Warwickshire Police is launching True Vision at Warwickshire College on Thursday, 18 November. The aim of True Vision is to raise awareness of hate crime, which includes racist, religious and transphobic crime, by improving confidence, providing information and increasing levels of reporting of hate crime incidents.

Carolyn Went of Warwickshire Police and key member of the True Vision project team said

"This is an excellent opportunity to work in partnership with the College in assisting to raise awareness of hate crime and support the reporting of hate crime incidents. Hate Crime is severely under reported nationally, and we hope the True Vision reporting packs will encourage victims to come forward.

"The True Vision reporting packs give the students the information to identify if they've been a victim of hate crime whether it’s on the campus or in their general student life.

"The pack contains information on bullying, personal safety, local contact groups, domestic violence and a self-reporting form and encourages victims and other people affected by hate crime such as race, religious, homophobic and transphobic crime, to notify the authorities about incidents and seek advice."

Students will be able to pick up True Vision reporting packs at key points at all five Warwickshire College sites of Leamington Spa, Morton Morrell, Rugby, Henley in Arden and the Trident Centre. Information will also be available on the college intranet and website.

Hilary Alison, Equality and Diversity Manager at Warwickshire College said

"We are delighted to join with Warwickshire Police on this initiative to tackle hate crime. Warwickshire College has been a reporting centre for racist crime for three years, but this new True Vision project underpins our diversity and equality policy which is to ensure that everybody regardless of their age, race, disability, gender or sexual orientation is treated fairly and with respect."

"The college has a long history of working with the community and this is evidenced by the excellent inspection grades and the Beacon status awarded to the college recently by Government Inspectors."

Warwickshire College decided to embrace True Vision at their five sites after hearing a presentation on True Vision and Hate Crime at a conference.

True Vision reporting packs are currently being distributed throughout the county and can already be found in many libraries and other public locations. People can also download a self-reporting form from a new website - www.report-it.org.uk. If you have a suitable venue where the packs could be picked up by members of the public, please contact Carolyn Went on 01926 415166.

Tell me more about True Vision?

True Vision is the new mechanism for reporting Hate Crime in particular Homophobic and Transphobic crime and incidents and Racist and Religious crimes and incidents.

Hate Crime is severely under reported nationally and in response to this Warwickshire, Staffordshire, West Midlands and West Mercia Police worked together to tackle the issue by developing one ‘True Vision’ reporting pack. Many victims of Hate Crime within this region suffer in silence it is hoped that this project will increase confidence and provide the police with essential information to tackle the problem.

The project now has 23 participating forces around the country with other expressing interest. Cross border reporting means that a crime may have taken place in one force area but can be reported to a neighbouring force

True Vision was recently nominated for a national award.