HOME

0808-800-0051

FREE FROM ALL MOBILES

AND LANDLINES

HATE CRIME IS -

any incident which is perceived by the victim or any other person to be    motivated by prejudice against someone's sex, racial heritage, religion, disability or sexual orientation. It can include graffiti, offensive mail, assault, verbal abuse or offensive literature.

IT CAN INCLUDE

verbal abuse and harassment

threats and intimidation

physical assault and violence including sexual violence

psychological and emotional violence

property damage

Why the helpline started

We are a group of refugees and other migrants who have often experienced hate crime ourselves. We know how it hurts and how often people don’t talk about it. People who are new to this country may not realise what hate crime is or may be reluctant to go to the police. Language can be another barrier to telling people what has happened.

So we decided to set up a helpline where people can talk about what happened and how they feel about it. They know they can talk openly and in confidence and we have many languages between us which can make that possible.

We contacted the Telephone Helpline Association who helped us set up good practice including high quality training, and we are now full members which shows we meet their high standards

We contacted Coventry City Council Hate Crime Reduction Officer who was very supportive of our initiative and gave us a small grant to help us set up.

We opened the helpline on 10^th May 2010

What we can do

• Our main purpose is to listen to people so they can talk about what happened and how they are feeling. It can be really helpful to share that pain.
• We listen to anybody who has experienced any type of hate crime whether  verbal, physical, graffiti etc and against anybody whether it is because of their colour, sexuality, disability or religion.
• Some people might want to report the crime officially to the police or a hate crime reporting centre. We refer people to these places and offer to go with them if they want. We may also refer people to other organisations which may be able to help such as Samaritans or Friend.
• At the moment we concentrate our advertising on the Coventry area. However we will take calls if they come in from other areas but may not know the local agencies which could help them.
• We  run workshops to raise awareness of what hate crime is and what people can do about it.