15 Oct 2018
Dyfed-Powys Police and Crime Commissioner listens to
young people’s voice during Hate Crime Awareness Week
Police and Crime Commissioner Dafydd Llywelyn will be supporting activities aimed at listening to the voice of young people throughout National Hate Crime Awareness Week,.which runs between 13-20 October 2018.
The Commissioner will be supporting youth engagement activity across the four counties in order to listen to their views and experience of hate crime, and to challenge perceptions and misconceptions in relation to certain communities and groups of people.
Police and Crime Commissioner Dafydd Llywelyn said
“I am pleased to be supporting a range of activity across the Force area on such important issues during Hate Crime Awareness Week. To reinforce my commitment to working with young people, I have chosen to support partners within the creative industries to work with young people throughout the week to get their voice heard, to challenge perceptions and misconception and put an end to hate.
National Hate Crime Awareness Week is an opportunity to show victims of this awful crime how serious we treat their experiences and encourages more people to come forward and get help if they haven’t already done so.
I appeal to anyone who works with the public, including our youth leaders, volunteers and criminal justice partners as well as residents themselves to join us throughout the week in this symbolic rejection of hate crime.”
The activities which have received support from the Commissioner, and funded via Welsh Government funding for Hate Crime Awareness Week, are detailed below. Further information will be shared during Hate Crime Awareness Week.
- I have a story
This is a project collaboration between Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru and ‘Travelling Ahead’ – Gypsy, Roma and Traveller West Wales Regional Youth Forum. The aim of the project is for young people from the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities of Pembrokeshire, who can often be victims of hate crime, to take part in a series of scripting/drama workshops. The aim is to break down barriers that can exist between different communities in Dyfed-Powys and the whole of Wales, which may lead to hate. The young people will also learn and develop new skills, including script writing, filming and editing.
2. Hate Crime Awareness Drama Workshop
A Carmarthen-based drama club for primary aged children will be holding a Hate
Crime Awareness workshop with around 30 young people from various Carmarthen schools on Wednesday 17 October.
The group will explore different themes of Hate Crime and will improvise and act out different situations. They will demonstrate their work to the whole group at the end of the session, with opportunities to question each other, with support from a Hate Crime Support Officer.
3. Hate Crime and students with Learning Disabilities – Aberystwyth University
The Commissioner will be supporting MIRUS Care through Dyfed-Powys Police’s Citizens in Policing Co-ordinator. We will be working with a group of students from Aberystwyth University with learning disabilities to raise awareness of Hate Crime.
The student volunteers will be raising awareness of Hate Crime alongside their support workers and the local NPT during HCAW, handing out merchandise to promote the force message around hate crime.
4. Youtoo
Youtoo is a social community project, led by students for students. Based on the Carmarthen campus of University of Wales Trinity Saint David, the project has been running for 2 years, and continues to provide support and exciting programmes for students as well as a safe environment for socialising. During Hate Crime Awareness Week, Youtoo will lead on activities to combat and highlight Hate Crime, including issue-based sessions linking in specifically with the LGBT community, raising awareness of hate crime issues found on University sites and the local community.
5. Hate Language
A Youth Workshop will be held in Powys to raise awareness of Hate Crime against a person’s language choice. The aim is to challenge perceptions and misconceptions in relation to certain groups of people because of their language choice and use, in an open and non-threating environment.
