Charity 'Local Heroes' launches new hate crime resources

NEW resources to inspire children and young people to #CallTimeOut on Hate Crime were unveiled at a reception held at Portcullis House, The House of Commons, Westminster in London, ahead of Hate Crime Awareness Week (October 14 to 21).

The charity Local Heroes (www.lhdiversity.org) is an education initiative, delivered through schools, to change young people’s attitudes and inspire them to become responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society.

Working with young victims of Hate Crime and prejudice, Local Heroes has produced a new Hate Crime awareness resource for children and young people that can be used in any formal or informal youth setting.

This resource consists of short films featuring young people sharing their experiences and the impact that Hate has had on their lives, as well as a call to action in the form of their views of what can be done to “Call Time Out” on prejudice and Hate Crime in the future.

The resource, which has been made possible with funding from The Wessex Youth Trust and the Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation, also includes templates for social action activities (such as posters, campaign ideas, lesson plans) that, having been inspired by the short films, viewers can use to raise awareness of Hate Crime and drive change in their own communities; whether that be schools, geography or virtual and social media platforms.

Local Heroes inspires young people from all backgrounds to maximise their potential and the role they play in society.

The charity raises awareness of prejudice and hate crime; empowering young people to celebrate diversity, value difference, nurture change and prevent prejudice bullying.

With the support of Paralympians, TV personalities, Athletes, Professional Basketball and Rugby Teams and Premier League Football Clubs, the charity has delivered roadshows across England since 2014 and created close to 800 young ambassadors.

Local Heroes innovative practice in supporting schools tackle prejudice and hate crime has been identified as an example of best practice in hate crime education by Truevision at the Ministry of Justice and received support from Ministers at the Department for Education.

Ryan Doyle, Local Heroes founder and chair of trustees, said: "We were delighted to have the opportunity to launch our new resources at the House of Commons and I'm grateful to Mel Stride, the MP for Central Devon, for sponsoring the event.

"The new resource is available without charge to young people and any formal or informal youth setting that want to call time out on Hate Crime and it was great to see a range of interested parties who want to support this."

Local Heroes’ patron, Actor and Director Greg Wise, who also attended the launch, said: “I have witnessed first-hand the corrosive nature of hate and bullying, and am thankful now to be part of an organisation in Local Heroes that tackles this head on”.

Mel Stride MP, said: "Local Heroes does incredible work and their focus on calling out behaviour which fuel hate crimes is most admirable.

"Nobody should be treated differently because of their skin colour, religion, sexuality or gender. Key to tackling this is ensuring people know how much of an impact that even casual remarks - what they might consider to be harmless - can have, both in that specific instance and contributing to a wider culture of casual racism."

The resources are available in the #CallTimeOut section of the Local Heroes website (www.lhdiversity.org)