Tower Hamlets’ No Place for Hate Champions Project has won another award, this time from London’s Equality and Human Rights sector!

Our #EndHateTogether award, celebrating innovative and cutting edge work challenging hate crime pan-equality and cross-sector, was presented to Mayor John Briggs alongside officers from the Hate Crime and VAWG (Violence against Women and Girls) teams, and a number of the 100+ local Champions that have been trained to challenge all forms of hate since the project’s inception.

The award was presented on 2nd July by Mhairi McGhee at an event which also included the raising of the Pride flag at the Town Hall.

John Biggs, Mayor of Tower Hamlets said: “The diversity of our East End community is one of our greatest assets. Our No Place for Hate Champions work tirelessly to promote positive messages about how we all benefit from stronger and safer communities, and how we all have a role to tackle discrimination and hate crimes in all their forms. I was delighted to receive this award as we raised the Pride flag over the Town Hall” 

The Tower Hamlets No Place for Hate Champions Project recruits local volunteers to go out into the community and promote community cohesion by raising awareness on hate crime, and also increasing confidence to report and challenge hate crime.

The project has successfully recruited and trained 138 Champions who have collectively delivered over 1086 projects and activities that have brought people together and promote peaceful co-existence. To date these schemes have reached more than 65,000 people, including marginalised groups across the borough. 

Shalina Akhtar, No Place for Hate Champion said: “As a Hate Crime Champion I know anyone can be a victim of hate crime, therefore it can impact individuals as well as communities as a whole. It is imperative that we educate our communities and raise awareness of Hate Crime to help victims seek support. As a victim of hate crime incidences, I understand how life changing these experiences can be and how important it is to be believed and supported.”

A number of champions were at the presentation as were representatives from the council, local LGBT forum, local police and the chair of the No Place for Hate Forum, Reverend Alan Green. 

For further information about Tower Hamlets’ No Place for Hate Campaign, including how you can sign our No Place for Hate Pledge visit www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/hatecrime

Mental Health equality is an area of interest and expertise for many HEAR
members. The causal links between exclusion, discrimination, isolation and poor mental well being are well documented.

Organisations run by and working with marginalised, including intersectional, Londoners have, therefore, extensive knowledge of the discrimination and barriers experienced by those with Mental Health Support Needs (MHSN) and have developed practical, efficient ways of overcoming them.

What Londoners with Lived Experience Said  is a literature review presenting HEAR members’ expert knowledge of intersectional communities that are of significant interest to London policy makers.

The recommendations in What Londoners with Lived Experience Said are drawn from good practice and provide a framework that can work for many intersectional and marginalised Londoners. They include London becoming a Human Rights City and City of Sanctuary and prioritising peer-led interventions.

This paper also suggests some communities that require further outreach, focus and investment to improve Mental Health Equality; these are Londoners at risk of exploitation, faith communities and BAMER people; ““Racism is a political issue. Inequality is a political issue. Mental health is a political issue. We should hold politicians to account” (National Survivor User Network, 2018, ‘A Call for Social Justice Changes to Policy and Practice That Will Improve the Lives and Mental Wellbeing of Mental Health Service Users from Black and Minority Ethnic Communities’)

You MUST book to attend. Email mhairi@reap.org.uk with any access needs

or book via the Inclusion London website https://www.inclusionlondon.org.uk/training-and-support/powerup/view/charities-challenging-hate-crime/

Many HEAR members work with clients with mental health support needs. User and community led projects can help overcome the intersectional discrimination and stigma that disproportionately impacts on some Londoners’ mental wellbeing.

Right to Thrive and Thrive LDN are Mayor of London, NHS, London Councils supported projects to “help better understand how discrimination… affects a person’s mental health and well-being”. HEAR members were concerned that Thrive LDN’s methods of delivery (largely online) excluded and stigmatised those it sought to represent. To begin to address these concerns Thrive LDN has commissioned HEAR to produce supplementary research based on our members’ expertise.

The paper will be presented at the London Health Board, chaired by Mayor Sadiq Khan. We are looking for research, reports, casestudys, quotes, data from you on the frontline, that are:

• examples of intersectional discrimination, exclusion and stigma impacting on mental wellbeing
• examples of projects that improve mental health and well-being in intersectional communities in London
• examples of structural discrimination excluding intersectional people from accessing services and opportunities to influence policy and commissioning (which impact on public health planning, preventative health care and early intervention)
• practical recommendations that once adopted will enable Thrive LDN to work more closely together with equalities VCS and user-led mental health organisations, including HEAR members, to improve mental wellbeing of intersectional communities

You will be fully referenced in the research and your papers (if appropriate) will be added to www.HEARequality.org.uk/equalities-and-human-rights-resources/

Please email Mhairi with research, reports, quotes or data for consideration and inclusion, or with any questions about “Expert by experience Londoners Said” (working title) mhairi@reap.org.uk

LGBTQI+ Diversity
Building Solidarity Symposium
FREE all day event, Friday 12^th October 2018
Lift, White Lion Street, 45 White Lion St, N1 9PW

Dice Colour Wheel 1 by mikeplonk

An event to highlight the many sides of London’s diverse LGBTQI+ community. We will look for shared goals, build solidarity and raise the voices of the most excluded in our rainbow family. Co-produced with Intersex UK, Rainbow Pilgrims, Regard DDPO, Twilight People and other user-led projects

Open to charities, campaigners, policy makers, funders and service providers.

To register your interest please email mhairi@reap.org.uk with your name, organisation and any access or dietary needs

Please share this invitation with your networks

This year HEAR launches the second #EndHateTogether award for innovative hate crime work in London.

