The Ethnic Minorities Law Centre are proud to announce the launch of a new Youth Discrimination
Project based in their Glasgow city centre offices. The project began in November 2006 and has been funded by the Scottish Executive for two years. The project will provide young people in Glasgow’s Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities with free, confidential and legal advice if they are suffering from discrimination. Whether the discrimination faced by youths is due to their age, gender, sexual orientation, race, faith or disability they are able to access legal advice from the dedicated legal adviser, Claire Platts.

Some of the projects primary objectives are to increase awareness for young BME’s of their rights and responsibilities by a variety of means and to improve access to quality advice & assistance. Information materials will be produced for use with partner agencies and the target group. These will summarise rights and responsibilities, accessing key services and avenues of redress when discriminated against.

Working with various organisations, both community and statutory, to build capacity will improve
service provision and delivery across the network. This capacity building will assist agencies in
recognising and responding to the legal needs of the target group. A referral system will be put in place to receive further clients from the partner organisations.

The EMLC’s office in Glasgow is now officially recognised by Strathclyde Police as being a Third Party Reporting Centre.

The aim of this is to encourage people to report hate crime - whether it’s verbal abuse, harassment or a violent attack - to trained individuals who are not police officers who will then pass the information on to the police. The scheme aims to encourage the reporting of these particular crimes and can be done without revealing the victim's personal details. Only with the victim's consent will police investigate the crime.

Some of the benefits of this scheme include the following:

· victims will gain confidence and be encouraged to report crime

· agencies can identify the most appropriate support organisations to help victims

· a more accurate picture of hate crime can be drawn, enabling police and other partners to respond more effectively through intelligence-led, proactive targeting

Download our poster (also available in Cantonese) or referral form if you need to refer a client.

Download our recent independently conducted Evaluation Report.

For further information or to report a crime contact:-

Claire Platts - Solicitor or Amber Zafar - Administrative Support Worker

Some useful links:
Childline Scotland: If you need some advice or just someone to talk to.

Save The Children Scotland CARIS website : Provides useful information for children and young people who are asylum seekers or refugees in Scotland. Also provides legal information for parents, lawyers and specialist advisers.