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.