Hate crime awareness: How power of sport helps Local Heroes charity get message across

An email mocking a pupil sent to all their school friends, an insult shouted at a teenager in the street, and the taunting of a girl just because she's sporty - three examples of bullying that will sadly sound familiar to too many people, young and old.

These particular memories belong to a trio of athletes, who each went on to enjoy far happier times in competitive sport. For all of them, a perceived weakness was targeted by others while they were growing up; but they got tougher, and their subsequent individual success stories are testament to their strength of character. All three now understand that there was a common factor to those incidents from their pasts - an element of hate.

Shachar Head was the target of the email sent around school, which depicted Orthodox Jews and named her in a clumsy and cruel attempt at humiliation. She later stood out from the crowd as a champion powerlifter. Keryn Seal still recalls the moment a boy rode past him on a bike and yelled 'retard'. He went on to become one of Great Britain and England's most capped internationals in blind football. For Sarah Guest, who won rugby titles with England Sevens and Worcester, the way her passion for sport was used against her by school bullies - they saw a stereotype and seized upon it - has never been completely forgotten.

"I didn't really think much of it at the time," Shachar says of that email incident from her schooldays. "Someone showed me what it said. I reported it, and it was taken seriously by the school. It was just children being children, being immature. But you realise later on when you grow up and you learn more, that that's really not OK."

There's always been this stigma around women in strength sports, and all I've ever wanted to do is try and inspire people to just go for it.

In sport, more often than not, 'hate' is a word used casually or for dramatic effect - a reaction to the agony of the brutal training drill, the rival team from the neighbouring town, the over-officious authorities dishing out rough justice. However, off the pitch and outside the court, it's a word which requires careful thought and attention. Through their work with the charity Local Heroes, Shachar, Keryn and Sarah empower young people to stand up to bullying and also identify when language and behaviour has crossed another line, one which threatens to bring even greater distress to the victim, and more severe consequences for the perpetrator.

The unifying power of sport has been a driving force for Local Heroes, which was founded in 2013 as an education initiative with the backing of Devon and Cornwall Police. Premier League football clubs such as Tottenham and Bournemouth have bought into the vision, along with basketball and rugby union teams, using their community influence to promote diversity and combat bullying. For National Hate Crime Awareness Week, the charity has launched new short films and resources, and hopes to recruit more sporting figures to help deliver its message and create new heroes.

The workshops are where the athletes can really feel they are making a difference. It might seem daunting for your average footballer or rugby player to not only step out of the arena and back into the classroom, but to also address the nature and legal definition of hate. But Sarah finds the audiences usually have some knowledge already, and are receptive to learning more. "We say any hate incident or crime is one that's motivated against a person's disability, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or transgender identity. When we run workshops, we make it an open forum and we give youngsters the opportunity to talk about their thoughts and feelings.

"We present situations. For example, you've got a girl who likes playing football after school, and some boys are calling her a lesbian. We pose some questions, and we let the discussion happen among the students.

"You do sometimes hear outrageous comments. But we say, 'if this person's been made to feel terrible by your comments, what happens next?' There's several steps - depression, self-harm, or worse - and we address each of those. We also push the positives - if the girl who plays football does later come out, her friends know her better, her parents have accepted her, she can fall in love, get married if she wants... We do a worst case and best case scenario, showing not only the impact of bullying, but also the impact of acceptance."

Sarah's involvement with Local Heroes began soon after she finished playing rugby at an elite level. She first picked up an oval ball at the age of seven, and quickly discovered she had a talent, playing in a team of boys and even getting to turn out with them at Twickenham. However, when she turned 12, the rules stipulated it was no longer acceptable for her team to be mixed-gender - and although she continued to enjoy playing rugby on evenings and weekends, stereotypes and stigmas were used against her by bullies in school.

I confronted a lot of my own demons through Local Heroes, just by realising I really could give back.

"I was the only girl in my school who played rugby, and I was brought down quite hard," she says. There would be jibes about sexuality, and body shape. "I wasn't strong enough to report it - it was almost like a taboo subject. An incident would happen, my friends would leave the room and wait for me outside, and then we'd walk to the next classroom. I never got asked how I felt, how I was, or whether we should go and tell a teacher. And I never came home and spoke to my parents about it.

"That's the biggest reason that I'm involved in Local Heroes. I went through this discrimination and I need to empower young people in schools now to not only stand up to the bullying itself, but to have the strength to say 'there is a problem and I'm not OK with the way I'm being treated'. More than anything, we have to recognise some incidents can be seen as inappropriate banter, or worse bullying - but that it only takes a second for that to become a hate crime. If an incident's not been reported, that's bad - it has to be stopped before it gets to a crime."

