Youth Crime Watch of America: Website of the Year 2008

An extremely successful website, www.stopvandalism.net was created by two students while at Feinstein Middle School, Joseph Rocchio and Nicholas Paiva, both founding members of the YCW group at their school. The interactive site focuses on extending the reach of S.A.V.E.’s anti-vandalism and anti-bullying message beyond Coventry, to reach other Rhode Island cities and towns, and the entire internet audience. The site focuses on communicating what the group does to address the vandalism problem; educating youth and adults about the costs of vandalism; creating an interactive hotline to allow students and other to safely and anonymously report vandalism, bullying, harassment, and other behaviors; serving as a resource; motivating others to say “NO” to vandalism; and recruiting new members and community p partners. The site averages over 2,000 hits per month from visitors from around the globe. The site’s Interactive Response Form has generated a number of reports alerting the group about incidents, enabling them to deal with the problems quickly and efficiently by referring the information to an administrator, SRO, or local police department for prompt action. Joe and Nick are now 9^th graders at Coventry High School, Coventry, RI.