On Your Side is funded by the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC) through the Hong Kong BN(O) Welcome Programme. The service is led by the independent charity Protection Approaches alongside a consortium of mainly East and Southeast Asian Community organisations (find out more about the consortium here). The service operates independently of the UK Government.

At the outbreak of COVID-19, East and Southeast Asian communities in the UK faced a dramatic increase in racist incidents (link). This spike in hate crime and incidents highlighted a gap in support and reporting services for those communities. East and Southeast Asian community-led movements formed and grew, aimed at both preventing racism faced by East and Southeast Asian communities and demanding better support for victims.

In March 2021, following the first national conference on hate crime faced by East and Southeast Asian communities, 28 East and Southeast Asian-led organisations joined Protection Approaches, a hate crime prevention charity, in calling for a new hate crime support and reporting service specifically for East and Southeast Asian communities.(link) 

Concurrently, the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities was developing the Hong Kong BN(O) Welcome Programme and funding to support new arrivals from Hong Kong to the UK. In part thanks to the hard work of many groups in our consortium, one of the four grant schemes was designated for the creation of a dedicated hate crime reporting service for newly arrived Hongkongers and wider East and Southeast Asian communities.

This new service will continue to grow and develop over the coming years, and all involved are committed to it becoming fully East and Southeast Asian led as soon as practical.