On Tuesday, the Home Office released figures of recorded UK hate crimes for 2016/17. There was an overall increase of 29% on the previous year-long period, with over 80,000 offences logged by police. While the data shows spikes around the time of the 2016 EU referendum and the Westminster Bridge terror attacks in March, the growing public awareness of what constitutes hate crime and also how to report it are also contributory factors in the year-on-year rise.

Of all the five strands, the sharpest percentage rise (53%) in the new Home Office figures was in disability-related hate crime. Keryn admits that's worrying, but he is encouraged that the next generation coming through is showing a greater appreciation of diversity. Partially sighted since primary school, he endured the torment of bullies before gaining confidence and respect from his peers through sport. Even though he only had 15% vision in his teens, he played for the first teams in football and rugby, noting "that was really where any bullying ended for me". So what's it like in schools now?

"When I go in, everybody seems more aware of right and wrong," he says. "A lot of the kids who come to our workshops are often already set out to be 'role models' within their own school - they're forward-thinking, knowledgeable on the subject, thoughtful and caring. They're the ones who help roll the campaign out to other pupils.

"It's concerning that the statistics show a rise, but reporting functions and access to the information is easier to come by now. People know about these things and are more likely to report them. We also have National Hate Crime Awareness Week. So you can look at the figures in two different ways."

Shachar knows just the term 'hate crime' in itself can shock people, which is why she feels it's so important to explain it properly. "When I was at school, there was never anything that showed the difference," she says. Her name, which means 'dawn' in Hebrew, was different enough to prompt that discriminatory email, and she experienced everyday harassment too. Once dubbed 'Britain's strongest schoolgirl' by the tabloid press, her prodigious talent for powerlifting saw her break world and European records while she was in her mid-teens. "A lot of people suddenly wanted to be my friend, but I also had others saying I was 'a man' because I lift weights, and 'you look like a bloke'. One day I got tripped up the stairs and laughed at, just for being different."

Showing the distinction between that kind of bullying, and how hate might exacerbate or even criminalise an incident, is where Shachar and the other Local Heroes do their most important work. "It's given me a lot of confidence to talk about my experiences," says the 21-year-old, who overcame illness and injury to triumph at the British Universities Powerlifting Championships in March last year. "I never really spoke about the way I was bullied before; I kept it quite private. But I've realised through talking, you can make a real difference to somebody else.

"We get a lot of girls who say they're into sport but have had comments about the type of sport that they do. It's especially around football and rugby - if it was netball or rounders, it would be completely different. More girls now say 'I love this sport, I just ignore what they say', which is so nice to hear. There's always been this stigma around women in strength sports, and all I've ever wanted to do is try and inspire people to just go for it."

Keryn was part of the England blind football team that won bronze at the Euros in Berlin in August, a medal position that also ensured qualification for the IBSA Blind Football World Championships in Madrid next June. Sport has always motivated him, but Local Heroes has presented new life benefits. "I've been involved for nearly five years now and it's been a confidence builder for me, to work with groups of teens. I never thought youth work would be something I would delve into." He says being able to put his own negative experiences to positive use is hugely rewarding. "If I had no frame of reference for bullying, it would be hard to pull out the right kind of questions to ask young people. Really, it's all about everyone being able to have a fair crack - in life, and in sport."

Sarah bowed out of elite rugby in 2013, a year in which she won the USA Sevens title with England and the Women's Premiership with her club side Worcester. Injury was a factor - "I'd had two operations due to compartment syndrome in my legs, and I decided I wanted them for life, not just for rugby". She echoes Keryn's thoughts on the simple truth behind the fight against hate, saying: "Everybody has a right to be happy, successful, enjoy their school life... I think I confronted a lot of my own demons through Local Heroes, just by realising I really could give back. That's what I've really enjoyed - standing up there and saying 'you can overcome this'. Maybe lots more people don't have to go through that.

"It sounds like a bold statement to say that I'd love to get rid of bullying and stop hate incidents and crimes - I know that's unrealistic, but I would like to be part of a country that accepts and understands more. I do feel as adults people are already quite set in their ways, so by educating schoolchildren we can catch them at the right age and they'll educate generations below them. We'll have this great ball of positivity, rolling towards a better future for everyone."

National Hate Crime Awareness Week concludes on Saturday.

Learn more about Local Heroes, and how the charity is using the experiences and influence of sportsmen and women to help combat hate incidents and hate crime, by visiting their website at www.lhdiversity.org.uk.