

The group contact person will:

distribute the contact list to their group members and keep it up to date
distribute information such as newsletters and crime alerts
arrange future meetings (if required) including an annual 'get together'

The contact person is referred to as a Street Contact. This role is crucial in keeping information up to date and in feeding information back to the community.

Resources and other supporting mechanisms can be accessed by contacting any of the above persons. Signs, stickers, leaflets and folders are provided by Neighbourhood Support New Zealand as part of your start-up and ongoing maintenance of your group.