A group of the police youth volunteers have received training to recognise and understand the importance of reporting incidents of bullying and hate crime.

Police Scotland’s North Ayrshire Youth Volunteers attended the Townhouse in Irvine on Sunday, March 3 where they were trained as Ambassadors for ‘I Am Me’.

‘I Am Me’ is an award winning community charity which works in partnership with Police Scotland to educate young people and the wider community about Disability Hate Crime which is recognised as one of the most under reported crimes in the UK.

PC Colin Johnson, Preventions and Interventions Officer for North Ayrshire who organised the training event said: “Over one million people in Scotland are either registered as disabled or living with a long term illness. Hate crime can have massively damaging effects on the victims, their families and communities but sadly the majority of hate crimes go unreported.

PC Chris Bysouth, PSYV Coordinator for Ayrshire said: “Today’s training was to raise awareness on issues relating to all forms of hate crime, potential reasons for underreporting and to give our young volunteers the confidence to recognise and report incidents safely. They will also be supporting the initiative by identifying possible Keep Safe places across North Ayrshire.”

For further information on I Am Me and Keep Safe please visit: http://www.iammescotland.co.uk/