PRESS RELEASE
12 May 2014
Personalities willing to ‘do time’ to help young people

On Friday 16 May from 7.30 – 9am television presenter Charlotte Bellis will be ‘doing time’ inside a cell to help young people throughout New Zealand. The event, to be held at Queen Elizabeth Square downtown Auckland, is called Time4Youth and is being run by Blue Light, the youth charity which works in partnership with the NZ Police. The inaugural event will see well known New Zealanders ‘locked up’ in a make shift cell and ‘do time to stop youth crime’. The event marks the start of Youth Week 2014 and the charity is keen to raise awareness and funds for the programs it runs throughout New Zealand which are all aimed at preventing young people becoming an offender or victim of crime.

“As the only female in the cell I certainly hope the public are generous and I can raise my bail quickly” said Charlotte.

Charlotte is keen to support the work of Blue Light as she’s experienced first-hand, through school friends as well as family, the trouble young people can find themselves in without the right influences. Focused

“The events and programs Blue Light runs are great as they build positive relationships between young people and the police as well as families and the community. It’s such a great prevention measure to have the police interacting in a positive way with young people long before any problems develop”.

Inside the cell with Charlotte will be Blue’s Rugby Player Tom Donnelly, TV Fishing Celebrity Graeme Sinclair, Master Chef Brett McGregor and Football Star Ivan Vicelich. The public are encouraged to ‘donate’ to raise their bail by coming down to Queen Elizabeth Square on Friday morning or via a text to donate campaign. Simply text BLUE to 4419 to donate $3 to help young people in your area.

Blue Light delivers its programs and events thanks to the generosity of individuals and businesses through fundraising and sponsorship. 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 over 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 70 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.

Time4Youth is Blue Light’s annual community fundraising campaign.

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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