It’s not OK!
The University of Lincoln Student Support Centre has been running a HEFCE-funded project to raise the awareness of hate crime to the student community. The project, which started in 2018, was designed to encourage students to challenge, report and receive support, if they witnessed any form of hate incident or hate crime. The impact has been a substantial increase in the level of reporting - hate crime as well as bullying and harassment - and has increasingly empowered students to say "it's not OK!"
The Hate Crime project has raised awareness through both social media and hosting events using branded visuals – including a trio of videos created by the Digital Student Life Team:
- What is hate crime?
- It's not OK
- Different in common
An on-line reporting system was introduced to provide students with a way to formally notify the University of incidents. Anonymous data, captured from the reports, are shared within the University, and with the local police, in order to help further develop the initiative and to proactively support students.
Students who identify themselves through the reporting procedure are contacted by the Student Support Centre and relevant support is put into place, which may include working with local and national external agencies. Students are also provided with the opportunity to raise complaints within the University, or report incidents to the police should they wish to do so.
What is a hate crime?
It's not OK
Different in common
The impact of the project has been an increase in reporting – not just hate incidents and crime, but also bullying and harassment as students become aware they will be supported and behaviours challenged, empowering the students to call out incidents, lowering tolerance thresholds and encouraging a more cohesive community.
The Student Support Centre is further developing the project this academic year with the support of the Students' Union, with the intention of further encouraging student engagement.
