Schools Project: Citizenship and Tackling Crime

National Centre for Citizenship and Law

The National Centre for Citizenship and the Law in Nottingham provides educational programmes using innovative and engaging resources to help develop young people's understanding of citizenship and the law.

The Centre, based at the Galleries of Justice in Nottingham has set up an Actively Reducing Crime (ARC) programme. The programme includes a specially designed resource pack for primary and secondary schools to help raise young people's awareness of crime and encouraged them to help reduce crime in their community.

Using a number of interactive activities, such as a court room simulation, the pupils are encouraged to undertake a crime audit of their school and local community, with the help of local Police or Police Community Support Officers (PCSO's). The pupils then develop a crime reduction strategy appropriate to their community, in an attempt to reduce anti-social behaviour and make their communities safer.

ARC has put together a pack of resources for schools. The workbook has been expanded to include gun and knife crime and the ' Why Guns and Knives ' project was launched in two London Schools last year. NCCL Director, Katy Archer said,

'ARC is designed to raise awareness of the dangers of carrying a knife or a gun, to reduce children and young people’s fear of violent crime and to give them the tools to avoid becoming a victim or perpetrator of crime in the future through building confidence, providing positive role models and signposting them to support services.'

Quote from an article written by Ms Archer last September about the Project coming to London: Actively Reducing Gun and Knife Crime (65 KB)