b'Fortunately for the people of Aucklands North Shore,TheprogrammeisbackedbytheNorthShoreCity there is one man who didnt just tut and drive on. JohnCouncil, although formal funding only started in 2005. Crews, already active in his community, was so annoyedIt cleans up graf ti on residences, public buildings and at the major problems with graf ti in Sunnynook that hebusinesses. Tagging is referred to the clean-up hotline via rounded up a group of volunteers andwith the help ofcomplaints to the council Action-Line, by the community the local community constableset about cleaning upconstable, or through direct calls to the UnTag hotline. his neighbourhood. Twelve years later, the UnTag TrustJohn has learned that careful recording and monitoringthe organisation he founded in 1995has grown toisessentialtothesuccessofhisservice:Everypiece support a paid staff member and a fully equipped truckofgraf tiisphotographedandrecordedbeforeitis to clean up large chunks of the North Shore (two otherremoved.Informationandphotosareenteredintoa organisations cover single suburbs in the area). council-run database called Tracker, and shared around Aswithmanycommunityorganisations,fundingwasthe city. This data is used to identify persistent tagging hand-to-mouth in the beginning. Fortunately, John couldre-offenderstaggers like to move around the city and tap into extensive networks built up over 30 years as atag in each others territories. UnTag can have anything volunteercommunitypatroller.Havingworkedcloselybetween 160 and 570 tags a week to deal with: In 2006 withthecommunityconstable,heknewaboutBluethe team tackled more than 4300 tags, using between Lightdiscos;police-runeventsforyoungpeoplethat60 and 100 litres of paint a month.generate income for local projects. Such funds helped buyTwo years ago, as Resene was beginning its PaintWise paint, brushes and equipment. In the beginning, teamsprogramme, John and other local groups were offered of four people a week from the North Harbour Rotarytherecycledpaintfreefortheirwork.ThePaintWise Club turned up each Saturday to supervise the clean-up,truck splits open old cans or buckets of waterborne paint, but since 1998, the Trust has been able to pay staff for 20 hours a week. UnTagprovidesadoublesolutionforthecommunity. Young offenders are referred by Police Youth Aid, CYFS orthecommunityconstabletoworkonthetagging clean-up as part of their sentencing or rehabilitation. John suspects that for these young people (from all parts of the social spectrum, he is quick to point out), working side-by-side with an interested grown-up may be therst time some of them have experienced a listening ear.We are not counsellors; we are just ordinary people, he explains. We dont tell them what to do, we let them doResene the talking. Very often, the more they talk, the more theyGroovyReseneHalf Sea Fog nd their own answers.| 49'