Bulletin Board March - April 2008

FROM THE DESK OF ROGER EYNON
NEIGHBOURHOOD SUPPORT NEW ZEALAND

Kia ora and welcome to the 8th edition of Bulletin Board. In this edition we celebrate the recent successes of our organisation locally and nationally. I also touch on what we need to do to ensure that our general audience know and appreciate what we do and how well we do it.

You can contact me on: roger.eynon@police.govt.nz or ddi - 04 470 7022.

This Bulletin Board is designed to give you a brief update on how things are progressing with Neighbourhood Support throughout the country.

PLEASE PASS IT ON TO YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD SUPPORT CONTACTS

Congratulations to Waitakere Neighbourhood Support

19th March

A big thank you to District Coordinator Graeme Smith for inviting me to the group AGM. I was pleased to be able to accept the invitation to attend and witness the election of the inaugural committee following on from the steering group that proved to be so successful in getting this group back into action after it had lapsed.

Good news for Auckland City Neighbourhood Support

27th March

A representative group from NSNZ met with John Banks - Mayor of Auckland City and promoted the benefits of the organisation and how we envisaged our involvement can make a real difference to this area. The meeting went better than any of us could have hoped for and real progress was made. One of the results of this meeting was that column space is to be given to Auckland City Neighbourhood Support in City Scene - with an estimated circulation of 260,000. Kevin Hicks, the Auckland District Co-ordinator will be leading the journalistic excellence for this exciting initiative.

Visit to Levin and Shannon

14th April

Once again it was time to show that I am not glued to my chair in Wellington. An invite from Deputy Delegate Central District Wendy Foreman enabled me to see what goes on in Levin Police watch-house, where Wendy works and then on to Shannon for the local NS group meeting. Well known local constable, Charlie Rudd, provided information and trends on local criminal activities. Charlie also provided support and advice that demonstrated that the community policing message is crucial to NS group success.

Senior Citizens Advisory Council

17th April

Morris Cheer (Police Community Support Manager) and I had the pleasure to be invited to address the Senior Citizens Advisory Council to the Minister, the Honourable Ruth Dyson. We were able to speak at length regarding the benefits to be had for older community members where a Neighbourhood Support group existed. Importantly, the issues relating to crime and safety were the focus of our presentation and were well received. We have now been invited by the Office for Senior Citizens to address the inter-departmental meeting feeding into the Positive Aging Strategy. We await a date for this meeting which is normally attended by 20 different central government agencies.

Taupo Party in the Park - Riverside Park

20th April

Taupo’s Own Big Jazz Band provided the background music to a successful Party in the Park. This was an event held to enable neighbours to meet each other and renew old relationships and start fresh ones. The band's soothing tones could be heard up to 2 kms away and a couple who lived across the river some distance away, followed the sound to find where it was coming from and stopped to enjoy the afternoon.

The venue for the event was chosen, specifically with renewing neighbourhood relationships in mind. This area of Taupo has recently been associated with less happier events. Taupo Neighbourhood Support Coordinator, Joy Johnson, along with Community Patrol representatives and with the support of the Community Constable, Grant Tullock, considered it was time to celebrate the positive things that communities bring to each other and at the same time bring different organisations together with one eye on future joint working.

A representative crowd, largely family groups, braved the elements and enjoyed the BBQ being hosted by the Kiwanis as a cold southerly wind swept across Taupo.

Victim Support was on site with information on victim’s rights and the broader support services available. Children had the opportunity to have their faces painted whilst parents circulated and chatted. Taupo Violence Intervention Coordinator, Nina Pederson, distributed Taupo Community services cards for those who wanted them. Taupo Community Patrols had their patrol vehicle on site and explained how they were additional eyes and ears to the police.

Senior Constable Grant Tullock brought his patrol car and young and old enjoyed sitting in the car, experiencing the lights and sirens at close quarters.

All in all it was a worthwhile event with the opportunity for the attending organisations to recruit new members. Neighbourhood Support marked their efforts by attracting three new groups. The events' success has sparked the idea of a major Party in the Park in November to mark neighbours week later this year for the Taupo community.

Joy Johnson was there to introduce neighbours to each other with complimentary introductions by both Taupo Community Patrols and the Community Constable who jointly contributed to an informal question and answer session to promote their roles within the community.

Roll on November!

