Manchester residents wanting to hold events to help their communities stand up to hate crime are being invited to apply for cash from the City Council.
Manchester City Council is encouraging residents to help them raise awareness of the problem and understand what they can do to report any incidents, as part of a hate crime awareness week being held early next year.
Groups who want to organise events helping residents celebrate their diversity and get to know each other better are now being invited to apply for grants of up to £200.
These events can be anything from informal coffee mornings enabling residents to discuss hate crime and what they can do about it, to opportunities to make short films or posters raising awareness about preventing hate crime.
The hate crime week will be held from Monday 21 January until Sunday 27
January 2013, and will also be used to launch the City Council’s new hate crime strategy – outlining how they will work with Greater Manchester Police, the Crown Prosecution Service and other agencies to crack down on the problem.
This follows a consultation event held at Manchester Town Hall in June, in which a wide range of organisations, including religious institutions, disability groups and those representing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people were invited to talk about their experiences.
Any groups who want to organise an event as part of hate crime week need to fill in and submit a form which is available online here: www.manchester.gov.uk/hatecrimeawareness by Wednesday 12 December 2012.
For further information, contact 0161 274 6422, or email: [email protected]
Councillor Bernard Priest, Manchester City Council’s executive member for neighbourhood services, said: "We are determined to make sure that hate crime will not be tolerated in Manchester, but for the City Council and police to crack down on this problem, it’s vital we work closely with residents to make sure they understand what hate crime is and know what they can do to report it.
"Manchester rightly has a reputation for celebrating its diversity, and our residents regularly hold events to improve their neighbourhoods and enable people to get together. We organised similar grants earlier in the year to help people celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee and now we are tapping into the city’s famous community spirit to make sure residents join us in the fight against hate crime."