The Safety House Program was devised in the North Dandenong area in Victoria, Australia in 1979, and it is now successfully operating in a number of areas.

The Origin

Independent bodies of parents have formed committees to operate this program:

The Objectives

• To act as a deterrent to undesirable people coming into the area and approaching children whilst they are in transit to and from school.
• To provide a means to greatly improve the chance that, should a child run into a house:-
• someone will be home, and
• they will not run into trouble.
• There is no guarantee as to the safety of children but we believe the the program reduces the dangers faced by children considerably.

How it works

To achieve these objectives, houses/businesses are appropriately designated to enable children to identify them as "Safety House". These premises are occupied by people who have been screened by the Police Service and them interviewed by members of the committee and are normally at home at the times children would be in transit to and from school. Thus, should a child be approached, participating parents may instruct them to run to such premises. In this instance, the Police will be called.

Success

Since the Safety House Program has been introduced into New South Wales in April, 1984 it has 1434 committees throughout New South Wales. These committees cover approximately 398,000 houses and businesses.

In the 12 month period ending 31 July 1987 there have been more than 13 reported incidents of Safety Houses having been used in the state.

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