Acting Chair for NSNZ - Paul Miller

Paul is currently combining his role as Crime Prevention Adviser/NS District Delegate for Eastern District with the role of acting Chairperson. He found time to pull together a Business Crime Prevention Seminar in Napier that ran on 15th April and provided a platform for representatives of local businesses to gather best practice and available resources that would help them to prevent them being the victims of crime. I was able to attend and met with Napier City Council next day to discuss NS funding and potential piloting of a new reporting process for NS groups.

Coming campaign - "TogetherNES"

NSNZ has the opportunity to work alongside a leading brand in New Zealand. Nescafe are running a "TogetherNES" campaign from May and it is envisaged that this will be a 3 year campaign focusing on renewing neighbourhood ties and relationships, thereby, reinvigorating community spirit. Communities will benefit from being both the nominators and beneficiaries of local projects. NSNZ has been viewed as an ideal partner to promote the benefits of community cohesion. District Co-ordinators will shortly receive information packs so that they have a good understanding of the campaign in general. Why not go to: www.togetherNES.co.nz after 5th May.

Next NSNZ Board meeting

20-21 May

Joint training seminar and conference

12-14 June

Events list

This is where I would like to include your contributions to the bulletin. It would be wonderful to list all the local activities and initiatives that NS groups get involved with and put them here. So - get typing and tell me what is going to happen, when and where. When it's all done - let me know what the result was and I will post it below.

Good news

This is essentially the same as the above message but I would put the results of your hard work here for all other groups to learn about. These stories will also feature on our website. This issue, we have 2 accounts to relate to you:

The first report was submitted by Barrie Fenton - Rotorua:

"Recently we attended a rural Community Meeting in Rerewhakaaitu. A Community Constable, my Chairman and I. This area is 35 minutes south from Rotorua, a farming community, mainly dairy with a good few farm cottages as rentals. They are organised, have weekend rosters for security “drive arounds” and as it turned out they are Neighbourhood Support in action. They had recently been involved in the capture and arrest of 2 rural burglars. This is their story:

Sitting, listening to this was brilliant as it was NS at its best and I wished it could have been taped. They were aware, they acted on their instincts and they certainly did something. One key point, they had phone numbers of neighbours on their cell phones which enabled them to get activated quickly. They are rural, therefore isolated and at least 35 minutes from town. They are near the main road to a place called Murupara and receive unwanted attention on a regular basis. At the meeting we were able to pass on to them the congratulations from the Rotorua police for their actions.

Story number 2:

During my meeting with Napier CC - I was told about a neighbourhood that had a strong NS group and had everything off to a tee! Phone-tree, contact list, email, etc. A local alarm sounded and those closest responded with older members waiting for younger members to attend and then got to the site as a formidable group. After a thorough search of the grounds and an examination of the premises, it was clear that a cat or such animal had set off the alarm and no damage was done. All members looked around and realised that if there had been a more serious call out, they were in a good position to react swiftly and attend with a view to reduce the damage that could have occurred. A great outcome either way.

Local group newsletters

From my visits so far, a frequent comment from members is that local group newsletters are a valuable source of information. I receive the odd one myself in my capacity as National Manager, but I know there are more out there, doing the rounds. So... let me have a copy from time to time to keep me informed too.

Reporting

This part of my role is becoming more and more important. It is now very evident that new funding or continued funding has understandable strings attached. The need to demonstrate that NSNZ is accountable and can demonstrate what has been done in the community is fast becoming a condition of all funding. In the near future it will be necessary for all groups to report in the same way on the same matters. It's unavoidable and central government need to be able to see how we make a difference. I am confident that we are doing so but need to have a clear method of communicating this to our funding partners. I am hoping that a pilot can be run in one of the districts to help provide a clear indication of what will be the best way to report for the future.

Best practice

How do we swap best practice? I hope it will be here. It may be that we take ideas from the good news stories or events list and results that are published, but feel free to offer gems that have a bearing on how we can do things better.

If you are feeling left out because your story hasn't been included, simply send it in anyway. My aim is to share the activities of NSNZ around the country and let our audience know how we positively influence the community around us.

I've sort of run out of space and time here - we have so much more to report but that can wait for the next edition. If I have sufficient news for issue 9 - I will put it out as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading, good luck over the coming months and I look forward to seeing some of you at the Joint Conference in June.

Heoi anō
Roger