The Berwick Safety House Committee may be forced to fold after more than two decades of community service. Outgoing committee member Kaye Jackson has called on parents, residents and Casey schools to become more involved. Picture: Meagan Rogers.By Rebecca Fraser
BERWICK’s Safety House Committee may be forced to fold after 21 years of community service.
The committee is struggling to attract parent and resident support and members have called on Casey schools to better promote the safety initiative.
The program offers ‘safe houses’ marked with distinctive yellow stickers which children or other community members can go to if they feel threatened.
Berwick mother of four Kaye Jackson has been on the Safety House Committee for three years and said she and the committee’s four other members had decided they would not renominate for their positions.
The five members have more than 25 years’ safety house experience between them, and Ms Jackson has called on other residents to take over the reins.
“We need a new batch of younger people to carry on the baton,” she said. “Every day children are on our streets and exposed to circumstances they sometimes cannot handle by themselves.
“Kids walking to and from school need somewhere to go if someone approaches them or if they get lost or hurt.
“A lot of parents now drive their children to and from school and perhaps feel that there is no need for a safety house any more. The service is also important for the elderly,” she said.
Ms Jackson said the committee needed new members by next month’s annual general meeting if the community initiative was to continue.
She said committee members did not need to have children at school, or indeed have children at all.
“They just need to be community-minded with a concern for the safety of children and the elderly, and be prepared to give an hour or two of their time each month,” she said. “We know elderly people that (run) safety houses as well.
“I know lots of mums are also working, but you only have to be home 50 per cent of the time to be a safety house.
“I really want to encourage other people to join and schools to support the Berwick Safety House Committee so we can keep this going.”
In a bid to drum up new members, the Safety House Committee was part of the recent People in the Park event at Bryn Mawr in Berwick. Ms Jackson said the group was keen to participate in order to raise community awareness and support for its committee.
Assistant principal of Hillsmeade Primary School in Narre Warren South Lyn Fyfe said she would be disappointed if the service folded.
Ms Fyfe said the school encouraged parents to become involved in safety house committees and she believed the community initiative could work hand-in-hand with the school’s walking school bus. She said both initiatives helped create a strong sense of community and made children feel safe.
“If children are feeling uncomfortable it gives them somewhere to go,” Ms Fyfe said of the safety house program. “It is also important because a lot of kids are going home to an empty house because their parents work.”
Those keen on becoming involved in the Berwick Safety House committee are invited to attend the annual general meeting at 8pm on Tuesday, 7 March at the Berwick Primary School meeting room. Enter via the front office from Fairholme Boulevard, Berwick
For more information call Julie 9768 9004 or Megan on 8790 6439.
