Safety Award winners are all champions
Hon Maryan Street
Minister for ACC
1 September
2008 Media Statement
Safety Award
winners are all champions
This year’s New Zealand
Community Safety and Injury Prevention Award winners are a
great example of the difference we can all make to reduce
injury and fatality rates, says ACC Minister Maryan
Street.
The awards were held in Wellington this evening
[5pm, September 1] and were attended by the 20 awards
finalists along with Maryan Street, ACC’s chief executive,
Dr Jan White, and Dr Carolyn Coggan, the awards’ chief
judge and director of the Safe Communities Foundation
NZ.
“This is the fourth year the awards have run. They recognise, highlight and congratulate the extraordinary work that’s going on around New Zealand to make our communities safer and better places to live, work and play,” Maryan Street said.
“Too often safety and injury prevention
initiatives in the community don’t get the recognition
they deserve. So it’s great to have the opportunity to
celebrate the multitude of successes and sing the praises of
the people who carry out the hard work usually on not much
more than passion,” the minister said.
“I am
extremely impressed with the number and calibre of entries
this year. Attracting 51 entries from across the country is
fantastic and sets a new record for the awards,” said Dr
Carolyn Coggan.
“Once again it shows the depth of
energy and passion New Zealanders have for improving the
safety of their communities and the people who live within
them,” she said.
The winners of this year’s New
Zealand Community Safety and Injury Prevention Awards are:
Category One: Emerging community safety and/or injury
prevention initiative or programme.
Winner:
‘Blow the Whistle on Violence’ campaign, Tauranga Safe
City and partners. The campaign ran during the Rugby
World Cup targeting the link between major sports events and
domestic violence. It used positive images of fathers and
families, and sporting slogans reapplied to a happy family
life.
Highly Commended: ‘Make it a Safe
Summer’, ShoreSafe Injury Free and North Shore City.
Highly Commended: The Stratford TET Home Safety
Project, Central Taranaki Victim Support Group and partners.
Category Two: Outstanding community safety and/or
injury prevention initiative or
programme.
Co-Winner: Marlborough Clued-up Kids,
Marlborough Child Safety Group. Based on a Scottish
programme, Clued-up Kids taught small groups of Year 5 and 6
children safety skills using hands-on, real life scenarios.
A new programme begins in November.
Co-Winner:
TravelWise for Schools; Auckland Regional Travel Authority
and partners. TravelWise for Schools encouraged parents
to choose alternative travel options for taking their
children to school, and made the road environment safer for
the children to do so.
Highly Commended: Port
Users’ Health and Safety Forum, Port of Tauranga.
Category Three: Outstanding example of the New
Zealand Injury Prevention Strategy framework guiding the
development of a community safety and/or injury prevention
initiative or programme.
Winner: Taranaki Falls
Prevention Strategy, New Plymouth Injury Safe Trust
(NPiS). The strategy focuses on coordinating
Taranaki’s agencies involved in keeping older people
upright and mobile, and improving older people’s knowledge
of and access to them.
Highly Commended: The
Kawerau Home Safety for Preschoolers Pilot Project (KHSPPP),
KHSPPP Management Group.
Category Four: Outstanding
business or organisation that is contributing to the greater
well-being of its own workforce and the community in
general.
Winner: Fulton Hogan. Contracting
company Fulton Hogan takes safety seriously, both off and on
the job. The Bay of Plenty office has implemented many
beneficial health and safety initiatives at work, but has
consistently been a part of keeping the Tauranga community
safe too. This includes being part of the group that won
Tauranga’s WHO Safe Community designation.
Highly
Commended: Fletcher Construction, Tauranga Harbour Link,
Stage 2
Highly Commended: HMI Technologies, Safe
and Socially responsible.
This year the judging panel
also highly commended two individuals whose work, passion
and commitment has made an enormous contribution to the
safety of their communities.
George Stephens, Counties Manukau Fire Safety Officer. A New Zealand Fire Service Veteran of 36 years, George Stephens has spent the past 13 years educating his South Auckland community about how to avoid house fires, and how to survive them.
Kim Anderson, for the Safety and Beautification of Smeaton Drive. When Kim Anderson moved to Whangarei’s Smeaton Drive, the area was crime and graffiti-ridden, run-down. But with grit and determination – and several pots of paint – she has united her community, got children off the streets, wiped out graffiti and reinvigorated this forgotten suburb.
For more on Safety NZ Week and the New Zealand Community Safety and Injury Prevention Awards, please go to: http://www.homesafety.co.nz/Awards.aspx
ENDS