04/10/2017 - Permalink

National Hate Crime Awareness Week 2017 (14 October – 21 October)

Related topics: Corporate / Partner organisations / Public protection

Organisations across Shropshire are working together to raise awareness of hate crime, and how to report it.

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National Hate Crime Awareness Week 2017

National Hate Crime Awareness Week 2017 runs from Saturday 14 October – Saturday 21 October. The purpose of National Hate Crime Awareness Week is to raise awareness of what hate crime is, encourage reporting, and promote local support services and resources. Hate crime information will be available at the following venues and events:

  • Friday 6 October – Sunday 8 October 2017 – Rainbow Film Festival, Shrewsbury. The film festival is organised completely by volunteers and is funded by grants, individual donations and sponsorship. The films that are screened at Rainbow Film Festival aim to entertain, educate, challenge and change. The festival also supports and publicises local LGBT events and campaigns.
  • Victim Support will be hosting events in Oswestry on Friday 6 October in Sainsburys and on Wednesday 18 October at the market, that will promote reporting hate crime / incidents.
  • Monday 16 October – National Hate Crime Week market stall networking event, Guildhall, Frankwell Quay, Shrewsbury between 10.30am – 12.30pm. This is a free event for organisations to share good practice and to continue to promote the reporting of hate crime. It is open to the public to come and join all the organisations,stand up and say no to hate crime in Shropshire.
  • Kick It Out – At various schools across Shropshire during October. The Hate Crime Reporting Group, which is part of Shropshire’s community safety partnership, supports these events. The group works in partnership to try to understand and reduce incidents and crimes, and to make it easier for people to report crimes and incidents when they happen. Kick It Out has been running in Shropshire for approximately 11 years and has been a key vehicle to engaging with young people about racism and discrimination. Over the last four years, Shropshire FA has been an equal partner in Kick It Out and with their support we reached more than 1,000 pupils across 18 schools in the county. The aim is to continue to engage with schools and strengthen the link between Kick It Out activity and the hate crime message.

Lee Chapman, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for health, adult social care and housing, and Chair of the Hate Crime Reporting Group, said:

“It is vital that we continue to work together to tackle all forms of hate crime.

“Over the last year in Shropshire there have been a number of incidents, or crimes, against people because they are seen as belonging to ethnic minority communities, or because they are seen as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, or because they are seen as people with disabilities. People in Shropshire are being insulted, harassed, belittled or attacked because of someone’s hatred of who they are – or who they are thought to be. This is what hate crime means: attacking people simply because they are seen as different or ‘other’ or ‘not like us’.

“National Hate Crime Awareness Week is a great opportunity for people to talk to officers and find out more about hate crime and to find out how to report it.”

Chief Inspector Sarah Chaloner said:

“Promoting the reporting of hate crime is not just something we do once a year, it is a 24/7 priority to protect our communities from harm. We know hate crime is still under-reported, and we continue to look to communities and businesses to take a zero tolerance approach. National Hate Crime Week gives us a national focus to encourage more victims to come forward.  olice and partners can provide discrete support, restorative conferencing or can support a full prosecution, but we don`t want people to accept hate crime or suffer in silence. Our plea is that we won’t tolerate hate crime, and neither should you.”

If you are a victim of hate crime, or a witness to a hate crime or hate incident, you can report it by calling West Mercia Police on 101 or Crimestoppers 0800 555 111 or going online at https://shropshire.gov.uk/crime-and-criminal-justice/report-a-hate-crime/