Shrewsbury Action Against Racism

Context

Over the last year to eighteen months there has been evidence of increasing racist incidents in Shrewsbury. Examples have included highly offensive racist, xenophobic and white supremacist graffiti, an increasing occurrence of anti-Traveller language in 'everyday' graffiti, and threats and alleged incidents of racist attacks and assaults.

Early in 2005 the Borough Council and Police discussed the possibility of setting up an inter-agency group to discuss hate crime issues and incidents, and start to do some pro-active work around racism in the town. Shrewsbury Action Against Racism is the outcome of those discussions.

Aims

To take local action to reduce racist and xenophobic incidents in Shrewsbury & Atcham.

e.g. Kick Racism out of Football 07

Objectives

• Share and analyse information about racist graffiti,  incidents and crimes in Shrewsbury and district
• Plan responses to any emerging patterns of racism in the area
  
• Plan and run local campaigns and events to promote anti-racist values and cultural awareness
  
• Share ideas and good practice with similar groups elsewhere

Proposed membership (subject to amendment)

• SABC Community Regeneration Manager
• CCS Community Development Co-ordinator
• Police: Hate Crime Officer and Community Team Sergeant
• County Council Youth Service Shrewsbury Area Manager
• Severnside Housing Association
• PCT Black Workers' Group
• Shrewsbury Unite Against Fascism
• Citizens' Advice Shropshire
• Shropshire Education Authority
• SCAT
• Shrewsbury Sixth Form College
• Victim Support
• Shropshire Social Services

Meetings

The group will be convened by the Community Regeneration Manager at Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council. It will meet approximately bi-monthly, subject to need. Meetings will be focused on action, and the group will continue to meet only if it can be shown to be taking forward work to counter racism in the town.

Resources

Subscribing organisations will share administrative, organisational and events costs. It is anticipated that additional and one-off resources will be obtained from Shropshire Partnership, and that the work of this group will be used as a pilot for tackling racism in other predominantly rural areas.

Poster Campaign

The press coverage - both radio and newspaper - resulted in a considerable number of organisations signing up to the campaign.

The idea to develop a poster that encourages people to report racist incidents was always paramount to the SAAR group. The reason for this being that the reported incidents gives some indication of the level of racist activity in the town, providing organisations with a baseline to work from.

To show the public that this poster wasn't just supported by 'the usual suspects' - Police, Local Authorities and Voluntary Organisations. The group decided that is was paramount the campaign had the support of local businesses in the Town. This approach also gave the campaign a local profile specific to Shrewsbury.

The following press release was constructed to encourage local support.

A number of local organisations have joined forces to condemn the recent upsurge in racist incidents both locally and nationally through an innovative poster campaign.

The poster will depict Shrewsbury as a town that welcomes all people and deplores racism in any form with the message: see it, hear it, suffer it, report it - along with help line numbers.

The Shrewsbury Action Against Racism (SAAR) group has 'signed up' the support of the many statutory and voluntary organisation including: Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council, The Community Council of Shropshire, CAB Shropshire, West Mercia Police, Shropshire Youth Service and Shrewsbury Sixth Form College. However, the SAAR group are appealing to more organisations and local businesses to also display their name on the poster.

SAAR group Chair Steve Cunningham said 'We really want as many local organisations and businesses to sign up to this initiative as possible. It's free and I feel that it sends out a very positive message about Shrewsbury and the people of the town. I hope to have over 100 names on the poster for the launch in early October.'

Following 'The Report it' Poster Campaign, Shropshire County Council developed a third party reporting scheme which incorporated the original SAAR poster design.  This poster is now used in a County wide Campaign called 'Hate Crime Don't Tolerate it'.

(pdf format, 494kb)