Show Racism the Red Card grew out of a £50 donation made by then
Newcastle United goalkeeper
Shaka Hislop in 1995 to a local anti-racism campaign in
Newcastle upon Tyne. Ged Grebby, who founded the charity, was an active member in
Youth against Racism in Europe, which sent educational packs to schools. One magazine got into the hands of Hislop, who pledged £50, urging more donations. It was when he got on board that Show Racism The Red Card was founded. Since then it has grown both in the UK where it has offices in
Whitley Bay,
Glasgow and
Cardiff, as well as in Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The campaigns in each country have education through sport as a common goal but draw on different local resources to get the message across. The main English language DVD is a general anti-racism resource suitable for ages eight to adult. It features high-profile footballers such as
Thierry Henry,
Derek Ferguson,
Mustapha Hadji,
Ryan Giggs,
Rio Ferdinand,
Didier Drogba and
Samuel Eto'o talking about the issue alongside the experiences of young people. "A Safe Place" DVD educates about racism towards
asylum seekers and
refugees and also about
Islamophobia which tackles racism towards Muslims. Each DVD comes with an education pack with discussion points and activities for teachers to use on the resource. "Out of Site" education pack aims to educate on the topic of racism towards Gypsy, Roma and Traveller groups. Again, this resource includes relevant discussion points and activities.
Education SRTRC runs an annual schools competition where young people produce their own work against racism in the form of posters, poems, animations and films. In 2008 the winners were invited to the
Emirates Stadium to receive their prizes from
Theo Walcott. The North East winning entry was ‘Choose your team, not your colour’ created by a pupil, not very far from
St James' Park, attending a school in
Ouston. The same school had a subsequent winner in 2010; these winners went to the new
Wembley Stadium. The charity regularly holds events with professional sporting clubs. Young people are invited to stadiums to hear the anti-racist message from their sporting heroes. SRTRC delivers programmes of community education in
North East England, South and South East England, Scotland and Wales. Education workers deliver workshops to young people and adults. The workshops are often accompanied by football and fitness sessions from ex-professional footballers such as
Gary Bennett,
Dean Gordon,
John Anderson,
Curtis Fleming,
Olivier Bernard,
Luther Blissett,
Paul Mortimer and
Leroy Rosenior. ==Hall of Fame==