Youth Safety Awareness Initiative popularly known by its brand name, Crime Si Poa® was founded in 2007

Our Mission

Youth Safety Awareness Initiative (Crime Si Poa® ) is a grassroots organization that works to promote social justice and a crime-free society through education, advocacy and social enterprise targeting children and young people.

Our Vision

A crime-free society.

Our Story - In 2007, a light bulb moment inspired peter to form the youth safety awareness initiative, popularly known by its brand name, crime si poa®

Youth Safety Awareness Initiative popularly known as its brand name, Crime Si Poa® was founded in 2007 by its current Executive Director Peter Ouko while serving time in the Death Row Section of Kamiti Maximum Security Prison for a wrongful conviction.

The birth of the organization was in response to the alarming rate of youth incarceration in Kenya with 75% of inmates being below 30 years of age. In addition, the lack of an organization that directly dealt with crime and delinquency was also a motivating factor. Leveraging on the strong partnership with the Kenya Prisons Service, the organization got involved in advocacy work both within and outside prisons.

In its formative years, CSP  lobbied the Prison Service to set up resource centres within various prisons where inmates received training in entrepreneurship, business and life skills. We further advocated for inmates to be allowed to open individual bank accounts to save income earned from these prison-based social enterprises to support their families and re-settle upon release. This greatly helped to reduce recidivism by ex-offenders and is what birthed the current Social Enterprise program.

In 2010, the organization was formally registered as a non-governmental organization with stated action points to achieve its mandate. Subsequently, Peter put together a dedicated Board of Directors primed and focused on delivering the organisation’s strategic direction.

Upon his release in 2016, Peter’s first task on record was to lobby the President through Crime Si Poa® to help the youth of Korogocho slums regain their grabbed playground. The playground was not only reclaimed but modernized into a stadium that the community uses to keep the youth engaged leading to a decrease in crime figures in that neighbourhood.

In 2018 Crime Si Poa® partnered with Strathmore University Law Clinic and trained a cohort of 25 community youth paralegals. The organization continues to hold and coordinate legal awareness sessions on weekends in the marginalized communities as a precursor to setting up community legal aid centres.

Over the last 3 years, the organization has been able to empower young people by incubating, training and assisting them in developing a network of community-based groups to directly impact lives in their local neighbourhoods. The Youth Safety Awareness Initiative now works in 15 schools, 12 communities and two juvenile prisons spread across four counties in Kenya.

Our Values
  • Integrity: We will always act honestly, fairly and transparently.
  • Inclusion: We will actively respect the rights and dignity of minorities, the marginalized and vulnerable in society.
  • Passion: We have the strong desire and self-drive to deliver.
  • Innovation: We will strive to be creative and constantly explore new strategies to achieve our objectives.
  • Excellence: We will seek to consistently perform to the highest quality in everything we do
Our Child Protection Stand

Crime Si Poa® works in the best interest of children and as such recognizes the right of all children to be protected from all forms of abuse and harm. Our Safeguarding Policy is hinged on local and international instruments, namely, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) of 1989, The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Children of 1990, The Constitution of Kenya 2010, Sexual Offences Act 2006 and Kenya’s Children Act No. 8 of 2001.

Crime Si Poa® takes seriously its duty to create safe spaces for children and as such all staff and volunteers undertake, as a matter of course, to uphold and abide by our Safeguarding Policy. Our approach includes promoting awareness of child protection issues among the beneficiaries and communities we serve. With a Senior management team member designated as the Safeguarding Officer, Crime Si Poa® closely works with teachers, social workers, community leaders and law enforcement agencies to immediately address any threats or incidences of child abuse that comes to its attention.
The Crime Si Poa® Safeguarding Policy is regularly reviewed and updated whenever there is a significant change in the laws governing children and their protection in the country. A copy of our Safeguarding Policy is available upon request.