Author: Laura

By The Ripple Effect Team

On 25^th June 2026 Neelam and Sam partnered up with Jana from Voice for Change to deliver some training around Hate Crime and Rotherham Ripple Effect delivering the Upstander Training.

We split the workshops into morning and afternoon and provided a light lunch. Everyone stayed right till the end.

Neelam and Sam delivered the training via PowerPoint presentation, scenarios and interactive exercises and discussion.

From our perspective and the attendees’ perspectives the training went very well and the feedback was brilliant. Everyone was very invested and had discussions with each other and were very opinionated. We delivered some thought-provoking material which really made everyone want to be involved and share their thoughts and experiences.

One of the highlights of our workshop that we wanted to get across was that we wanted to focus on Kindness, empathy and intention. We wanted to address and recognise that everyone should give each other the benefit of the doubt when they may feel someone is being micro aggressive towards them. We presented different statements such as

“I don’t see colour. I just see people” and presented 2 different intentions or ways to see this statement and addressing that you may not know someone’s intention through these words by just hearing this and people need to have further conversations before judging whether someone is trying to be negative towards them. We initially presented the first idea from this statement that a person means well and is trying to say that it doesn’t matter what the person looks like, that they just see a person implying they are not racist/stereotypical of any negative notion. However, we then also explained that someone else may hear this and think why is this person who is clearly brown for instance trying to discount their culture/heritage/background. We explored such statements and emphasised that people have to give each other breathing space before judging what they perceive it to be and instead have empathy, kindness and patience to find out more through curious conversation to judge the intention behind any comments. We gave personal examples to make it more real, and everyone really enjoyed this also.

The sharing of experiences created some thought-provoking discussions amongst those attending and identified the need not to make assumptions.  Neelam’s part of the presentation reminded us not to jump to conclusions when it comes to language. Because terms and identities are always evolving, people can easily use words incorrectly or make mistakes without meaning too. Instead of letting these mistakes cause tension or division, we need to have empathy for one another. Not everyone knows what might be considered offensive, so what matters most is a person’s intent. By taking a “curiosity-first” approach—asking questions rather than judging—we can understand each other’s true intentions and keep conversations positive.

Responses to the statements on the evaluation forms included:

Q) What are you going to remember from today? Is there anything you have learnt?

-How to be an upstander’

-Meeting like-minded people’

-The 5Ds will help me deal with situations’

-I will try and take away lots from today and keep it all in mind’

-Situation handling. Tools to use’

-The 5D’s’ and unconscious biases’

-How to weigh up a situation and consider actions.

Q) Did anything surprise you?

-Varying assumptions about statements’

-None, but these conversations are good thought starters

-It was educational’

-How lovely Sam is – not a surprise on compliment as I saw Sam at a previous event but didn’t know her name’

-Loved it, learnt a lot’.

Q) Anything else you would like to tell us?

-’I would like this to be shared with other community groups. So would you attend either in person or online or at various hub centres as not everyone can reach Unity Centre.

Other statements included:

‘Everything was good’

‘I would give 100% score on this. Excellent’

From the evaluation forms and verbal feedback, we can see people were very excited about the workshop they had had with us including Jana from Voice for Change.  We were told ‘it’s a brilliant workshop and it really helped them think about how to approach situations in the future’. People hung back to continue to tell us what a great workshop it was. We also got around 8 people to sign up to be a volunteer with us which is brilliant to have in one workshop.

As well as feedback on the evaluation form such

 ‘The time the speakers took to give space for sharing views’

‘Well engaging and well facilitated’

‘All of it went well, love the scenarios’

‘Highly informative, good learning’

‘All of it’

‘People, time, location’

‘Food and a chance to interact’

By The Ripple Effect Team, Sam Dixon

“WOW Rotherham celebrates women, girls, trans and non-binary communities of Rotherham.” 

Since 2022, the WOW (Women of the World) Rotherham festival has brought the community together to celebrate women, girls, trans, and non-binary people. Open to individuals from all walks of life, the festival focuses its celebrations on culture, community, and entrepreneurialism. 

The vibrant weekend featured a diverse host of activities, events, talks, debates, and live entertainment. 

To bring people together through creativity, the Rotherham Ripple Effect joined forces with the team from REMA (Rotherham Ethnic Minority Alliance) to provide interactive, accessible activities for all attendees. The collaborative space was buzzing with energy as visitors decorated cakes, crafted stick puppets, and painted suncatchers. A talented Henna artist also joined the team, sharing positive energy and good fortune through stunning, bespoke designs. 

