Reimagining safety: Chairman proposes 3-year, $1.2m project to enhance safety in Nambour

Enhancing safety at the grass-roots level, from left: Lisa Harrison, Sgt Gary Brayley, Peter Boyce, Sgt Sharon Tebbutt and Christine Thomas.

Lisa Harrison

Sgt Gary Brayley

Peter Boyce

Reimagine Nambour is getting on the front foot with plans to raise $1.2 million for a leading-edge program to improve safety in the CBD and surrounds.

Spurred by harrowing stories of violent behaviour in the CBD in recent years, Reimagine Nambour Chairman Peter Boyce said the time had come for local businesses and the community to play an active role in promoting safety and reducing the fear of harm.

Mr Boyce told a special Nambour CBD Safety Meeting on Wednesday (March 23) that $1.2m was a lot of money but “safety in the community really shouldn’t have a price”.

“Because I can tell you that the first Safety Meeting I went to, I heard first-hand from people in the centre of town about the level of trauma they are coping with  –  I was shell-shocked. And I still haven’t gotten over that,” said Mr Boyce. 

“There’s a huge task for us to raise a significant amount of money to enable the project to get off the ground. 

“But we have to get Nambour back to where it ought to be, and not have so many people traumatised by what is unfortunately – if not an everyday occurrence – a very regular one, that shouldn’t be tolerated.”

Mr Boyce is proposing to engage a team whose project saw a remarkable 77 percent decrease in crime in a Sunshine Coast community.

Under the proposal, the Cygnet Centre for Peace Building and Transformation will lead a similar “Collective Impact Initiative” to  enhance current community strengths and find solutions to some of the safety issues. 

Leading that initiative will be Christine Thomas and Lisa Harrison. They attended the meeting to outline examples of similar local initiatives that have resulted in significant outcomes. 

The “Our Communities, Our Families, Our Children Project” was one of the examples presented where, in a defined local community in the hinterland, police callouts reduced from 2.3 times a day to just a couple of times a week. 

“I can tell you, I admire anyone who can do what they did in this community,” Mr Boyce told the meeting. “That is a just an unbelievable result. And what is really important was obviously the groundwork they did but also the way their program tapped into existing services that are already on offer.”

Mr Boyce said one of the keys to success in the model presented was the requirement for multi-agency, individual and community buy-in.

The project implemented strategies to encourage cooperation between government departments and other services in order to assist vulnerable individuals, couples and families.   

“To find that there’s been such significant improvements to the lives of people within this community, means that we should also start attacking the problem here,” he said.

Mr Boyce said police were doing all they could under difficult circumstances, so it was important for Nambour to develop community-based solutions.

He said it was a way the community could act on its own terms rather than “applying for endless grants and waiting months and months”.

Local police back concept

Nambour Police Officer in Charge Senior Sergeant Gary Brayley said the work done by the “Our Communities, Our Families, Our Children Project” helped take the strain off local police resources.

He said the initiative addressed underlying issues before tensions escalated to a point where police were required.

“As Lisa said, there was a point in time where police were going out to that community many times a week and it was obviously just a huge burden on our resources, and all the other government departments that come with it. Fortunately, now, visits are down greatly.

“We still go there, there still have been some issues there. Like every community it has its issues. But I think now we go out there a couple of times a week, so things definitely have improved. 

“And without the collaboration of other government and non-government organizations we wouldn’t have seen any change out there. So policing, alone, doesn’t solve these issues, all these underlying social issues that need to be addressed.”

Reimagine Nambour Inc. 

Reimagine Nambour Inc. is a community association formed to bring to life the Nambour Economic Transition Strategy. 

The strategy contains an action plan to transform the local economy while retaining and capitalising on Nambour’s unique cultural identity. Reimagine Nambour works closely with Council and local organisations to create a thriving regional town.