We are grateful to Molly Diamond, a third-year Professional Policing Degree (PPD) student at UWE Bristol, for reflecting on her experience last August with the volunteering scheme Project Zulu.
The Professional Policing degree is a pre-join programme designed to prepare students for roles in the police and wider criminal justice sector after completing their studies. Project Zulu offers students from a range of disciplines the opportunity to volunteer in township schools in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
As part of the safeguarding project, Molly worked alongside two fellow UWE Bristol students from other programmes. During her time there, she delivered lessons to schoolchildren on safety and sexual harassment, presented at a conference for teachers, and discussed safeguarding strategies with school principals. Molly was a real asset to the project, and here she reflects on the experience and the impact it had on her.
Why I took part in Project Zulu
Project Zulu is an organisation that collaborates with various departments at UWE to provide educational support and resources to schools in South Africa. I applied knowing it would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, even though I was also in the middle of my application to join the police specials. When I received an offer to start training, I had to make a difficult decision — the dates clashed with my trip to South Africa. Ultimately, I chose to turn down the offer, trusting that I could reapply later and that this trip was something I couldn’t miss.
Arriving in KwaZulu-Natal
Before leaving, I felt a mix of nerves, excitement, and anticipation. I expected to run a few sessions with the support of Tim, Matt, and the other girls who were offered a place Erin and Emily. I was anxious about flying solo for the first time and being far from family. Thankfully, the flights were smooth, and meeting the Project Zulu team immediately put me at ease.
Delivering safeguarding education
Working in the schools and leading conferences, workshops, and meetings was more manageable than I expected. I’m not someone who thrives on improvisation, and the first workshop tested me: our presentation failed, the children didn’t speak English, and we had 25 more students than planned. It was overwhelming, but with support from Matt, Tim, and the team, we adapted and restructured our workshops to better suit the classrooms.
Engaging with the teachers brought its own challenges, though the language barrier was less of an issue. One conference didn’t go as planned, but we made the most of it and sparked meaningful conversations about the issues children face.
What I learned from the experience
This trip has made me more confident, patient, and flexible. Working alongside Emily, Erin, Matt, and Tim was a privilege, and I’m deeply grateful for the experience. It was filled with hard work, early mornings, and moments of anxiety — but also laughter, growth, and unforgettable memories. If you are thinking of applying, I recommend you go for it, I will never forget this and had the best time ever.
Thank you, Molly, for sharing your experiences and for being such a positive representative of the UWE Bristol PPD programme.
Interested in the PPD at UWE Bristol?
UWE Bristol are regional pioneers of the national transformation in police education. If you would like to find out more about the Pre-join Degree in Professional Policing, you can follow this link
Editorial team
Paul Williamson (Editor-in-Chief); Claudia McCready (Lecturer); Claire Bowers (Senior Lecturer); Eve Smietanko (Joint Programme Leader & Senior Lecturer) and Ian Lowe (Senior Lecturer).
This week, we are proud to share this insightful blog post about Stand Against Racism & Inequality (SARI), an organisation whose contributions have been invaluable to our Policing programme. Their sessions play a vital role in helping students understand the complexities of hate crime,discrimination, and the deep, lasting effects these issues have on individuals, families, and communities.
For policing students, this learning is more than simply theoretical, it is foundational to professional practice. Future officers must be able to recognise when hate crime manifests, respond with fairness, transparency, and empathy, and demonstrate positive action that upholds community safety and public confidence. Every interaction an officer has, especially in the context of hate and discrimination, contributes either to building trust or eroding it.
There have been overwhelmingly positive responses from Police students within the PCDA programme and DHEP:
“The SARI team are great! They understood things from different perspectives and gave me real insight into hate crime and its effects on victims. It was a great input and I think it was needed. It was eye opening and good to learn about discrimination.”
SARI’s work equips future officers with the insight needed to challenge discriminatory behaviours, support victims compassionately, and understand the wider societal contexts in which hate crime occurs. Their teaching reinforces the core values that underpin ethical policing in the UK: legitimacy, justice, equality, and procedural fairness.
In the year ending March 2025, there were 115,990 hate crimes recorded by the Police in England and Wales (excluding the Metropolitan Police Service). This is a 2% increase compared with the previous year (Home Office, 2025).
Below, you will find short responses from SARI team members who have been interviewed about the challenges faced by victims, the barriers to reporting, and the crucial role that policing plays in response and prevention. The team’s insights capture their lived experience of this important work and the lessons they believe future police officers should take forward.
What does SARI’s mission mean ‘in practice’ for communities in Bristol and beyond?
We see our mission as combatting racism and inequality in all its forms; through support, education, and advocacy.
