GYG Hate Crime Presentation

GYG Hate Crime Presentation

The Committee were given a presentation by Gifted Young Gravesham (GYG) on Hate Crime.

The Senior Youth Worker and the GYG Chair outlined background information on Gifted Young Gravesham and their project on Hate Crime to Members. The issue of hate crime was consistently raised at the GYG Committee meetings, and its Members decided they would do something about it; regular meetings were held with all eight headteachers in the Borough and they collaborated with GYG and a producer to create a video to combat hate crime in schools. The Head Teachers were very proud of the video, and it was the only piece of work that all eight headteachers had ever collaborated on together.

The Committee were shown the video by GYG which had been created to combat hate crime in schools.

The Chair thanked the GYG for showcasing the video which conveyed a powerful message; the Committee offered to assist the GYG in getting the message out to as many people as possible.

Members of the Committee thanked the GYG for the video and several Members shared their own experiences with hate crime.

The GYG Chair outlined that one of the key points of the video was that it wasn’t just the responsibility of the victim to report hate crime, the witnesses to any and all hate crimes should report it as well.

In response to Members questions, the GYG Members and the Senior Youth Worker explained that:

·       The video had not been viewed by students yet; there will be a whole week dedicated to combatting hate crime the first week after February half term and the video will be launched to all secondary schools in the Borough during that week

·       There is a problem in schools of students not knowing who to report to or where their information was then forwarded on; during a meeting with the Head Teachers, they were informed of the confusion around reporting, and they all realised that better reporting mechanisms needed to be put in place.  The same reporting mechanism couldn’t be used across all eight schools as it was too expensive; as a result each schools different style of reporting system was identified by GYG

·       The head teachers requested that the next step was for GYG to create resources that could be placed in schools and used to raise awareness of hate crime and encourage reporting of hate crimes. GYG intended to create five podcasts, one for each of the five types of hate crimes, with each being one minute long; a victim of each type of hate crime would talk about their experience on one of the podcasts. Those podcasts would then be distributed to all secondary schools in the Borough and played during students PSHE time with questions about the podcasts written on the classroom board. The podcasts would make the students listen to experiences of hate crime and gets them thinking about the effect hate crime had on students

·       By the end of hate crime week, all schools would have information regarding how each student in their respective schools could report hate crime

·       The podcasts would be personalised to each school with a voice at the end of the podcast informing students the method for reporting hate crime in their school  

·       Logos and banners would be printed and distributed throughout all of the schools

·       Kent  Police were also partners on the project and their logo would be added to the video

·       Currently the video was only for schools, but it could be amended for distribution on social media platforms

·       Information on hate crime was sent to the Police by the school on a case-by-case basis; the school determined if the case warranted reporting to the Police

The Senior Youth Worker expressed her pride at the GYG and informed Members of the positive feedback she had received from the head teachers; in particular one head teacher commended the project for bringing all of the head teachers together which he had never experienced before. 

The Senior Youth Worker advised that she had spoken with the head of KCC reporting who attended each school in the county to find out how many cases of hate crime had been reported in each school. At many schools there did not seem a be problem on paper but there was one school that had 86 reported cases of hate crime. Th Senior Youth Worker explained that the school with 86 reported cases was actually a positive sign as hate crime was prevalent in most schools in some way, but the high number meant that students felt comfortable enough to actively report cases of hate crime when they witnessed/experienced it.

The Chair commended the GYG for their work in pulling together the video and advised that he would ensure the Councils Communications Team were liaised with to see if a press release could be done on the video and get it circulated across the Councils social media platforms. Additionally, the Chair advised that he would liaise with the Strategic Manager (CSU) in order to get the GYG to be able to present the video to the Crime Safety Partnership as all of the groups in that partnership dealt with hate crime on a daily basis.