approaches are embedded in health, housing, transport and other social services. We’d like to acknowledge the many communities and individuals who we work alongside and have embraced Safekids’ new team. This was very evident when we brought together existing and new staff in a pōwhiri in June. Thank you to all who supported us then and in the subsequent messages I have received. In particular our kaumātua and kuia o Ngāti Whātua, who generously supported us on the day. Among the people that day was Dave Letele and his whānau. Dave has been key to the home safety campaign we have been running since June, as have the generous providers of prizes. More detail is at pages 6-7, including some of the notable milestones of audience reach and new social media followers we have had sign up to our Facebook page @safekidsaotearoa. If you know of people who would like their safety message provided in short, snappy, real-life videos with a touch of humour, please get them to like our page. Our new team are claiming their places in the injury prevention space. I feel sure the feeling of aroha we absorbed at our pōwhiri will sustain us all as we push on together. In the weeks since, we’ve done some great learning together, met leading practitioners and swapped insights from our field. We look forward to more, as we work with you to keep our tamariki safe. DIRECTOR MESSAGE FROM THE In our last Safekids News we described our recent review and how we would increase our ability to work with community organisations to develop and implement programmes that overcome barriers and which motivate caregivers and children to make changes to promote safety. I am delighted to report that we’ve conducted a successful recruitment campaign and introduce you to our new full team. As their brief bios on pages 6-7 show, they each bring their own strategic abilities. Underpinning those are skill-sets to directly address the inequities in child injury prevention that see Māori and Pacific children so overrepresented in our statistics. 2 safekids news | September 2018 ISSUE No 80 SAFEKIDS AOTEAROA’S MISSION / to reduce the incidence and severity of unintentional injuries to children in Aotearoa aged 0-14 years. A MEMBER OF A MEMBER OF A SERVICE OF Safekids News is the publication of Safekids Aotearoa Some articles from other organisations do not necessarily reflect the views of Safekids Aotearoa. Safekids Aotearoa PO Box 26488, Epsom Auckland 1344, New Zealand ENQUIRIES / [email protected] 3 / NEW INJURY RESOURCES 4 / ON TOUR WITH SAFETY WHARE 6 / 40,000 REACHED 8 / NEW TEAM ON BOARD 10 / BIG RISK FOR UNDER 5’s 11 / Q&A; WITH KOREEN safekids.nz /SafekidsAotearoa /SafekidsNZ /SafekidsNZ Melissa Wilson Safekids’ Director Our new team enables a strong focus on achieving equitable outcomes across injury prevention, particularly for Māori children. We are fortunate to have recruited passionate health professionals with deep personal and professional networks and experience working within and alongside Māori communities. We are also delighted to have team members from a range of the many Pacific communities who make up New Zealand’s diverse population. With Māori, Cook Island, Samoan, Tongan and Niuean team members on board we are well equipped to work closely with community providers to enable them to develop localised capacity and capability. We are also well placed to advocate at a policy level across central and local government to ensure child injury prevention > INSIDE