City and church join forces to win safety award

Waitakere City Council turned on the headlights for Ola Fa'asaoina ('to save lives') the ground-breaking project recently acclaimed at the New Zealand Community Safety and Injury Prevention Award ceremony.

Ola Fa'asaoina started with a simple parking ticket. Actually, heaps of parking tickets were involved in the beginning.

Church members of the Henderson and Ranui EFKAS Church congregations contacted fellow churchgoer, Constable Fagaesea Siaki of the Henderson Police, and Kitch Cuthbert of the Waitakere City Council, for help with their parking woes.

"Two years ago, Constable Siaki came to us with the parking ticket problem. That was the genesis that turned into a community issue for the congregation of 400. Many didn't realise that parking is prohibited on dotted yellow lines," says Ms Cuthbert

"We worked together to develop solutions, which included the council implementing parking restrictions to make parking more accessible to church members," she says.

The ticket issue sorted, Ola Fa'asaoina's scope broadened to tackle other road safety issues, such as driving without a licence, when and how to use child car restraints and the often lethal combination of youth, alcohol, drugs and speed.

"There were powerful synergies at work", says Ms Cuthbert. "The council activated the police, ACC, Plunket and Land Transport New Zealand "And we had God on our side."

With the council's help, the church established a committee that included representatives of ACC, the NZ Police, Land Transport NZ, Plunket and the Waitakere City Council, which developed a module-based programme. Innovative initiatives included training bi-lingual driver licensing tutors and offering cheaper learn-to-drive courses. The church's youth group acted in informative skits to encourage more people to learn the road safety rules.

The project reaped results: 116 church members gained learners' licences, 42 now have a restricted licence and use of car child restraints rose from 74% to 96%.

The Ola Fa'asaoina project is latest WCC road safety project to win praise. The council's work with the Tongan Church in New Lynn won a 2004 Road Safety Innovation Award and the Mangere Immigration project won the same award in 2006.

The council is currently training Pacific people to become driving trainers.

"Now the Henderson and Ranui EFKAS church has taken ownership of the programme that's become something of a model for other communities. Ola Fa'asaoina is now being rolled out in other Pacific churches in Waitakere and the North Shore. Constable Siaki, who does Pacific liaison work in Waitakere, is keen to see the award-winning road safety initiative Ola Fa'asaoina applied in other communities around New Zealand," says Kitch Cuthbert.

ENDS

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