In just one year, a team of volunteers in Civic have helped to prevent 157 instances of sexual assault and have intervened 176 times in potential fights between late-night revellers.
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Twelve months after the service began, the Canberra Night Crew is still going strong and is set to continue over the coming summer party season.
Running out of a tent on Mort Street near the bus interchange every Friday and Saturday night, a group of 10 volunteers help partygoers by providing a safe space to sober up with water bottles and lollies, and a place to charge their phone.
They also help provide first aid, de-escalate potential fights and stop potential instances of sexual assaults on the streets.
Program manager Sean Quercini said in the 12 months since the night crew began, they've helped more than 4300 Canberrans to get home safely.
"It's a harm-minimisation approach," Mr Quercini said.
"When we started it up, the plan was to help people get hydrated and get home. Ever since then, there's been a lot more emphasis on first aid."
Mr Quercini said on average they help 150 people a week, dealing with at least 15 serious incidents such as fights or incidents of sexual harassment every night.
Because of the program, there have been 137 fewer ambulance trips to the nightclub precinct in Civic, as well as reducing the number of police call outs by 187.
The night crew's program manager said the idea was started following a meeting with ACT Policing, who were looking at reducing the number of incidents in the city at night.
A partnership between the ACT government and St John's Ambulance, the night crew initiative was based on a similar program run by the Thomas Kelly Foundation in Sydney's Kings Cross precinct.
However, Mr Quercini said some changes were made for the Canberra version.
"We did borrow the initial model from Sydney, but with Canberra there's a slightly different demographic and layout, so we had to modify the model and tweak it in a few ways," he said.
"In Sydney they were bright green and yellow uniforms, and ours is more generic. We didn't want for people to mistake us for emergency services."
Volunteers with the initiative have been manning the streets every weekend over the past year, even during Canberra's bitterly cold winters.
"The winter months were just as busy as the summer," he said.
"The need was absolutely the same all the way through the year, even on those minus-eight degree weekends."
In the year the initiative has been run, there have been more than 102 volunteers contribute a combined 5700 volunteer hours, helping to distribute more than 6500 water bottles.
Mr Quercini said as the night crew begins its second year of operation, more people are recognising the service on Canberra streets.
"We're getting people from the general public who are coming to find us when they need help all the time," he said.
