Football is the 'tip of the iceberg' when it comes to sectarianism in Glasgow
Two Glasgow students have gone back to school to launch a new campaign aimed at challenging sectarian attitudes in Scotland.
Two Glasgow students have gone back to school to launch a new campaign aimed at challenging sectarian attitudes in Scotland.
City of Glasgow College public relations students Rosie Thompson and Samantha Strain have launched their ‘Tip of the Iceberg’ campaign alongside leading charity Nil by Mouth.
The campaign aims to encourage schools to consider the factors which contribute to the problem beyond football including history, social media and the influence of family members.
It is the latest campaign to emerge from Nil by Mouth’s ‘Pitch Perfect’ collaboration with City of Glasgow College.
The competition sees students compete to design a campaign aimed at raising awareness of sectarianism with the winning entries being selected by a panel made up of prominent media figures and voluntary sector leaders.
The images and content created by the students will become part of Nil by Mouth's education programme delivered to more than 10,000 pupils in over 100 schools in 21 local authority areas.
Nil by Mouth Campaign Director Dave Scott said; "We’ve been hugely impressed by the creativity shown by Rosie and Samantha and they were very keen to come back to their high schools to launch the campaign.
"We have always found that our most effective campaigns are those which harness the creativity and imagination of young people and the quality of the artwork and the clarity of the message produced by the students was exceptional.
"No one can deny that football has an issue with sectarianism but there is a temptation to simply lay all the blame at the game’s feet and fail to recognise other factors which can contribute to the problem. Two thirds of sectarian arrests have nothing to do with football and it’s important when our schools are looking at the issue that they don’t limit discussion simply to the sport. This campaign very cleverly uses images which get these points across effectively and we will be using it as part of our ‘Champions for Change’ educational programme during 2017. ‘
Student Rosie Thompson said; "Equality is very important for our generation and we wanted to come up with a campaign that got people thinking about an old problem in a new way.
"We also felt that targeting schools gives us an opportunity to stimulate some debate in the classroom and hopefully see young people being able to have real and informed conversations on a subject that can often be misunderstood.
"We are delighted that the charity will be pushing our campaign over the next few months."