Heartfelt thanks to those who make difference

We owe much to those who keep the Whanganui region clean, tidy, safe and healthy, including all the volunteers, such as the Community Patrol, pictured in Gonville. Photo/File

Last Friday, I took a morning-tea shout around to the Mainstreet crew who look after our streets by keeping them clean and dealing with graffiti.

They are the ones up early and on the job while others are sleeping off a great night. We see each other quite often on Victoria Ave and it is then I am reminded of the magic job they do. Many appear not to notice, but it is amazing the number of visitors who raise Wanganui's cleanliness with me as a positive advertisement for the city.

Across the hallway from the Mainstreet gang, the Community Patrol were heading out for another shift on the streets.

This volunteer group patrols morning and night but also does work delegated by police and on behalf of the community. This includes checking the registers in secondhand dealers to ensure stolen property has not been passed off as legitimate.

They watch for disorder and illness in the street, hazards, abuses and hotspots which occur in any town and which, if dealt with quickly, won't cause bigger problems.

Later in the day, I met the Restorative City group, which aligns with a number of projects including the Restorative Justice Trust.

Largely volunteers, they are working towards a systemic change in the way disputes are sorted in Whanganui. These can range from playground tiffs to neighbourhood squabbles, employment grievances, tribunal hearings, relationship breakdowns and criminal and civil court proceedings.

People are facilitated through a conference process, which is certainly not as costly as a court case, adds to the understanding of the victim's perspective and tends to be more enduring, compensatory and healing than a straight-out adversarial process.

In Hawera, the churches are collaborating to create a trust to co-ordinate and facilitate youth activities in the town centre and in time wherever they are required.

The beauty of this recognises that, instead of having churches running around replicating what each other is doing, it is far better to work together and have a group with sufficient numbers, resources, and realism for a vision for working with young kids.

They provide a venue for gathering, some guidance for young people, sometimes food, and entertainment and direction.

Those who want to work with youth often don't want to be hung up in the mechanics of committee work and the reverse is true that those who enjoy getting things done in committees often would rather not work at the coal face.

On Friday, another Social Sector Trial action plan will open, this time in Hawera. These trials have been operating in many places, usually smaller towns around the country, and co-ordinate the work of health and welfare agencies to ensure there is benefit to the community and resources are not wasted.

They target youth matters generally and intervene deeply in the social fabric of a community to make sure the taxpayer gets not only the best bang for their buck but the right need is tackled at the right time by the most appropriate groups.

Governments have always assumed a one-size-fits-all approach for social sector intervention and it doesn't work.

All these groups are now approaching their busy season, as are we. We have lots of interaction within families and workplaces, neighbourhoods and communities. Usually it goes well but Christmas is also a time when family disputes can lead to abuse. Revelry can lead to offending. Youth who are not well entertained get into trouble.

Rubbish and breakages must be cleaned up and a wise word before the event from a counsellor, patrolman, or just a concerned citizen might save a lot of heartache after the event.

So a big thanks and hats off to these volunteers and workers whose efforts frequently go unnoticed, but without whom many would be worse off.