Ashburton District Neighbourhood Support Kia ora koutou, As we focus on the year ahead, Neighbourhood Support in the Ashburton District is all about building connections. The power of a group, and for that group to be resilient and safe, takes a combined effort. For that to happen we have to firstly engage with neighbours. You don’t necessarily have to be best friends with all your neighbours, but it is important that you are aware of who your neighbours are. Secondly it takes engagement with other agencies to produce outcomes that can assist and help our neighbourhoods.
Office Neighbourhood Support), the community dug the trench and a neighbour has supplied the trickle feed of electricity. It is up and running and the two coordinators and Police have an app on their computer/phone which supplies real time recording and number plate recognition. The real success story in all of this is that it has empowered a small community. They feel valued and they have the means to be safe. That is the real power of a group and neighbours working together.
We have been working hard on these outcomes, not only with neighbours but also their community. One such outcome has been setting up a Neighbourhood Support group in one of our rural communities. This area is isolated - it contains over 100 residents and a large proportion of these are retired folk - it is nestled at the end of a road by the sea. Some of those houses are controlled by council governance which does not allow them to have fences or an area they can call their own. A community meeting was held and the one meaningful thing all residents agreed on was a security camera. It was something that could provide security, they could call their own and that provided community engagement. Council agreed to the camera, Masterguard came onboard with advice and installation, and we secured funding (including National
Sue Abel Ashburton District Neighbourhood Support co-ordinator Ashburton District Council 027 296 1006/03 308 3558 Sue.abel@safermidcanterbury.org.nz
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