ARCH is an innovative and nationally regarded web-based IT system designed for reporting, recording and monitoring racist incidents. It was pioneered and developed by ARCH Newcastle and consists of a partnership of agencies within the City to combat racism and hate. The introduction of this system to Sunderland will enable residents, students, asylum seekers, migrant workers and other visitors to the city to report race crime through a variety of sources and agencies.

ARCH will ensure that there is a quick and efficient way of reporting racist incidents and will enable organisations to work in a more coordinated way. This will help to ensure that the victim gets the most appropriate support and that effective action is taken against perpetrators.  The system is designed for a member of staff from individual organisations to input a report of a racist incident from a service user. It is not a self-reporting system. Training on how to input reports to the system is required by all front line staff in the partner agencies.

The aims of ARCH are to:

• Increase the number of racist incidents that are reported;
• Increase the support available to victims of racist harassment;
• Improve action taken against perpetrators;
• Increase the understanding of racist incidents in Sunderland in order to develop a multi agency approach to preventing racist incidents;
• Subsequently reduce the number of racist incidents experienced in Sunderland;
• Deliver a customer focused approach.

By bringing ARCH to Sunderland the city will have in place a multi-agency network of reporting centres that will enable it to gain a more accurate picture of the extent of racism in the city. ARCH will allow partners to make referrals for support from other agencies, and coordinate these through a case management system and regular operational support group meetings. It will also help to address the issue of under-reporting, identify 'hotspots' more easily and improve community intelligence. ARCH also has the potential to move into other areas of hate crime such as homophobic incident reporting and play a significant role in the provision of anti-discrimination training.

If you have any questions about ARCH please telephone 0191 553 2480 or email sunderlandarch@sunderland.gov.uk