#NoHateHere – National Hate Crime reporting week 2017
Tuesday 17-10-2017 - 10:36
This week it’s National Hate Crime reporting week, and as tackling hate is one of my key priorities as your VP Welfare, I thought I’d write a blog to fill you in on our work so far, and what we have planned!
So, the biggest thing that’s been accomplished so far is *drum roll please*…
The SU Advice Centre is now a Third Party Hate Crime Reporting Centre!
I organised training for Students’ Union staff members with West Lancashire Constabulary, (huge thank you to Stuart and Denise for delivering it!) And we’re using True Vision as our reporting site, as recommended by both West Lancashire police and NUS.
In the wake of Brexit, hate crime has been on the rise. In particular xenophobia, racism, islamophobia, and anti-semitism.
Police figures obtained through Freedom of Information requests by the Independent in February 2017 show incidents involving racial and religious discrimination across the country surged by 23% after the EU referendum, compared with the same period the previous year. In this time period Lancashire was up 128 individual incidents, a 21% increase.
I think that it’s crucially important that we have the facilities to support students, and for students to report hate crime and hate incidents. Together, we can and will stamp out hate.
If you experience a hate crime or hate incident, on campus or elsewhere, please drop into the Advice Centre, who can help you make a report on True Vision, and give you information on support.
In January we’ll be running a campaign to raise awareness of Hate Crime against liberation groups, something I’m going to be working with our part-time liberation officers on. We’ll be using the hashtag #NoHateHere, so please do tweet and/or insta messages of support against hate crime. Do keep your eyes peeled for the campaign!
I particularly want to consult Muslim students and Jewish students on what we can do in terms of supporting students of faith. I’m planning to launch Faith Forums soon (!) where students of faith will be able to communicate their issues and shape the welfare work, but in the meantime if any student who defines into any liberation group or faith group that is impacted by hate crime wants to get in touch about the campaign, please send me an email at suvpwelfare@edgehill.ac.uk. My door and my inbox are always open.
Thanks for reading, and remember you are fierce, fine, and fabulous. Don’t let the haters get you down.
ROSIE, YOUR VP WELFARE
