‘Uniting businesses to tackle hate crime’ – a letter from our Business Sub-Committee

By Dr. Ray Davies, Chair of Business Sub-Committee, PFD

Dear PFD Members and Friends,

Prejudice Free Dorset’s Business Sub-Committee was born from the 2019 ‘No Place for Hate’ Conference. Delegates felt that local businesses could play a real part in helping to reduce prejudice in our county.

We’re now into the final months of the year and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are still very much affecting our personal and professional lives, with a second lockdown in place. Nevertheless, the PFD sub-committees have been busy at work in the background, looking at actions in the new year.

The Business Sub-Committee is very much doing so too, targeting actions to realise the vision of PFD, in practical terms, in the retail and SME sector.

The actions envisioned will be in three areas: communications, perceptions and supportive measures to practical responses from the retail and SME sector which care about addressing hate crime and other incidents in a working environment.

The initial pilot in the new year will be targeted at users of Poole Bus Station and integration with Dolphin Shopping Centre and the Poole Bid, to be then subsequently rolled out across Dorset.

We look forward to everyone’s participation in the pilot as Prejudice Free Dorset takes on this important leadership role within the business community in order to tackle hate crime once and for all.