Welcome to the ARC ‘Safety Net’ Website

The website is about a project looking at ‘Mate Crime’
Are people really friends or fakes?

Some people pretend to be friends with people who have a learning disability but go on to exploit them

Looking for the Friend or Fake booklet and resources? Click here



This 3 year project (initial funding ends March 2012) is being run by ARC the Association for Real Change and is funded by the Dept of Health. For the short end of project reports see the Advisory Group page of the website The Devon Pilot will continue for a further 12 months with funding from the Home Office

Please keep scrolling down the pages for all the information.
Including the voice options for the site. Using ‘BrowseAloud’

Learning Disability Today (London) 2011 - photos from the event

Report Online - You can report a Hate Crime at the Report It website. They use the True Vision Pack.

Safety Net makes national news (again) Guardian article 1st June 2011

To order Katharine’s book follow this link

The Guardian also had a story about mate crime in it on the 15.9.10 to read it click here



If you would like to keep in touch with the project use the ‘contact us’ link at the bottom of the page and we will add you to the email group

There are lots of really useful tools on the Resources page. Some of these are from other people but there is a page of dedicated Safety Net resources

Clicking on the logos below will take you to the organisations who support the Safety Net Project websites.

Please note that Stop Hate UK do not work in all areas of the country.
Have a look at their website to see where they provide services

Accessing the BrowseAloud website via their logo will allow you to access free softwear which will enable this website to read the text when highlighted. Making it accessible for those who are unable to read.