A NEW campaign to promote equality and inclusion is being launched in Swindon and volunteers are being asked to join in.

Voluntary Action Swindon and Swindon Equality Coalition hope to recruit 200 people as equality ambassadors to raise awareness of the support that is available for those who face discrimination in whatever form.

“By raising and addressing equality issues, we aim to make Swindon a model of fairness and opportunity, where people can aspire and achieve to their best ability and as a town we reach our full potential,” said VAS development officer Hannah Parry.

“The past year has seen awful events take place such as the homophobic terrorist attack in Orlando, the murder of Jo Cox MP and a significant rise in race-related hate crime in the UK and US.

“This has shown that there is still a need for debate in our communities about inclusion and we hope to bring this about with the support of the Swindon community.”

The campaign has been named the Swindon 200 Project and the idea is for the volunteers to be a visible source of support for people who might have issues with discrimination.

Janey Templar-Milligan, of SEC, said: “By raising awareness of equality, we also hope that more people will feel confident in coming forwards and raising issues that they may have personally faced.”

A website is being developed and a series of short films on a range of equality issues are being produced in partnership with students at New College and local charity Viewpoint Community Media.

The campaign also aims to increase awareness of nine elements of the 2010 Equality Act covering age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnerships, pregnancy, maternity, race, religion and sexual orientation.

“We have been commissioned by Swindon Borough Council to deliver this work, which seeks to increase the number of Swindon residents engaged in equality issues, as well as the number of issues being raised, over the course of the next year,” Janey said.

A new equality and inclusion charter will also be launched on January 21 at the National Trust headquarters in the town.