Effective practice in working with racially motivated offenders

Practical tools, key tactics and effective strategies for long-term impact and reduction of risk.

Chiatulah Ameke

We are entering an era where an increase in racial attacks, Islamophobia, the recession, public sector cuts and the growing popularity of groups such as the English Defence League are putting community cohesion under greater threat than ever

Do you work with service users involved in racially motivated offending?
Do you have an interest in learning how best to work with this type of offender?

This unique and practical course offers participants an inspirational and empowering approach to this notoriously challenging work. Drawn on years of training experience plus the latest research, the course will enable you to tap into your own creativity to develop and enhance a whole new spectrum of transferable skills. These are practical skills which can be used quickly and effectively, allowing us to begin to make a difference wherever we are in this area of practice.

What can you expect to take away from this course?

• Specific techniques enabling you to establish rapport, gain trust and create a platform for effective intervention

• Strategies to address the crucial challenges of denial and minimisation, victim empathy, risk assessment and report writing.

• Specific tools to create an emotional as well as cognitive impact that tap into and utilise the visual and active learning styles many offenders possess.

• Useful resources, materials, contacts, information and practice-based research to build confidence immediately.

Course elements:

• What are the characteristics and types of racially motivated offenders? (RMOs)

• What is racism, where does it come from, what is the current picture, and what is a racist crime?

• What are the links and parallels with other types of hate crime?  

• What are the most effective strategies for interviewing, assessing, supervising and writing reports on RMOs?

• What are the most effective ways to assess, manage and reduce risk with RMOs?

• What do the best programmes, practitioners and research evidence tell us?

• Who are the EDL, why are they much more dangerous than the BNP and what can we do?

Chiatulah says:

For more than 20 years, from my student days to my years as a probation officer and diversity trainer, many people told me that I focused too much on race issues; that we needed to ‘move on’, that my concerns and analysis were exaggerated, that policies, guidelines, legislation, schemes and action plans had ‘taken care of things’. Now the cold, hard evidence blows apart that complacency and rhetoric better than I ever could and shows that the situation is probably worse than at any time in the last 20 years. Black people are still six times more likely to be stopped and searched and seven times more likely to be imprisoned. Rampant Islamophobia exists to such an extent that even an ex-Labour immigration minister uses it to help secure an election victory. The EDL is now more of a threat than the BNP; provoking violence that threatens to drag us all back to the vicious street battles of the 70s and 80s, not to mention endless hysterical and inflammatory headlines targeting immigration, asylum seekers and refugees in the midst of the worst recession and cuts in 70 years. All of these translate into an ever-increasing occurrence of racial attacks in towns, cities and rural areas nationwide.

At the frontline of all of this are ordinary workers and practitioners who in my experience are crying out for practical tools, strategies, support and inspiration. I’ve set up this course to address that need and have drawn upon my 20 years’ experience of activism, training, consulting and mentoring to craft a new course that delivers the most up-to-date work based strategies and research in one of the most pertinent and socially critical areas of practice today.

November 2010   

How much does the course cost?

Cost is calculated on a case-by-case basis dependent on the number of attendees and the course content and depth. We will initially put you in contact with Chiatulah Ameke to discuss your team's individual needs. Cost includes the trainer's travel and accommodation.

For further information on our Hate Crime: Working with racially motivated offenders course, or any of our YOT training courses, call 020 8785 9912, or email us and we will contact you to discuss your requirements.