Oldham is home to a diverse range of people and this diversity is a strength to be valued and promoted. However, Greater Manchester, and Oldham in particular, has a high number of hate crimes in comparison to the rest of the UK. Sadly in recent years these figures have risen, between September 2014 and September 2015 there was 32% rise in race and religious hate crimes within Oldham. This left Oldham with the second highest number of reported hate crime incidents (351), only coming behind Manchester (1116) a city with a population five times bigger than that of Oldham. These figures rise even further when we have tragic events such as the Manchester Arena bombing and the London attacks, where Police recorded double the average hate crime incidents in days following these incidents.
Unfortunately it is not just race and religious hate crime that faces residents of Oldham. A report produced by gallop.org.uk showed that 4 in 5 LGBT people had experienced hate crime, that 25% had experienced violent hate crime and 10% had experienced sexual violence as part of a hate crime. At least 7,016 homophobic and transphobic hate crimes were recorded by UK police during 2014/15. That was an increase from at least 6,409 the previous year.
Oldham Youth Council have always tried to challenge prejudice and tried to raise awareness of the effects of discrimination. This is evident in the work we carry out with our Listen to the Earth project around Holocaust education.
You can download the Ally Pack at http://oldhamyc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Ally-Pack.pdf