In 2013 I
was the Diverse Communities Team sergeant for Devon. This means that I led the
team responsible for being the link between the police and the minority
communities of Devon. Along with becoming a father this job changed my
politics, my priorities and quite simply my life. This job was about ensuring
that those with quieter voices were heard. Those who felt disconnected from
their police service, able to connect and crucially, those who were victims of
hate crime, targeted because of who they are or where they are from, were
supported and empowered to tell their story.
One day in February 2013 I was asked to attend a
housing association in Devon with a colleague from the Intercom Trust to
provide a Trans awareness workshop to their middle managers. The fantastic
thing about this was that this organisation wanted to support a member of their
staff who was transitioning. The interesting thing for me was that the people
attending the session were all in their 40’s and 50’s. I left work that day
thinking, “what if they had already known this when they had left school? What
if the policy setters and decision makers of tomorrow know how to celebrate
diversity and respect difference? Would that make hate crime a thing of the
past? 50% of Hate Crime goes unreported. Two thirds of young people get bullied
at some point. Young People from minority groups (LGBTQ, BME and Disabled) are
particularly vulnerable. Somebody HAS to do something about this.
I cycle to
work and back most days. It’s a 40 minute ride and my time to defuse and dream
up ideas. On that day in February 2013 the idea for Local Heroes was born, on
two wheels. I wanted to see celebrities and role-models working with the police
to support and inspire young people to challenge intolerance and change the
world. So I did it. I found people who believed in my vision and sponsors who
would fund it. In September 2013 the first three Local Heroes roadshows were
delivered in Devon and Cornwall.
At these
roadshows our team of youth workers work with local celebrities (our
heroes) to deliver workshops that raise awareness of hate crime and the harmful
effects of prejudice based bullying. The young people that attend our workshops
return to their schools as ambassadors; empowered and inspired to deliver hate crime
awareness assemblies and anti-bullying support for their peers.
The growth
of Local Heroes continues to excite and humble me in equal measure. We worked
with nine schools in 2013 and last year we put on 9 roadshows; creating
192 young ambassadors. Our 2015 programme is now underway, we have a kitemark style award for schools and
are working with Premiership Rugby, The Ben Cohen StandUp foundation and a
number of Premier League football clubs. By the end of November there will be
over 800 young Local Heroes ambassadors and by the end of 2017 we will have
worked with 5% of the 7.4 million 12-19 year olds in the UK.
I am blessed to have a fantastic
board of trustees and an amazing core team who put in far more than the two
days a week they are funded for. We have also assembled an incredible
group of Heroes. They all share our passion and values and have stories and
experiences they want to share and use to inspire young people. Our
paralympians; Robin Williams, Keryn Seal and Sarah Pearson have all overcome
physical adversity to represent our nation at the highest level. Gemma Oaten
and Brian Freidman have both used their experiences of being bullied to become
the amazing and inspiring people they are today. Sarah Guest, Maggie Alphonsi
and Shachar Head are the best in the world at their sports – sports that are
only meant to be “for men”.
The best
thing however is the visible impact Local Heroes is having on the
young people we work with. At every workshop
there has been an example of one of these fantastic young people
seizing the opportunity to tell those around them how damaging prejudice based
bullying can be. The picture you see is some of the pledges that our
young ambassadors have made after attending one of our roadshows. They want to
challenge intolerance. They want to stop bullying. These young people want to
change the world and it blows me away.
If you want to find out more about Local Heroes visit www.lhdiversity.org.uk or follow us on twitter @LocalheroesDC
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