YOUTH Crime Watch Jamaica (YCWJ) on Saturday elected a 10-member board of directors as the first step to formalising and registering as an official non-government organisation with the Office of the Registrar of Companies.

The election was held at Christ the Redeemer Resource Centre in Seaview Gardens, Kingston, the same location where YCWJ was officially launched in March last year.

YCWJ was spawned from the Building Bridges organisation headed by former United States Ambassador to Jamaica Sue Cobb. It presently operates as an affiliate of the Youth Crime Watch of America (YCWA).

Fabian Brown, founding member and chairman of the board, said that electing a board and registering the group was necessary, as it would provide greater ease in seeking donations as an official organisation and would also solidify the position of the organisation in Jamaica.

“We will be the enabling body that co-ordinates and supports all the initiatives in Jamaica where youth, crime and drugs are concerned,” Brown told the Observer.

The major goal of the group is to encourage and facilitate better relations between youth, police and communities. The group has been active in Kingston and St Andrew, Clarendon, St Mary, St James, Westmoreland, Portland and St Catherine.

The other members of the board are:

. vice-chairman and treasurer, Ruth Anderson, a sergeant at the Kingston Central Police Station and co-ordinator of the Safe Schools Programme in that area;

. secretary, Trishauna Barclay;

. assistant secretary, Troy Lewis, a member of the Rollington Town Police Youth Club;

. chairman of fundraising, Balfour Denniston, community development activist in East Kingston;

. representative for islandwide projects, Jacqueline Williams, corporal of the St James Police Division;

. representative for intervention in schools, Rushell Simmonds, Spanish Town High School;

. community projects director, Alfred Palmer, member of the Peer Counselling Association of Jamaica;

. assistant community projects director, Osmond Moodie, member of the Seaview Performing Arts Marching Band;

. public relations director, Tarrick Johnson, also a member of the Seaview band;

. assistant public relations director, Kenisha Anderson, another member of the Seaview band;

Anderson, Johnson, Palmer, Simmonds, Lewis and Barclay are all under age 20. There are four remaining positions on the board to be filled by representatives from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and the ministries of national security, justice and education.