Residents are being urged to 'say no to hate' as part of a national awareness week.

Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner Martyn Underhill is backing the initiative, which runs alongside a social media campaign called The Big Link-up.

The Big Link-up marks National Hate Crime Awareness Week and sees public figures, organisations and individuals demonstrating their support against hate crime by using the hashtag #NO2HATE on social media.

Mr Underhill said: “The whole idea behind this campaign is to show our solidarity and unity in fighting hatred. With the nation’s PCCs coming together as one, we are sending out a powerful message to our communities that those who breed hatred and contempt are the minority and will find no place in our society.

“Every year, National Hate Crime Awareness Week gets bigger and better and reaches a wider audience. It is a fantastic opportunity to show victims of this awful crime how serious we treat their experiences and encourages more people to come forward and get help if they haven’t already done so.

“Equally, it highlights how repugnant society views this crime and leaves perpetrators in no doubt that their actions will be condemned and punished using the full arm of the law.

“I’m pleased to see ‘The Big Link-up’ receiving strong support and appeal to anyone who works with the public, including our youth leaders, volunteers and criminal justice partners as well as residents themselves to join us throughout the week in this symbolic rejection of hate crime.”

Hate Crime Awareness Week takes place between October 13 and 20.

It aims to bring people together, and encourage local authorities to work alongside key partners, and communities affected by hate crime to tackle local hate crime issues.

Awareness events are run to help increase public knowledge, people are encouraged to think about how they would respond if hate crime happened to someone they knew and help to prevent hate crime where possible.

A hate crime is any crime, against person or property, where someone is targeted because of prejudice towards their disability, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation or transgender identity.