Race Hate Crime Advocacy Service
Our Bi-lingual Support Workers provide a one-stop shop model of services to victims of racist hate crime and incidents,whether they are settled ethnic minorities, migrant workers or asylum seekers and refugees. Interpreters are provided.
Our advisors offer a client centred approach and work in partnership with others dedicated to principles of equality. This is a Northern Ireland wide service.
Areas of support
- Provide a safe place to enable victims to share their experiences (listening through support) and encourage them to report the case to the local police station and to increase reporting to the police;
- Risk assessments and exploration of options in order to respond to the needs of the victims and her/his family;
- Draw up action plans that are agreed with the victims;
- Assist victims to prepare police statements and accompany victims to attend police interviews;
- Liaise regularly with PSNI in providing follow-up support;
- Liaise with NIHE housing officers and officials regarding any rehousing needs;
- Make referrals to local and/or regional organisations if necessary, in particular specialist assistance
The Hate Crime Advocacy Service (HCAS) offers a safe and confidential space to support to victims of hate and signal crimes across the different protected characteristics. We can support you whether or not you have reported the crime to the police. We accept referrals from all agencies and self-referrals. Interpreters across a wide range of languages are available upon request.
It is delivered through a consortium of advocacy organisations, including:
- Victim Support NI
- Leonard Cheshire
- The Rainbow Project
- Migrant Centre NI
To contact the support workers or to make a referral please email
bilingualsupportworker@migrantcentreni.org.
funded by
Previous projects:
Good Practice Plus Reloaded G3P
Building on the achievement of the Good Practice Plus project and the Municipal Police Neighbourhood Unit of the City of Turin, the G3P aims, in the framework of the EU Charter, Council FD 2008/913/JHA and Directive 2012/29/EU (Victims Directive), are to:
1. Improve through mutual learning methodologies, the understanding of hate crimes among police official and prosecutors;
2. Establish permanent cooperation mechanisms, building trust among authorities, communities, CSOs and victims;
3. Build a supportive environment for victims. The partnership of this project is the City of Turin (Lead Partner), Altera, local NGO that based in Turin, Migrant Centre Northern Ireland Ltd and the Ministry of the Interior of Finland.
Project funded by EU Commission Directorate General Justice and Consumers.
