Action Projects

What are action projects?

Action projects are the ninth of the nine basic Youth Crime Watch components. An action project is an activity planned by the youth to help solve a problem situation or to strengthen the school or community against crime, drugs and violence. The planning process builds leadership and team-building skills along with spirit and pride.

Project ideas

Food drive: Collect and distribute food for the needy in your community.

Forums and discussion: Hold assemblies that help your peers think about and make constructive contributions to problems and needs that affect their lives, such as drunk driving, pregnancy, higher education, and wider job opportunities for youth.

Fight vandalism: Emphasize school pride. Get together to paint over graffiti and fix damaged property. Challenge everyone to make the school as good-looking as possible.

Warm lines: Operate a call-in service to help young students, especially those at home alone, during after-school hours. Your volunteers can offer advice, a friendly voice, and positive direction. Drug abuse prevention campaigns: Provide information to peers, younger children, and adults on dangers and effects of alcohol and other drugs. Get training to be peer counselors to help other young people with problems. Organize events to show how much fun a drug-free lifestyle can be.

Performances: Write and perform skits and shows for other students, younger children, and the neighborhood, dealing with almost any issue, from drug abuse prevention to being at home alone.

Escort service or check-in for senior citizens: Walk older people to the bank or help them run other errands; phone seniors at an arranged time daily to make sure everything is all right.

Safety tutoring: Set up a student teaching service to help educate your peers about the effects of crime and about preventing it. Teach younger children personal protection and other skills.

Home security surveys: With the police department's training and approval, provide information on making homes safer. Help residents who are disabled to make needed physical security improvements in their homes.

Community clean-up: Clean up trashy, run-down, or overgrown public areas. Spruce up schools, neighborhood parks, and the yards of those unable to do the work. Wipe out or paint over graffiti.

Fairs and displays: Hold a safety fair in the school parking lot or design educational displays for malls, schools, hospitals, businesses, and community centers to get more people outside your school or program involved in crime prevention projects.

Summer programs: Plan and staff recreation programs for young children; build playgrounds; help provide outings for disadvantaged or institutionalized children.

Writing, music, or art contests: Organize these for your school or your whole community, to have fun, educate, and build interest. Choose a safety theme.

Fundraising projects for your Youth Crime Watch program: Bike-a-thon, candy sales, car wash, telethon, t-shirt sale, walk-a-thon, wacky Olympics, bake sale, competitions.