We had a world map displayed where people could come and put a pin in the map of where they were from. Rotherham Ripple Effect was introduced lightly; one particular lady was interested in listening to what the project is about and said it sounded like it was a very good project and was needed. She was asked if she wanted to be involved at some capacity and stay in the loop about the project to which she was not overly enthusiastic about so I gave her a leaflet and told she could reach out if she had any more questions about the project.  It seems the people who show interest in the work we are doing are on a spectrum. There are people who tell us the project sounds brilliant yet still don’t really want to be involved or stay in the loop about it. They just like projects like this exist and it gives them some sort of peace. Overall, the festival was a true reflection of what Rotherham can achieve when the community pulls together. It served as a powerful reminder of how vital it is to stand together, celebrate diversity, and support women and the issues that affect them every single day. 

By The Ripple Effect Team, Sam Dixon

Mental health doesn’t exist in a vacuum; it impacts every layer of our daily lives, influencing how we think, feel, and connect with the world around us.

Mental health challenges can affect everything from physical wellness and sleep patterns to a persons’ ability to maintain employment, pursue education, and navigate daily life. The collective mental well-being of individuals in a community shapes the strength of it. When mental health needs go unmet, communities experience deeper social fragmentation, increased pressure on local healthcare and support services. 

Around the national mental health week staff and volunteers from REMA and the Rotherham Ripple Effect supported community sessions to help individuals recognise how their community can support better mental health. These sessions also show another example of the things that bring us together rather than divide us. 

Yoga session and coffee morning. – Yoga uses a combination of movement, controlled breathing and meditation that helps to promote better sleep and improve stress levels. This session concentrated on breathing and relaxation, showing participants techniques they can use in their everyday to re-focus and re-centre themselves. 

Pilates session – Pilates is a form of exercise designed to engage with and improve core muscle tone, which helps improve posture, ease back and joint pain and boost flexibility. Alongside mindful breathwork this activity will help to reduce stress. The session covered exercises that could be replicated at home with firm reminders to never over stretch yourself beyond what is comfortable, and the importance of warming up and cooling down. 

Walk with Ladies group – Ladies who attend Fridays toddler walk as well as other ladies from the community attended this walk.  It was great to see the ladies bring along their toddlers in pushchairs and take part. The walk was full of life with everyone chatting away. It was a good way to interact with women and get to know them on a better basis.  A Sudanese Lady Neelam spoke to was sharing her child’s love for biryani, a Pakistani Asian dish so we talked around this.  She shared with Neelam her story about how her husband travelled by boat to this country and how she had to wait 12 days to receive news from of his safety.  She explained how she didn’t know if he was dead or alive which is exactly the kind of heart touching stories we are looking for on Rotherham Ripple Effect project.  I told her about our project and hinted at if she wanted to be involved in any way, maybe telling her story.  She was ecstatic about wanting to share thing so I will keep that rapport with her and see how and if she can and wants to be involved and how to do this in the most comfortable way. 

Rother Valley Country Park – Two trips were lucky enough to visit the local reserve at Rother Valley. But they had very very different experiences. The first group experienced temperatures of around 13 degrees and winds, it was “freezing”, whereas the second group had a lovely sunny day and no coats were required. 

Engaging in these trips has given Neelam and Sam a chance to get to know the groups better as well as them getting to know us. This was successful with the Kashmiri women’s group as all the ladies were receptive to us and talked to us about many different things and we build rapport with multiple ladies who we hadn’t known before.    

The first trip with the ladies’ group from the Unity Centre focused on a walk round the lakes for those that were able, shared food and a Tai Chi session that helped all attendees feel relaxed. 

Unfortunately, the same level of rapport wasn’t quite possible with the Kurdish group although we got to know the leader of the group a little better which is good as she has a good connection with the group.  The group seems very closed off and enjoy staying in their own bubble and celebrating their own culture. The language barriers also make it hard to talk to many of the ladies as they know very little English. It was still worth going as lots of ladies still saw us and will hopefully recognise our face in the future and know who we are when we put more events on.  

We are learning from our experiences from this project that communities that come from historical backgrounds of prejudice and persecution have a harder time opening up to outsiders and view services with distrust. With these communities it is important that we recognise these facts, try to learn and understand the background, and spend time engaging with activity with no specific pressures.