We are asking for nominations for Hate Crime work that works cross-sector, cross-equality or across communities to challenge hate crime and targeted abuse.

All nominees will be publicised through HEAR’s mailings and social media, with the winner voted on by HEAR’s 800+members.

Last year’s inaugural winners, Inclusion Barnet and Barnet Metropolitan Police Service, will have their award presented at London’s Living Room at City Hall on the 7th September this year.

Closing date for nominations is the 13th October, the beginning of National Hate Crime Awareness Week 13th-21th October.

Please click here, complete this form and email to mhairi@reap.org.uk by Sat 13th Oct to nominate a project. For more details or to get this information in another format please get in touch.

HEAR members’ lobbying for better understanding of, and responses to the needs of disabled refugees, has resulted in the Home Office publishing updated guidance on how Asylum Seekers with Care Needs should be treated by HO, UKVI, Local Authorities and private contractors with statutory responsibilities (e.g. accommodation providers etc.,)

The previous guidance was published in 2004, 10 years prior to the Care Act being brought into being, so we are delighted to have worked with our colleagues in central government to get up-to-date advice for all partners supporting ‘customers’ with health, mental  health and social care needs and rights.

Basically rights for disabled people ‘trump’ immigration law!

Please share widely and use this guidance to get asylum seekers, refugees and those with ‘no recourse to public funds’ the support they are entitled to.

HEAR has established a googlegroup to support this work, connect front-line workers to share good practice and disseminate HEAR co-produced briefings that highlight the rights and entitlements of Deaf and Disabled refugees. This is also a mechanism to collect input on public policy issues so use this new guidance and share successes, wins and improvements needed

HEARs strategic expert group designing and monitoring our work to improve access to entitlements and services for Deaf and Disabled refugees, asylum seekers and those with ‘no recourse to public funds’ has its quarterly meeting on:

Tuesday 14th August, 12.30-16.30

The agenda and Terms of Reference are available here.
Discussions will include the Home Office/ UKVI updated guidance on Asylum Seekers with Care Needs, the setting priorities for Deaf and Disabled customers in Home Office Equality workplan, strategically communicating the message the rights for disabled people ‘trump’ immigration law.

Spaces are limited so if you are interested in joining the group please contact mhairi@reap.org.uk with your organisation name, interest and experience of the issues and any access and dietary needs.

ROTA, together with Black, Asian and Minority, Ethnic and Refugee (BAMER) community organisations in West London and the HEAR Network have worked together to co-produce a mental health equality campaign.

In the open letter ROTA calls on all local Councillors, as well as the VCS and individual campaigners, to commit to the six action points that have been co-authored by Experts by Experience, user-led Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) and BAMER organisations.
ROTA have garnered support from over 70 including newly elected councillors in a number of London boroughs. In Richmond the letter will be discussed in cabinet, a Barnet Cllr is putting the commitments forward as a motion, two Hounslow cllrs support our demands, and elected representatives in Tower Hamlets are interested in discussing how to take the work forward in East London.
We think that these commitments will lead to improved design, commissioning and delivery of mental health services for BAMER communities and, therefore, reduce mental health inequality and are summarised below:

1. Highlighting the need to provide appropriate, sustainable services for my BAMER constituents…
2. Addressing the multiple forms of marginalisation faced by BAMER services users…
3. Holding … statutory colleagues, in the Local Authority and NHS, to account for meeting their duties under the Equality Act (2010) and the Statutory Public Sector Equality Duty (2011)…
4. Championing the specialist, holistic services provided by local, user and community-led Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) for BAMER people with mental health support needs…
5. Always reminding stakeholders that my BAMER constituents are not from ‘hard to reach communities’ and that genuine outreach and engagement will overcome structural barriers and unconscious bias.
6. Ensuring Experts by Experience are involved in all stages of mental health service procurement, delivery pathways and mental health policy…

We ask you to support our campaign by:

1. Signing up to the open letter electronically
   2. Emailing or mailing the open letter to local candidates in your borough and use it in your conversations with them
   3. Using Social Media to ask local parties, local candidates, local authorities, NHS (CCG’s and Mental Health Trusts) and other mental health stakeholders to commit to mental health equality, using the following hashtags: #MHEquality #MentalHealth4All #HardlyHardToReach
   4. Sharing the open letter with your network

You can find the open letter here: https://www.rota.org.uk/content/mental-health-equality-bamer-communities-london

To find out more or to get involved please email mhairi@reap.org.uk

HEAR is delighted to partner with Changing Faces to highlight that for too long, people with facial disfigurements or visible differences have been putting up with hate, whether verbal, physical, or mental abuse, because of how they look. It’s time to break the cycle of #VisibleHate

Did you know that if someone has harmed or abused you either physically or verbally because you look different, then that may be a hate crime or hate incident?

The charity Changing Faces has just launched a set of new films of Experts by Experience to highlight how hate crimes affect people with visible differences – check them out

There’s a link here to view & share today with the hashtag #VisibleHate along with their great resources at http://www.changingfaces.org.uk/hatecrime explaining the law and how to report hate crime to break the cycle.

Targeting people because of a prejudice on the basis of a mark, scar or condition that affects appearance, including birthmarks, burns, craniofacial or congenital conditions (meaning a condition you are born with) , paralysis, acne or eczema, hairloss or differing appearance due to cancer or another disease, could be Disability Hate Crime.

1 in 3 people who look different have been a victim of hate crime. Break the cycle of visible hate

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