The 111 Files: Working together has big spin-offs

Inspector Bruce Horne

Almost 10 years ago Rotorua hosted the World Mountain Bike Championships.

The organisers did a fantastic job and many international journalists (and competitors) were full of praise for the quality of the event and the professionalism of the organisers. Some described it as the best World Championship they had attended.

At the end of March Rotorua will be hosting Crankworx, an event some have described as the mountain biking equivalent of the Olympics. It promises to be a fantastic event for the town and a wonderful opportunity for our community to showcase all the great things that Rotorua has to offer.

Rotorua is able to pull these things off because it is blessed with many people who are passionate, highly motivated and willing to work alongside others to make amazing things happen. It has proven to be a winning formula and one we should not take for granted.

I mention this because from time to time we need to stop and remind one another of the depth and strength of this community and that we have proved to ourselves over and over again that if we work together, we can achieve great things.

Over the past few weeks I have had a few conversations with some our town's most passionate people and have been really encouraged to hear some of their ideas about how we could make Rotorua an even healthier and happier community.

For those who are regular readers of this column, you will recall that in November I spent a few weeks writing about the challenge that family violence presents to our community, and what we might do about it.

One of the most powerful, effective and enduring strategies in the world for reducing family violence is the "White Ribbon Campaign", yet it all began with a simple conversation. In 1991 one Canadian woman challenged three of her male friends to think about what they could do to make a difference in their community. That was the catalyst for the White Ribbon campaign and less than 10 years later the United Nations adopted White Ribbon as the international symbol for expressing opposition to family violence. It's a testament to the power and potential of conversations.

Today I am as convinced as ever that our biggest opportunity to achieve transformational change in this community is to find a fix for the problem of family violence. I know that is a big ask and I know that some of you don't even want to think about this because it just seems too hard. But I also know that when passionate people get connected and work together for the common good, amazing things can happen. It's worth thinking about.