Croydon announces events to mark National Hate Crime Awareness Week

Croydon is hosting a range of borough wide events during National Hate Crime Awareness week to help unite the borough against these offences.

The week runs from Saturday 12 to Saturday 19 October, and aims to highlight the crimes committed against people because of their race, religion or faith, gender identity, sexual orientation and physical or mental disability.

The free events programme kicks off with an awareness raising evening at St Chads Catholic Church, Whitworth Road, South Norwood, on Sunday 13, from 6pm, and a coffee morning at Shirley Community Centre, Shrublands Avenue, on Tuesday 15 Oct, 9.30 to 11.30am.

The coffee morning will be an opportunity for Tell Mama – an independent, non-government organisation that works to tackle anti-Muslim hatred – to share its work to support victims of Islamaphobia.

There will also be a free drawing, painting and collage workshop at the Broad Green Big Local Hub, Keely Street, on Tuesday 15, from 2-4pm, and an all-day felt making workshop on Wednesday 15, from 10am to 12noon, continuing from 2-4pm, led by local artist, Richard Tait.

The workshops aim to get young people to reflect their feelings on what hate crime means to them in a creative way, and you can sign up here

This will be followed by a gallery viewing of this work on Friday 18 at the Big Local, from 6.30 to 8pm.

The council is also asking everyone to join the 24,000 who have already taken a pledge against hate crime. You can show your support by signing here

Hate crime reporting is declining in Croydon. Between April 1 2018 and March 31 2019 there were 661 hate crimes recorded by the police in Croydon – compared to 702 between April 1 2017 and March 31 2018.

Councillor Hamida Ali, cabinet member for safer Croydon and communities

“No-one should be abused in any way because of who they are. Hate crime reporting has gone down in Croydon, so we want to encourage more people to come forward to report their experiences so that we understand the prevalence of all forms of hate crime in Croydon.

“National Hate Crime Awareness Week is an opportunity to raise awareness of our ‘Say No to Hate Crime’ campaign which has already garnered the support of 24,000 people in Croydon.”

The council will also be promoting hate crime awareness at Croydon College, and to the Metro City LGBT youth group, with information on how to report hate crime, where to get support and an appeal to sign the council’s pledge.

Posters telling people how to report hate crime will also be displayed at the CVA volunteers centre in Centrale Shopping Centre, and at the Big Local Hub.

If you, or someone you know has been the victim of hate crime, and to find out more, please visit

2019-10-08T10:44:58+01:00 October 8th, 2019|Recent news|