Building Awareness, Breaking Barriers: Stand Up!’s Journey Forward

This month marked the end of our fifth consecutive year of funding from the Shared Endeavour Fund, made available by the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime. Thanks to this funding, Stand Up! delivered powerful workshops tackling antisemitism, anti-Muslim hate, and anti-bullying to over 13,000 students in Greater London since the start of the academic year.

As obligated, the team have been working on a report of the funded period to return to the Mayor’s office, with hopes of being refunded. An analysis of the surveys completed by young Londoners following the sessions revealed an 11.6% increase in awareness and concern for these prejudices and willingness to challenge them rose by 9.7%. Commitment to reporting hate online rose by 8.6 % and offline by over 11%. These trends signify Stand Up’s successful attempt to increase their impact whilst continuing to meet the increased demand for antisemitism/anti-Muslim hate work across schools and workplaces, nationally.

The project is delighted to have received funding from the Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation, meaning that as Shared Endeavour funding concludes, the team can focus on expanding the geographical reach of the education offered. Earlier this month, the team headed to Birmingham, delivering sessions in two schools and engaging with 480 students. Stand Up! have another exciting tour to Manchester ion April, visiting 2 Co-op academies in Central and North Manchester and seeing a total of 630 students. This marks an exciting opportunity to reach new demographics and communities as well as the chance to create long-lasting ties with schools and organisations in Manchester.

At the start of the month, Stand Up! devised and delivered a new anti-bullying session for primary school students, alongside Streetwise. This session introduced the terms antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate to the year fives and sixes, in the context of respect and not repeating things we hear and don’t understand.

With the final seminar of the Alan Senitt Upstanders Leadership Programme (ASULP) just around the corner in May, we’ve been using the half term to prepare. This has included reconnecting with the brilliant school teams we’ve worked with throughout the year, catching up on their progress, and celebrating the incredible projects they’ve developed since we last saw them in February.