We strive to create a society where everyone, regardless of their background, is treated with dignity, respect, and fairness.
In practice, this means that people have a trusted and safe space to turn to when they experience hate, and that there is an organisation which is by their side in the fight against hate. We have been doing this work for over 30 years.
What does a ‘day in the life’ look like for someone working at SARI?
Our Project Workers provide a free casework service to victims of hate crime and hate incidents. They offer to see clients at their homes or at a place of their choice and will draw up a support plan for each person they work with. This may include speaking to the client’s housing provider, going into a school on behalf of a young person, or liaising with the police. Project Workers will also chair multi-agency meetings, ensuring that hate and the impact it is having on their client is high on the agenda.
A great deal of time will be spent on the victim’s caseload, working with them as they navigate the aftermath of the hate experience, and ensuring they are regularly kept up-to-date with how their case is progressing.
Each interaction will be different, but the aim is always the same; ensuring clients feel heard, validated, and supported.
Our Training and Education department, along with members of the casework team, work to raise awareness of hate and the impact it has, delivering sessions to schools, organisations and agencies, including the police. These sessions aim to build understanding around how to recognise and respond to hate.
What are the most common challenges individuals face when reporting hate crime or discrimination, and how does SARI support them?
There are numerous issues that people face when reporting hate or discrimination. This is why our support is so important, because it gives victims a safe space to be validated by people who understand the impact of hate.
One of the biggest challenges is the fear that they won’t be believed, or that their traumatic experience of hate will not be taken seriously.
There can also be a lack of trust in institutions, such as the police, amongst some of the communities we work with, especially if they have had poor interactions with them in the past, or if the hate has come from within the police. In these cases, we do the reporting on their behalf, and work with them so that by the end of their time with SARI, they feel empowered and confident to report themselves.
What misconceptions about racism or hate crime do you encounter most often, and how do you challenge them?
There can be a lack of awareness around different cultures and communities, which then influences the bias that someone may have regarding an another person’s behaviour. We challenge this through our training, where we speak about misconceptions.
What role does educating police students at UWE play in preventing hate crime, and what initiatives does SARI offer?
We believe that education is fundamental to the work that we do here at SARI. Promoting social cohesion and the understanding of communities from diverse backgrounds is inherent for a better, more just society.
We feel it is essential that people with influence and power, who work with some of the most vulnerable people in our communities, understand the challenges and barriers that they face on a day-to-day basis.
A lot of the work we do here at SARI is around the Equality Act 2010 and the sessions that we deliver to the police students at UWE is mostly based on lived experience.
We offer a free casework service to any person who perceives that they have been targeted with a hate crime or a non-crime hate incident due to one of their protected characteristics.
We also deliver training and education sessions to schools, colleges, organisations, and agencies, raising awareness of the impact of hate and how to respond to it. We attend strategic and multi-agency meetings, holding agencies to account and exploring trends of hate crime and non-crime hate incidents to ensure that we are where we need to be.
What advice would you give to someone who witnesses or experiences a hate crime or incident?
If it is an emergency, please call 999. If you are a witness of, or a victim of a hate incident, we encourage you to report it to SARI and to the police. We have compiled a useful resource for people if they encounter hate.
How do you make a referral to SARI?
You can make a referral via our website or by calling us on 0117 942 0060.
We also run an out-of-hours service where you can leave a message, and someone will get back to you.
What is SARI’s vision for the future? What changes do you hope to see in the next five years?
It sounds cheesy but, we would like to see people be kinder to each other, respect and value difference. At the moment it feels like there is so much division, which is playing out in day-to-day interactions and seriously impacting how safe and welcome people feel in our communities.
Practically, we would like to see tackling hate crime and incidents become a statutory duty in line with domestic abuse.
Hate has such a devastating impact across our communities, leaving people afraid to go out of their houses, go to school, live their lives and in the worst-case scenarios, hate crime kills.
It is therefore imperative that hate crimes are addressed with the gravity they demand.
Thank you so much to the team at SARI for providing these valuable insights. Your work continues to be a vital part of their learning journey, and it’s a privilege to have you involved in the Policing programmes at UWE.
To end this blog, we would like to leave you with some feedback from the lecturing team, reflecting student comments and the experiences that they have shared with them:
“I just wanted to say a sincere thank you for the sessions you delivered yesterday. Your input was incredibly valuable, and the impact on our students was clear and deeply appreciated.”
“The feedback from your session was especially positive, students spoke highly of the relevance, openness, and the opportunity to engage with such important and challenging topics.”
Paul Williamson (Editor-in-Chief), Claudia McCready (Lecturer), Claire Bowers (Senior Lecturer), Eve Smietanko (Senior Lecturer) and Ian Lowe (Senior Lecturer).
