Cohesive Community Collaboration

As you probably know, SADD is big on collaboration! When we collaborate, we provide young people with wrap-around support, ensuring they are able to connect with experts, change makers and policy writers to have the biggest impact possible.

Two exceptional examples of this have come about recently, both in South Canterbury.

The first example, dubbed the South Canterbury SADD hui, involved students from five different schools who gathered to hear talks from Police, Fire & Emergency, Mitch Simpson (a crash survivor who gives talks about his experience), WAVE and SADD. Suzy from Timaru District Council ran an interactive quiz which gathered young people’s opinions on road safety in the district and everyone was welcomed by Deputy Mayor Scott Shannon. Hilton Haulage attended to speak about truck safety and representatives from FENZ showed the students how to use equipment used to rescue people if they are involved in a crash.

This was a brilliant opportunity for young people in the South Canterbury community to network with like minded students and to hear from experts about how to stay safe.

Our second collaboration example is the recent secondary school’s basketball tournament which was held in Timaru last month. Police came along with their mobile response unit which served as a base for everyone involved. During the tournament, young people from all over the south island were able to visit the police unit to chat to police, FENZ, South Canterbury Road Safety and SADD. There were plenty of prizes on offer and there was also an opportunity to participate in “the after party” - SADD’s interactive video.

Both events showcased opportunities for young people to start road safety conversations in their communities and to get them thinking about road safety. Lucy Mehrtens, the South Canterbury Road Safety Coordinator had a massive hand in making both of these events happen and pulling together all of the agencies that attended. SADD wants to take this opportunity to say a massive thanks to Lucy for involving us in these events and to everyone who attended for wanting to improve the wellbeing and safety of our rangatahi!