Riots and guidance on how to protect your charity or group

Organisation
Reading Voluntary Action (RVA)
Article date
7 August 2024
Primary interest
Voluntary sector

In light of the recent news and events arising from awful actions from far-right groups, we wanted to share the following practical guidance to help you keep your charity or community group, your staff, volunteers and beneficiaries safe.

The national guidance for charities and community groups in this context:

The VCS Emergencies Partnership, a national partnership of organisations that supports the voluntary and community sector to respond to a crisis or emergency, as previously seen during the Covid pandemic, has produced the following guidance:

  • The Situation: Those most at risk are refugees and asylum seekers, particularly those in hotel accommodation; and Muslim communities.
  • How communities and partners are working together: Faith groups and the VCS across the country are countering aggression with positivity and actions that strengthens social cohesion.
  • Support and guidance for community groups to help you to put measures in place to protect your people, as described below.
How to protect your charity or community group and all those involved:

Safety and security of your staff, volunteers and the people you support is paramount, the VCS Emergencies Partnership have pulled together a few basic suggestions that may help you to do this. RVA can help you with this if you need support, see contact details below:

1) Prioritise your people 

  1. Communicate with them, raise their awareness and make sure you give them up to date guidance on how to keep themselves and others safe
  2. Consider travel times and routes and choose the safest options
  3. Be careful about your brand and how that brand identity may put your people at risk
  4. Review your policies, contact details and emergency plans
  5. If emailing sensitive information such as staff / service user whereabouts or contact details, consider who this may be subsequently shared with and bcc where appropriate.

2) Protect your properties 

  1. Review your business continuity plans (this is a plan for what you would do in case of an emergency so you can minimise the impact on your organisation. Read more here or ask RVA for advice)
  2. Consider guidance on what makes your buildings safer… recognising some are quick fixes, but many may take longer to implement.
  3. Don’t forget the vacant buildings – these can be easy targets.
Some resources to help you:
Local support in Reading for your charity or community group:
  • Contact RVA at advice@rva.org.uk or telephone 0118 9372273 if you would like us to review your safety protocols or other advice in relation to the contents of this article,  particularly if you are a group serving minority groups, refugees, asylum seekers, the Muslim community.
  • It is important that we as a community do not allow disinformation therefore please consider the source and impact before sharing posts with others, especially through social media. Please read the guidance above on the impact of ‘fake news’.
  • Reading Borough Council and Thames Valley Police are working very closely with at risk groups to provide additional support and protection. If you are an at risk group and haven’t had this support, please contact RVA and we can connect you.
  • If you are genuinely concerned and have received any intelligence that something is brewing in the Reading area, please call 101 to report as a first point of call or 999 if it is an emergency. You are also welcome to contact us at info@rva.org.uk and we will advise you on local reporting channels for Thames Valley Police if needed. Any on-going crime or emergencies should be reported as normal by calling 999.