Neighbourhood Watch Australasia (NHWA) is the overarching organisation of all member Neighbourhood Watch and Neighbourhood Support activities across Australia and New Zealand. With a 30 year history in Australia Neighbourhood Watch is the largest community based crime prevention activity in Australia with an estimated reach into six million homes.
Currently NHWA is a recipient of the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) from the Commonwealth Government. The Neighbourhood Watch portfolio sits with Commonwealth Minister for Justice, The Hon. Michael Keenan MP. Today Minister Keenan and a number of Parliamentary colleagues including Chris Hayes MP co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Neighbourhood Watch Committee attended a function that officially launched the Neighbourhood Watch Australasia Community Safety Crime Prevention ‘On Line Projects Library’.
Meeting one of its core funding objectives, the NHWA on line Projects Library is designed to provide Neighbourhood Watch Members, from both policing agencies and community, access to a library of information relating specifically to “grass roots” community safety and crime prevention projects. These projects have been developed and implemented through a Neighbourhood Watch Police and Community partnership, to tackle localised community issues and prevent them from escalating into major crimes.
“We are committed to ensuring we build safe and secure Australian communities” said NHWA President, The Hon Pat Leary, “the establishment of this Neighbourhood Watch resource is an excellent example of Government, Police and Community working closely to co ordinate resources and strategies at a grass roots level”.
The development of the Project Library has involved extensive consultation with all of Australia and New Zealand’s Policing Agencies and State/Territory Neighbourhood Watch Organisations. Paramount to establishing such a valuable information resource has been the positive and enduring relationship between NHWA and its Policing Agencies. NHWA will ensure that there is trust and confidence in the information placed on line which will be de-identified and accurate.
It is intended, that the Project Library will be a “living resource” and will continue to increase in size and value to the community as it is, show casing innovative projects developed to address emerging localised safety problems. NHWA recognises that many Australian communities are facing “issues” of a similar nature and they would all benefit greatly from having a knowledge base available to refer to when looking for solutions that have previously succeeded.
“It makes perfect sense to work collaboratively in trying to find local solutions for local issues”, said NHWA CEO Ingrid Stonhill “sharing proven methods that we already know can assist will greatly help our often overburdened members in finding solutions to apply to their community issues”.