Whanganui’s safe community status reconfirmed

Published on 16 June 2021

The Whanganui district was officially reaccredited as a Pan-Pacific Safe Community by the Safe Communities Foundation NZ at a Whanganui District Council ceremony on Thursday, 10 June 2021.

Whanganui District Council’s community wellbeing manager, Lauren Tamehana, says, “For our community to be reaccredited as a Pan-Pacific Safe Community is a huge testament to all the community groups that are working together to make Whanganui a resilient and welcoming district that is safe to live in, work and visit.

“The award also confirms Safer Whanganui’s role in bringing these groups together to make positive changes for the better in our community.”

The Safe Communities Foundation is a global network that aims to prevent and reduce injury and crime in society and build cohesive, vibrant and participatory communities. The foundation’s goals are supported locally by Safer Whanganui, a community-led coalition of agencies and groups that work in partnership to provide leadership and direction for the promotion of community safety in Whanganui.

Safer Whanganui is chaired by Whanganui District Councillor Kate Joblin and co-ordinated by Lauren Tamehana. Its high-level governance team and community-based specialist groups focus on a range of areas of local significance including road safety, preventing family violence, safety and wellbeing in the home, justice and emergency housing.

Leading up to the site visit Safer Whanganui documentation and evidence was reviewed by the Safe Communities Foundation reaccreditation team. Representatives of the review team then travelled to Whanganui for a site visit where they listened to presentations from local community groups that work under the Safer Whanganui umbrella such as Safe as Houses, Mana Man, He Iere Rangatahi (Youth Songsheet) and the Whanganui Kai Hub.

The review team commented that Safer Whanganui was “well-connected to its community, with its finger well on the pulse in terms of understanding existing and emerging needs – this [reaccreditation] application shows why Safer Whanganui is leading in its field”.

All involved signed a document committing to working together to enhance Whanganui’s community wellbeing before Safer Whanganui accepted the reaccredited Pan-Pacific Safe Community award on behalf of the Whanganui community.

More information about Safer Whanganui is available here.

ABOVE IMAGE: Safer Whanganui chair, Cr Kate Joblin (right), accepts the reaccredited Pan-Pacific Safe Community award on behalf of the Whanganui district from Safe Communities Foundation NZ's Tania Peters