Impact
Report
21–22

co-directors’ report

Following the murder of George Floyd and consequent rise in Black Lives Matter protests, the emergence from the shadow of Covid, the arrival of another economic crisis and an ever worsening outlook for our environment, SARI has been busier than ever. Not just with referrals but also with increasing demand for our education, training and consultancy services as many agencies battle with the combined impact of the above. The continuation of COVID-19 has been challenging for SARI but we are adapting our service to live with the long term impact of the pandemic. We have learned a great deal more this year on how to keep our staff safe while ensuring we are able to still deliver the best possible support to our clients. At the same time, on a positive note, we have seen more support for our cause and our work than ever before.

The past year has seen another calendar of events that make it abundantly clear just how important charities like SARI are. The racist abuse of three of our youngest, most talented footballers after Euro 2020 showed the sad prevalence of online hate. The impact of online hate was also tragically seen in the first, fatal mass shooting in over a decade in the UK, when Jake Davison went on a brutal killing spree. He was found to have held misogynistic and homophobic views, subscribing to INCEL related content.

In October 2021, hate took the life of another serving MP. Five years after an extreme right wing terrorist murdered Jo Cox, Sir David Amess was stabbed to death by Ali Harbi Ali. This was declared a terrorist incident as his motivation was linked to Islamist extremism.

Just a few months after the misogynistic killing of Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa, a young British Bangladeshi woman who was just on a short walk to meet a friend had her life brutally taken in an opportunistic attack. This intersectionality of race and gender was further revealed by the treatment of two murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman when two police officers were convicted of misconduct for their offensive behaviour at the murder scene.

The need for safe routes and the importance of sanctuary has been brought into sharper focus than ever this year. On the 24^th of November, a boat carrying people seeking sanctuary sank in the English Channel, killing 27 people; the deadliest sinking of its kind in the UK. In Afghanistan, the Taliban recaptured Kabul and many now live in fear for their lives under the regime. Despite initial promises, the rights of women and girls have been stripped away. Thousands of people also fled, and the world witnessed devastating images of people clinging to planes in desparate attempts to escape. A further cause of global forced migration was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has so far caused 7.8 million Ukrainians to flee to safety across Europe, with many others internally displaced. Unfortunately, many people seeking sanctuary are then further victimised in the place that should be a safe haven when they are subjected to hate crimes from local hostile perpetrators. It is for this reason that we are doing more and more in partnership with refugee organisations in our communities to build trust with people who have lost trust, to reach people sooner and get them safe as fast as we can.

Locally, the reverberations of the toppling of the Colston statue in June 2020 continued to be felt with the trial of the Colston 4. On the 5^th of January 2022, the four defendants were found not guilty of criminal damage.

The above are just a few of the key events that hit the news but there will be incidents in every neighbourhood and on a multitude of minoritized citizens that won’t be in our awareness as most do not get publicity.

What is clear is that grave inequalities and high levels of hate persist, exacerbated by the burgeoning climate crisis.  This underpins the heightening level of refugees displaced and seeking viable environments to guarantee survival and decent lives for their families.  Sadly, the UK has been cited as a ‘hostile environment’ for people seeking sanctuary. We have witnessed the impact of the rhetoric around this with increasing levels of attack on our local  asylum-seeker and refugee communities.

At SARI the referrals that come through our door mirror the external geo-political, social and economic environment. We have seen more cases of racism in sport coming our way, incidents in schools towards asylum seeker children, transphobic cases that reflect the toxic debate around gender identity and more and more disturbing mate crime on disabled people, fuelled by the cost of living crisis. 

Another clear illustration of just how vital hate crime casework agencies are comes from the feedback from our clients. With 42% of our service users completing evaluations and over 94% of these respondents giving our casework service the highest possible rating. With a huge number of comments state we are life changing, we know we are making the right kind of difference.

Our incredible staff team continues to make such a difference despite the uncertainty of the current climate they are operating within.  They too feel the impact of the above external factors at home and at work. The rise in inflation and interest rates along with the rise in the cost of food, fuel and other commodities have meant increased financial pressures for workers in the voluntary charitable sector as well as their clients.

This makes us all the more grateful to all who continue to donate to us as this means non-ring fenced funding that we can use to cover these increased costs. Very few of our grant funders and commissioners can increase their awards to us as they too struggle with the ever constrained public purse.

And we remain ever grateful to the longstanding funders of our work, who offer not just their financial investment but also help to capacity build, so we can improve our practice, policies and procedures. This really increases our resilience and ability to thrive as a charity.

Finally, we would like to thank our board of trustees for another year of service and commitment to our cause as dedicated volunteers.  We particularly want to give a mention to Richard Allen who has been an advisor and supporter to our board of trustees and the organisation for many years. Richard has finally decided to take a step back this year. During his service he was a pillar of strength to us and we would like to thank him personally for all he has done for SARI.

It seems absolutely appropriate to end our report with the words of The Most Reverend Desmond Tutu, who the world lost in December 2021;

When we see others as the enemy, we risk becoming what we hate. When we oppress others, we end up oppressing ourselves. All of our humanity is dependent upon RECOGNISING the humanity in others.

The Most Reverend Demond Tutu

Alex Raikes MBE
Director, Strategic

Agnes Yeomans
Director, Finance & HR

our work in the area

The number of referrals in Somerset has risen. This is in part due to the awareness sessions we run, alongside our work with the police which has led to a better working relationship, and increased the flow of referrals.

Our Somerset Outreach and Development Worker has connected with several organisations, including South West Race Equality Action Group and Mendip Hidden Communities, in order to learn about the needs of the communities. They have delivered a number of training sessions including for PCSOs, the Somerset Mental Health Team, and schools in the area.