Youth Crime Watch in Schools

A new Youth Crime Watch program needs an advisor (a “Sparkplug”) to do the startup work. A sparkplug is usually affiliated with the school being proposed for the Youth Crime Watch program, someone such as a teacher, guidance counselor, administrator, school resource officer, or even a concerned member of the community; a parent or a member of the local Neighbourhood Watch organization. The younger the student age groups, the more structure and guidance they need from the advisor.The instructions that follow are for advisors/sparkplugs. The reason the Youth Crime Watch advisor is called a “sparkplug” is because experience has demonstrated that every school has at least one adult who stands out, works well with students and is willing to go a little further to help prevent crime in their school.

General Checklist
The following list of actions can be used to form a checklist for initiating a Youth Crime Watch program.

• Meet with school officials to obtain their approval to begin a Youth Crime Watch program
• Determine who the sparkplug will be
• Determine the major issues and concerns facing the school
• Publicize the program throughout the school
• Select the students who will form the Youth Crime Watch Core Group
• Hold the first organizational meeting
• Organize and present the Main Event Assembly
• Tell the adult community that Youth Crime Watch is starting
• Obtain sources of crime prevention information
• Select the ongoing events
• Consider becoming part of Youth Crime Watch of Nigeria

Youth Crime Watch of Nigeria brings youths of all backgrounds together to identify and correct problems unique to their schools and communities. The YCW program empowers youths to take an active role in addressing the problems around them.