About Safekids

Our Mission: to reduce the incidence and severity of unintentional injuries to children aged 0 to 14 years.

Our VisionEvery child in Aotearoa New Zealand enjoys a childhood free from traumatic, unintentional injury.
Our Values

Haere Mai, Welcome: We see you and welcome you as a person

Manaaki, Respect: We respect, nurture and care for each other

Tūhono, Together: We are a high performing team

Angamua, Aim High: We aspire to excellence and safety

Our History

Starship Children’s Hospital opened in November 1991 with a focus on family centred-care and a belief more could be done to keep children out of hospital. There were and, sadly still are, plenty of serious injuries that can be avoided. By serious we mean the  kind of traumatic injury that puts kids in hospital for more than 24 hours. The people who set up Starship created Safekids Aotearoa with the vision we still have today.

Using the evidence from here and elsewhere in the world the team at Tamariki Haumaru o Aotearoa present information, run workshops for whānau and health workers and partner up with other organisations to pursue that vision. We are situated close to the hospitals such as Starship and the clinicians who work in them. We also put great value on what’s working for whānau. That means we get out and about, alongside whānau and your organisations, wherever your place.

To do that and more we are the fortunate recipients of funding from the ACC, the Ministry of Health and the Starship Foundation.

The overall picture is good, but it’s not good enough. We have much to do to ensure tamariki Māori enjoy the benefits of a safe and happy childhood. This is central to our work in 2020 and beyond. 

 


How we do it

Safekids Aotearoa utilises evidence-based research and national and local child injury data alongside programme evaluation insights to develop and implement unintentional child injury initiatives. We work closely with clinicians to gather insights on emerging child injury trends and to understand the impact of injuries at the emergency department door and beyond.

We have close relationships with around 30 provider organisations nationally. These work with whānau in the community and in their homes. We share injury prevention knowledge and resources to empower and equip these providers to help whānau make changes that keep their children safe.  Nearly all of these organisations work directly with Māori and Pacific People’s whānau, which puts us in a privileged position to listen carefully about what is happening away from large cities and big hospitals.

Our Māori team members maintain broad relationships with iwi, hapu and whānau that have enabled us to gather and share mātauranga and māramatanga Māori on child and whānau safety and traditional parenting. We have a growing network of Māori professionals to support this mahi. This includes editors, academics, evaluators, videographers, translators, composers, narrators and photographers. Our work is closely monitored and supported by DHB Māori leadership and kaumatua and kaimahi with a growing interest in child injury prevention.


Where we are located

Level 5, Cornwall Complex, 40 Claude Road, Epsom, Auckland 1023, New Zealand

Call us:

  • Landline: (09) 630 9955

  • Mob: 021 208 2606