More Safe Communities and a communities conference

New Zealand and Australia have significantly increased their representation of communities and centres affiliated with the WHO Safe Communities. In 1999 the New Zealand Communities of Waitakere and Waimakariri and the Australian Communities SHOROC and Ryde have been inducted into the movement and the Royal Children's Hospital Child Safety Centre (Melbourne) has been inducted as a Safe Community Affiliated Support Centre.

The details of the programs that were the basis of acceptance as Safe Communities are available from the secretariat, which is based at the Department of Public Health Sciences in the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden (www.ki.se).

The Waitakere Community, a city within Auckland, was inducted at a ceremony conducted as part of the Community Safety Conference, Pacific Rim 1999. The conference was a great success, not least because Waitakere City is a diverse community with very strong links to Maori and Pacific Islander communities.

Associated with the conference was meeting in which New Zealand colleagues continued their efforts toward the development of a network of people and organisations interested in injury prevention. At the time of writing it is hoped that the network will be established in the second half of 1999.

Efforts to increase cross-Tasman cooperation

Following the Pacific Rim conference there have been conscious efforts to increase the linkage between New Zealand and Australian injury prevention groups and individuals. The Australian Injury Prevention Network has established a liaison group to foster exchange. Suggestions as to how this might be done are most …