WatchOut!

Today, our volunteers checked that various links were still good! Please let us know if you see any ‘404 Page Not Found‘ and we’ll do our best to find a replacement link.

Another collection of links was added, reflecting the information identified as a result of the NSW Floods. Thank you to Resilience NSW, who did a great job of putting together links to the various government agencies, such as Service NSW and NSW Health, where special Fact Sheets and webpages could help residents with subjects like mould, flood recovery advice and mental health support. This may not come under the crime or crime prevention banner, but definitely comes under the safety and security of the community. Check out the new information added to the HOMES, FIRE & ENVIRONMENT and PERSONAL pages.

Thanks to feedback from residents, a few extra links and contact phone numbers have also been added to the DV and PARENTING YOUNG pages. Please keep them coming…

Today we updated the ‘Contact List’ page to include the National Missing Persons Coordination Centre (NMPCC), which is run by the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

Information is there for how to report a missing person – and no, you don’t have to wait 24 hours!

Or maybe you were reported missing, but just don’t want to be found? No worries – you can tell the NMPCC that you are safe, so you can be taken off the list. You can view the current list at the NMPCC website.

NMPCC phone, email and website are on the ‘Contact List’ page.

Australia now has a  a new national approach to information and warnings during emergencies like bushfire, flood, storm, extreme heat and severe weather. Up until now there have been different warning systems for different hazard types across Australia. The new Australian Warning System aims to provide consistent warnings to Australian communities, so that people know what to do when they see a warning level. The System uses a nationally consistent set of icons. How you receive warnings may not change, but the wording, colours and call to action may be different to what you’re used to, as this system is implemented across Australia.

We thought that the extract above is important and we immediately updated WatchOut.org.au, so that we can take you to the government website detailing those new icons, etc.

Why not take a look? The link is on our ‘Fires & Environment’ page.

Angie contacted us this week with two suggestions for links potentially suitable for our ‘Teens/Youth’ page. It’s great when we have input such as this, directly from a community member. And to answer Angie’s question, yes they were relevant, and yes we will add them. (Shame they weren’t Australian.) The links were:

Alternative to Meds Centre – How to Help Teens Overcome Substance Abuse (blog)

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism – Talk to Your Child About Alcohol (Fact Sheet)

Are you uncertain when you click on a link? We are too!

In this day and age, using the internet can be scary. Clicking on a link can have disastrous results. WatchOut has a page precisely included for this kind of situation: ‘Internet Safety’.

Today, during our regular maintenance checks, we found a dud link and coincidentally (weird, huh?), a resident had informed their local Neighbourhood Watch group of a new URL link checker. Of course we checked it out and updated the page to include this new information: ‘Where Goes”. Thank you to Phillip.