Agenda item

Jake Fisher, a member of Northampton Youth Forum who attends Weston Favell Academy, presented the Stamp out Hate Crime campaign the young people are leading.

The campaign was partly inspired following the suicide due to bullying and in particular cyberbullying of a local teenager, Natasha Warnes, in summer 2011. Young people had approached Northampton Youth Forum asking them to do something to help raise awareness of bullying and hate crime, to do something to help people in schools be more aware of their rights and to help schools take the issues seriously. The campaign has a Facebook page which launched in September 2011 (www.facebook.com/stampouthatecrime) and an ordinary web page which includes some free resources, online survey links and links to useful organisations (www.northampton.gov.uk/stampouthatecrime).

The campaign recognised that these are difficult times with reducing public sector resources and funding for local community organisations, all of which may impact on roles that may currently help with some of the issues relating to bullying and hate crime. So the young people wanted to make it easy for people to get involved.

The campaign starts by seeking to raise awareness that tackling hate crime iincluding bullying is everyone’s business. The Facebook page acknowledges that with what Facebook identifies as around 13,000 young people aged 13 to 19 in Northampton area, many youth will be using social media – so there is no point saying not to do so. Rather, the Facebook page is able to show through videos, links and news about how to recognise cyberbullying, tips for staying safe online and otherwise, stories of inspirational youth projects and survivor stories, news about changes to the law and people held to account for what they have done. It seeks to win hearts and minds.

The campaign recognises that with changing and wide ranges of services, different organisations may want and need different approaches such as individual school reporting mechanisms and policies. Young people on youth forum have begun working with their headteachers, school presidents, school councils and others to get people on board and identify what for them locally will help to get people to be less likely to bully and harm others and more likely to report things sooner. It is hoped that often it might be simpler and less costly in all ways if people speak up sooner, rather than feeling that they should have to put up with things. The campaign recognises that although young people can often be perpetrators of hate crime including bullying, many young people are unfamiliar with the concept of hate crime or its consequences. The campaign aims to educate them.

The young people are working on an exhibition which should be available after April 2012 to go to schools and organisations in the community. Featuring local people talking about experiences of hate and bullying, sharing about the pledges people of all ages and from lots of community groups have made about wanting to stamp out hate crime, and encouraging people to report hate crime including bullying.

There is due to be an initial exhibition in the People’s Gallery at Northampton Museum and Art Gallery in late January to early March, as part of recognising Holocaust Memorial Day and LGBT History Month, and a chance for people so far involved to be able to see what has been happening and how very many people share the wish to stamp out hate crime.

There is due to be a small elephant as part of the Safari Northampton public art project in summer 2012.

Jake described significant changes which have happened at his school as a result of himself, Daniel and other young people asking for change. There has been excellent support and welcome for the young people’s interest from the teaching staff. Changes have been made to improve reporting within the school, commitment given for the school to gain anti-bullying accreditation working with the county council, young people and teachers have taken part in photo shoots to create images for the campaign, a whole school pledge sign-up is planned of around 1300 signatures and the young people have been given budget and encouraged to raise awareness of the campaign using web presence for the school. There are some thoughts about having a particular day each year as a ‘Stamp out Hate Crime’ day to provide a focus for this area of work. Jake has been looking to make contact with Northamptonshire Police so that young people can understand their role better and how to report hate crime to them. Jake felt he had gained a lot in confidence through his involvement in this work.

It was noted that some other schools are also making changes. It was noted that young people involved can claim volunteering awards from vinspired for anything from 10 hours upwards.

Cllr Patel congratulated Jake on his achievements.

Agreed: that on behalf of the Forum L Ambrose would write to the school to pass on the appreciation for the work Jake had done and the school’s response to it, also expressing the hope that this work could inspire other schools across Northamptonshire to get involved too.

Anjona Roy said she was concerned that agencies should follow up when things are reported to them, making sure that the right people are involved and take the right actions. She said there was very low reporting of incidents from beyond Northamptonshire Police since the changes which had reduced former multi-agency working arrangements. She felt it was important that agencies reported properly in order to build on the work the young people were doing. She said no agencies should feel they could just say “ignore it and it will go away”.

John Rawlings said that bullying is a big spectrum and very difficult to address. He felt the campaign was exciting as it was getting debate going in schools, making it harder for things to be brushed aside. John suggested the youth forum might challenge other schools to get involved by saying for example that Weston Favell Academy is being inspirational in doing what it has and asking them what they could do too.

Cllr Brendan Glynane welcomed the fact that the Northampton Youth Forum is working with Jo Woods and the anti-bullying work she is doing for Northants County Council in the education area.

There was interest in understanding the lack of young men signed up to the Facebook page and how this seemed to reflect verbal feedback from discussions with young men in their teens. Jake said that many young men do not like to accept that they are the weaker one, to admit that something has happened to them. They fear that to do so might damage their “street cred”. They fear that being seen to support the campaign might lead some people to ask whether they are only involved because they are a victim. They needed to see more men as role models. The campaign was using a lot of men in the photos of people in Stamp out Hate Crime T-shirts, posting about the ‘Real Men’ campaign about domestic violence, and male celebrity stories to help challenge the stereotype and fear perceived.

Matthew Toresen said that FAN Northants would be willing to talk in schools.

Anjona Roy said that NREC would be willing to support activities.

Anjona Roy said that people working in Education don’t attend or send casework to meetings of the countywide hate forum. The only ones referred were coming through NREC itself. She expressed a fear that if people report and do not get the right results they may be put off reporting again as it takes a lot of courage to report hate crime and bullying. She felt it was important that work to tackle hate crime should include promoting 3^rd party or anonymous reporting and the ability to simply log incidents so that even if someone did not want further action taken at one point, later on there would be an evidence trail to help take further action.

John Rawlings asked about the need for schools to recognise that people who bully may themselves be suffering from bullying or other harmful situations. Jake explained that at his school this was recognised. People identified as bullying were referred to counsellors to see if there was a bigger picture and anything that the school could do to help them, besides dealing with the incidents which had prompted concerns to be raised.

It was noted that lots now happens with school governors too.

It was noted that the Stamp out Hate Crime campaign was due to have a stand at a concert to be held on 12 January at Cripps Hall Theatre in memory of Natasha Warnes.