The Oyster Project (Friends of Westgate)

With disability hate crime in the public eye disabled people in Lewes, East Sussex have taken the initiative against it and set up a year long project to educate and connect victims with local police officers working in this field.

And with funding from the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne the AWARE project will deliver two drop in surgeries each week where police officers, PCSOs and hate crime specialists can have direct but informal contact with the disabled community.  Each surgery is at community cafes run by the Queen’s Award holding Oyster Project charity based in Lewes.

John Russell, founder and trustee director of the disability self-help charity said: ”We knew our members were vulnerable as many of us, including myself, have experienced disability hate crime.  We can’t tackle it alone so we decided to create AWARE and liaise directly with local law enforcement officers and specialists on a regular and social basis.”

It is thought that this is the only project of its kind i.e. initiated and delivered by disabled people, in the country.

click here to find out more

An Open Invitation to all friends and members of Oyster : Saturday 13th September 11am the launch of our AWARE project tackling Hate Crime, funded by the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner and in conjunction with Sussex Police - Westgate Chapel, High Street, Lewes - all welcome RSVP

Audio news from end of July 2014 as we break for vacations during August

Read the Oyster Food Bank newsletter here - see comments for more news as it happens