Government awards £700k to tackle hate crime

18 Nov 2016 12:00 PM

Nine community projects and 59 places of worship have been awarded Home Office funding to tackle hate crime.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has awarded more than £700,000 funding to schemes to tackle hate crime in communities and protect places of worship.

Nine community projects will benefit from over £300,000 for innovative schemes to help tackle specific types of hate crime.

An additional £405,000 has been awarded to 59 places of worship, including 45 churches, 12 mosques, one Hindu temple and one gurdwara, to help pay for security measures such as CCTV or protective fencing.

The announcement comes after the Home Secretary and Communities Secretary Sajid Javid met faith leaders on Wednesday (16 November) to discuss ways to beat religious hate crime. Minister for Vulnerability, Safeguarding and Counter Extremism Sarah Newton, Solicitor General Robert Buckland, hate crime charities, law enforcement leads and representatives from major social media firms also attended the meeting, held during national Interfaith Week.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said:

This funding is the latest step in this government’s mission to stamp out all types of hate crime, which has absolutely no place in a Britain that works for everyone.

These innovative community schemes will help local groups get to the heart of the issue in their area and show others what can be done to tackle hate crime. Alongside this, the security funding will help protect a cross-section of faiths from attack.

Working together we can beat hatred which is why we brought together experts and representatives of those affected by religious hate crime to discuss what is currently being done and what more we can do.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said:

This government is determined to tackle hate crime in all its forms.

If we are truly to build a country that works for everyone, people of different faiths should be free to worship without fear of prejudice or attack.

The funding is the first to be granted from the £900,000 community demonstration project scheme and the £2.4 million fund for protective security at places of worship, both launched by the Home Secretary alongside the government’s hate crime action plan in July.

The nine community projects detailed below will each receive awards of between £24,000 and £50,000.

• Eastern European Resource Centre – to support Polish and Romanian nationals dealing with hate crime incidents in London.

• The REMEDI and Restorative Justice Council – a scheme to help victims of hate crime in Derby access restorative justice.

• Voluntary Action Leeds – to help prevent hate crime by challenging the beliefs and attitudes that can lead to it by supporting those who work with young people with racist beliefs.

• GALOP – a national project to identify, monitor and support victims to report online LGBT hate crime.

• Christianity Reaching Inner City Birmingham – to work to encourage young people to report hate crime rather than retaliating.

• Stop Hate UK project in Cardiff – to enable young transgender people to come together, create their own online narratives and support mechanisms to reduce social isolation and challenge the attitudes which contribute to hate crime.

• Blackburn Youth Zone – to use the concept of a Citizens Jury to engage local residents in addressing hate crime.

• Open College Network – working with young people in Young Offender Institutions and Pupil Referral Units in Liverpool and the North West to educate them on hate crime, increase empathy and reduce reoffending.

• Carlisle Mencap – to develop a hate crime resource accessible to and developed by people with learning disabilities which explains what disability hate crime is, how to recognise it and where to go for help and support.