North East Anti Racism Coalition: Become the Bridge campaign

We are proud to be among the early organisations signing the Become the Bridge pledge, an initiative led by the North East Anti-Racism Coalition.

The pledge brings together organisations across the region who recognise that racism continues to affect our workplaces, services and communities. It aims to create a network where organisations can learn from one another, reflect on their own practices and take practical action to challenge racism together.

Our trustee Sally Young represented WERS at the Become the Bridge event in Durham on 4 March, where organisations from across the North East came together to launch the initiative and commit to this shared work.

Our statement

We see and feel racism every day. We see it in how people are spoken to, the assumptions made about them and the barriers placed in their way. It is embedded in systems – in housing, access to services and the workplace – and in the hostility on our streets that has become normalised.

Public debate about immigration has too often been used to justify, excuse and normalise racism and hostility towards people seeking asylum and refugees. Language that once would have been challenged is now repeated, defended and even glorified – dressed up as bravery, while fear and hate are presented as ‘truth’. This rhetoric divides society, leaving us weaker, less connected and easier to manipulate.

We believe strongly that racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia are bigger than any single organisation. From our work we know racism is systemic and cultural, and no organisation can address it alone. Change depends on organisations taking joint responsibility and accountability to one another and to the communities they work with – standing together, acting consistently and being prepared to challenge themselves as well as others. That is why signing this pledge matters.