Youth charity Blue Light celebrates 30 years

4 Nov 2013

Youth charity Blue Light celebrates 30 years

This November marks 30 years since the youth charity, Blue Light, was founded in New Zealand.

The charity, which works in partnership with the New Zealand police and the community, aims to empower young people in the hope of reducing the incidence of youth becoming a victim or perpetrator of crime.

“The charity has grown exponentially in the past thirty years” said Rod Bell, Blue Light CEO.

“Whilst many kiwi adults will remember attending a Blue Light disco as a teen, the charity now runs a huge range of programs and events for young people throughout New Zealand all aimed at building positive community partnerships between young people, the Police, their parents and the community”.

“Blue Light has a long history of supporting and empowering young people in communities’ throughout New Zealand” commented Peter Marshall, NZ Police Commissioner. “The New Zealand Police is committed to supporting the relationship with Blue Light and see their practical, down to earth programs as an important part of building positive youth and police partnerships and therefore a key component in our on-going crime prevention strategy”.

Through 74 branches the charity runs ‘TradeZone Kids Gone Fishing’ with its patron Graeme Sinclair, Bryan & Bobby, Rainbows End Fun Days, PCT Fear Factor, Driver Licencing Programs, Youth Mentoring, publishes a series of handbooks for Teenagers and their parents as well as providing residential Life Skills camps run in partnership with the New Zealand Defence Force.

In addition to the nationally run programs each local Blue Light branch runs events specific to their areas needs such as drug and alcohol education, holiday programs, after school care, camps for young victims of sexual assault, youth justice programs, kayaking, truancy and anti-graffiti programs, Waka Ama competitions, surfing, sports & family fun days, and a whole variety of events all aimed to build positive relationships between young people, the police, parents and the community.

The charity was founded back in the early 80’s with local police officers seeing a need to provide fun things for young people to do in their community who were free from alcohol, drugs and violence. In turn these events helped to build positive relationships between young people and local police officers.

Blue Light delivers its programs thanks to the generosity of individuals and businesses through fundraising and sponsorship. It is also extremely grateful for the funding it receives from its corporate Sponsor AA Insurance.

To find out more about Blue Light and its programs visit www.bluelight.co.nz

New Zealand Blue Light

New Zealand Blue Light is a registered charity and community policing youth program that for the past 30 years has run programs and activities for youth throughout New Zealand free from drugs, alcohol and violence.

Blue Light aims to reduce youth crime, build community partnerships, build young people’s self-esteem, enhance community safety as well as build positive youth and police partnerships. Blue Light New Zealand is a nationwide incorporated society which has a national executive committee and operates 74 branches nationwide. Each branch is responsible for sourcing their own funding to facilitate and provide their own youth community programs.

Blue light is supported by police officers, who carry out Blue Light activities over and above their normal police duties along with civilian volunteers. Those involved with Blue Light are passionate about youth and in particularly providing positive experiences for those who may otherwise not have an opportunity.

Although Blue Light is supported by police, the two operate totally independently and Blue Light does not receive any funding from police. Blue Light is thankful for the support of its corporate sponsor AA Insurance.

See www.bluelight.co.nz or visit www.facebook.com/nzbluelight

Blue Light originally began in Australia as a community policing initiative and remains very strong in all of the Australian States and is now active in the Solomon Islands, East Timor, Cook Islands, New Zealand and Scotland.

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