THE SOPHIE LANCASTER FOUNDATION.

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THE BANDERSNATCH BLOG CONTAINS INFORMATION AND OPINIONS THAT THE PUBLIC MIGHT FIND OFFENSIVE. PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL INFORMATION WILL BE CHECKED AND OPINIONS DO NOT REFLECT THE OPINIONS OF THE MAIN BLOGGER HERSELF.

Hey there Earthlings, Alternatives and Trollers. Put down that mouse and lend an ear. Welcome to The Bandersnatch blog where we talk weird, wacky and wondrous. I'm Mama Ogre and I have no idea what I'm doing.

Random blog day boo yah. As you should know Fridays is random blog day were we talk anything and everything and pretty much run with it. Today's blog is on The Sophie Lancaster Foundation.

Since Sophie's death on August 24^th 2007, following the horrific attack on her and her partner Rob in Stubbylee park, Bacup, Lancashire, we had lots of kind offers of support and donations. Sophie and Rob dressed in their unique way, expressing their individuality as creative artistic people.

After consulting family and friends, we felt that a charity set up in Sophie's name, the charity known as The Sophie Lancaster Foundation, will focus on creating respect for and understanding of subcultures in our communities.

It will also work in conjunction with politicians and police forces to ensure individuals who are part of subcultures are protected by the law. In 2013 Greater Manchester Police became the first to monitor and record hate crimes and incidents against people from alternative subcultures. Several other police authorities followed their example.

In 2014, I was honoured to be awarded an OBE for “Community Cohesion-Especially in Reduction of Hate Crime”

Enjoy the website and please get in touch with us if you have any messages, feedback or questions.

Love and light.

Sylvia.

• The Sophie Lancaster Foundation main webpage.

The Sophie Lancaster Foundation has a focus on education and takes their education program to various Primary and Secondary schools, this is in aid of teaching young people to be tolerant of others. The charity also offers training for professionals in education and youth work as well as the police and prison systems.

Thanks to Sylvia's work and later on the charity's work, after Sophie's death and the conviction of her killers, events started happening that started changing the law and views of hate crime. In March 2012 at The ACPO Hate Crime conference, then Equlities minister Lynne Featherstone mentioned Sylvia Lancaster and the charity stating their work of challenging bigotry was a step in the right direction. Two years later the charity held the worlds first alternative hate crime conference in November 2014 (Links to the BBC/Featherstone interview and Dr Jon Garlands research findings can be found in the bibliography down below). The Government ran with the charity and started taking Hate crimes much more seriously with the GMP (in 2013) placing hate crime against others from other subcultures on the same level as racial, religious, sexual orientation, disability and transgender hate crime and to provide better support to both new and repeat victims.

The Sophie Lancaster Foundation can be found not only on their own website but have social media pages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram links down below in the bibliography. I HIGHLY reccomend you visit the website and social media pages to not only learn

COVID-19 NOTICE:

Remember to follow your governments guidelines during this time. continue to self-isolate/quarantine yourself and remain six feet from others as and when necessary if having to go outside.

If you follow any creative artists, content creators or the like and cannot buy any of their merch but consume their content keep an eye out for their Patreon and donate a small amount if you wish, that will help the creative community thrive. 

THE WEBSITE BIBLIOGRAPHY:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Sophie_Lancaster

https://www.sophielancasterfoundation.com/

https://twitter.com/sophie_charity

https://www.instagram.com/sophie_lancaster_foundation/

https://www.facebook.com/thesophielancasterfoundation

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02ctp3s

http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/criminology/research/current-projects/hate-crime/about-the-project

https://www.patreon.com/BandernsatchBlog?fan_landing=true

And there you have it, we'll be leaving this here for today. Please be considerate when you leave a comment. Share with others if you want or not. Don't forget We HAVE PATREON! please consider becoming a Patreon today, any Patreon donations made with the tag line S.O.P.H.I.E attached will be sent to the Sophie Lancaster foundation. Tuesday is book blog day and remember all abuse will be tracked and reported to the appropriate people.

THIS IS THE BANDERSNATCH, I'M MAMA OGRE AND REMEMBER STAY WEIRD, STAY WACKY, STAY WONDEROUS AND I'LL SEE YOU SOON...