Shropshire Council to mark Wear Red Day on Friday 18 October 2019

Shropshire Council is working with Unison to mark national Wear Red Day on Friday 18 October 2019. There will be a display stand in the main 1st floor Foyer at Shirehall, Shrewsbury, and staff and councillors are being encouraged to wear an item of red clothing that day, in order to show their support for this initiative.

There are also a number of ways in which to donate £1 towards anti-racism education across the UK. The importance and timeliness of the initiative is given even greater focus by the incidents of racism at the Euro 2020 qualifier international football  match in Bulgaria featuring England last night.

Wear Red Day – Friday 18 October 2019

Gwilym Butler, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for communities, place planning and regulatory services, said:

“I am delighted that Shropshire Council is supporting the national Wear Red Day to show racism the red card. It is important to take every opportunity to highlight inequalities in society and injustice to groups in our community, and this is an excellent joint initiative with Unison.

“I would like to encourage all Shropshire Councillors and officers to wear red on Friday 18 October, or show their support in other ways, and in so doing help the council to play its part in helping Shropshire to truly become the welcoming county that we want it to be.”

Wear Red Day is an established national day of action, which at a local level will help the council in its efforts to raise awareness of the three national equality aims set out in the Equality Act 2010. These are:

• Eliminating discrimination, harassment and victimisation
• Advancing equality of opportunity
• Fostering good relations.

Ways to support Wear Red Day, alongside wearing red, include use of social media: the charity has made the following call:

• Get your support social. Use the hashtag #WRD19 to get us trending at number one on the day. Text ‘RED’ to 70470 to donate £1. Help us. Help us to expand on the work that you believe in.
• Make a stand and make a difference. Make it happen because you can.

Keiran Brookes, Unison’s local campaign co-ordinator, said:

“We are delighted that the council is working with us in Unison to raise awareness of racism. We will be running DVDs from Show Racism the Red Card, which will show on the plasma screens in the 1st floor Foyer at Shirehall, and we would urge people to take a minute to look at the short films and think about what we can all do together to tackle racism wherever we may see it, whether that is in Shropshire or wider afield.”

Further information

• Every penny raised during Wear Red Day enables the campaign to work with more young people and adults across the UK to challenge racism in society.
• For just £5, the charity Show Racism the Red Card can educate one child for a whole day.
• The Day has been actively supported in the past by unions including Unison. UNISON has been working with and supporting Show Racism the Red Card since it was founded.
• The Day is also marked in schools, where schools may, for example, hold non uniform days, or have special assemblies.
• In 1993, five years after an incident at Goodison Park (Everton FC), Kick It Out was launched to lead and co-ordinate equality and diversity training for professional footballers at all levels.
• Three years after Kick It Out came Show Racism the Red Card. Established in 1996, the charity utilises the high-profile status of football and football players to publicise its anti-racism message across society as a whole.
• It also continues to provide educational workshops, training sessions, multimedia packages and a whole host of other resources – delivering training to more than 50,000 people every year, all with the purpose of tackling racism.
• According to a 2017/18 mid-season study, Kick It Out received 308 reports of discriminatory abuse by the end of 2017 – an increase of 59% on the same period of the previous season (177 incidents).