đŸŸ„ Show Racism the Red Card

On January 27th Blackpool FC Community Trust hosted our annual Anti-Discrimination event in partnership with Show Racism the Red Card, Blackpool FC and the Premier League Primary Stars programme.

The event was held at Bloomfield Road, welcoming 120 pupils consisting of Prefects, Head Boys and Girl, Sports Teams and members of School Council, from 13 local schools. The group took part in the three educational workshops in the morning, covering Racism, Hate Crime and Anti-Discrimination with the aspiration that the pupils would share the messages and learning from the day to their peers in school assembly. The topic content was designed to engage upper key stage 2 and key stage 3 pupils and challenged preconceptions while respecting thought and opinions of the young people.  Aims of the workshops:

Hate Crime Workshop

To help young people prepare to play an active role as citizens in an increasingly multi-cultural society and to enable young people to develop good relationships and respect the differences between people, regardless of their ethnicity, faith, culture or nationality.

Racism

To educate young people about the causes and consequences of racism and to explore the various forms racism can take. Empower young people to challenge racism in the communities in which they live, providing them with relevant knowledge and information to enable them to do this.

Anti-Discrimination

With the home team changing room converted into a classroom for the event the lesson saw pupils discuss discrimination in society, and sport with resent high-profile examples shared. The group were then tasked with designing a t-shirt for Blackpool FC first team to wear to share the message of unity and equality at the Club.

The group then broke for lunch which allowed the children the unique opportunity to sit on the balcony with their sandwiches, while posing for photos and discussing the history of Blackpool FC.

The enthusiastic team from Show Racism the Red Card got the afternoon session underway with a thought-provoking video on racism, featuring children and adults who had been victims, witnesses or had to challenge racist behaviour. This included anecdotes told by members of the current Men’s and Women’s England Team. This was followed by the introduction of our guest panel which included Blackpool FC first team players Jordan Gabriel, Marvin Ekpiteta and Blackpool FC Academy players Jaden Jones and Ezra Amina.

Before the Q&A session started Ezra read a poem that he had written as a child when he participated in a Show Racism the Red Card event in Year 6. This was a testament to the programme delivered to him and demonstrates the impact the messages have had on Ezra to help him develop and mature into a role model and potential young ambassador for the event. The panel took questions from the group and shared lived experiences and challenges they had faced growing up and while playing football. The focus of the session was to always try and find a positive outcome by acting responsibly. This also included sharing any hatefully conduct with trusted adults, teammates, classmates or anyone who could support you at that time.

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Impact

98% of attendees understand what racism is

93% (up 33%) of attendees have the tools and knowledge to support a victim of racism

95% (up 15%) of attendees know who to report racism and discrimination to at school

Teacher Feedback

 

Marc Joseph

Head of Early Years and Primary Programmes

Education is paramount when tackling and challenging racist or discriminative actions. It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure people are treated equally no matter race, age, or sexual orientation. We at the Community Trust understand that we have an instant connection with our community because of the football club. Our group of players are diverse, with many different cultural backgrounds which all come together as a team. This is a fantastic metaphor for what we are trying to achieve today with this educational workshop. The children have been really engaged and have definitely taken a lot of learning from the day.

Simon Smith

Primary Physical Education Manager

Helping engage so many children on topics that are rarely approached in school or at home is important to the Trust and PLPS team. For the 3rd year running, we have had over 100 children in attendance from partner schools which is great. To know these children are then going back to school to share their knowledge with their classmates means the impact and conversations don’t end when the children leave the stadium.

 

To view more photos of the event, click here – More Show Racism the Red Card Photos