BU staff and students supported an annual conference to mark Hate Crime Awareness Week.
400 delegates attended the No Place for Hate conference, which was sponsored by Dorset Police, Bournemouth University and BCP Council.
The annual event is hosted by Prejudice Free Dorset, a partnership organisation that seeks to promote inclusive communities and challenge prejudice across Dorset.
It featured a full day of presentations, debates, discussion groups, artistic performances and talks – including presentations from Dorset Police and BCP Council as well as Dorset residents talking about their personal experiences of hate incidents and crimes.
BU’s Equality and Diversity Adviser Dr James Palfreman-Kay and Dr Jane Healy, Deputy Head of Department for Social Science and Social Work & Joint Programme Lead for BA (Hons) Sociology & Criminology, presented findings from BU’s Responding to Hate Crime project.
The project aims to provide students with the knowledge of what a hate crime is, how to respond to it and where to seek support, and has the capacity to increase reporting of hate incidents or crimes, whether they occur on or off campus. It has found that 85 per cent of participants felt that their experiences of the project changed the way they ‘work, think and live’.
They also shared an animated video that has been produced with an example of a hate crime on a night out and details of how to report a hate crime or incident.
Students from BU’s Faculty of Health and Social Sciences supported a table top exercise that all of the event delegates contributed to and presented an analysis of key themes from the activity, with the support of Dr Jane Healy. The students also helped with facilitating the event and engaging with visitors to the BU Equality and Diversity stall.
The findings from the conference are being used to inform the work of Prejudice Free Dorset.
Dr Palfreman-Kay said the conference is “a great opportunity to show to staff, students and the wider community that the university is an inclusive place to work and study, and that it has procedures in place to respond to hate incidents or crimes when they occur on or off-campus.”
