Hutt to be WHO safe community
By Mark Sawyer ?
Hutt City and Upper Hutt City councils are combining to make their communities safer places to live and work, with the aim to reduce the number of injuries to people. ?A strategic group has been formed between the two councils to pursue accreditation from the Safer Communities Foundation, a global not-for profit organization whose objective is to promote safer environments and reduce the risk of injury to people living and working in communities across the world. Hutt City Council senior policy analyst Graham Sewell says, ?Both councils decided it would make sense if we combined our resources and sought accreditation together as the Hutt Valley?. ?Mr Sewell says a strategic group of 14 people was formed following an initial meeting last year, with members from the Police, District Health Board, Regional Public Health and the ACC making up the group. ?The group includes a cross section of representatives from the local community and work has already begun in the background on this initiative. ?The programmes strength is that it?s a global initiative supported by the World Health Organisation,? he says. More than 100 countries now have cities and towns under the manifesto. ?The Hutt Valley is planning to achieve accreditation from the foundation by the end of 2010,? says Mr Sewell. ? To achieve accreditations, cities and communities are required to meet six criteria developed by the World Health Organisation?s (WHO) Collaborating Centre on Community Safety at the Karolinska Institute for Social Medicine in Stockholm Sweden. The criteria includes providing schemes that support people of various ages and gender, living environment and situations, target high-risk groups and environments,as well as supporting initiatives that promotes safety for vulnerable groups and monitor the frequency and causes of injuries in the local community. ? Porirua City was designated a World Health Organisation International Safe Community last year, placing it in the company of Calgary in Canada, Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Melbourne in Australia. ? Porirua City is the eighth designated safe community in New Zealand and number 143 in the world.
