Phibsboro for All, as part of its mission to create a welcoming and supportive environment for all, held an informative anti-racism workshop on November 15, 2025.

The session, hosted at the Sanctuary, brought together various communities and organisations to build a stronger, more coordinated response to racism in the community.

Phibsboro for All invited Siphiwe Moyo, a member of Empower Fingal to speak about her work on the Organisational Anti-Racism Roadmap.

We were joined by other grassroots groups and organisations including Cross Cultural Conversations, Cabra for All, Drumcondra for All and Empower Fingal.

Siphiwe Moyo Presents the Anti-Racism Roadmap

Siphiwe has played a central role in developing the Anti-Racism Roadmap, a strategy designed to help organisations, community groups, and government bodies embed anti-racism into their work.

The roadmap was developed in collaboration with Empower Fingal and TU Dublin, with researchers funded by Fingal County Council, The Programme for Access to Higher Education (PATH), and The Higher Education Authority (HEA). Siphiwe explained that her goal was not to produce research that sits on a shelf, but to create a usable, community-focused product that offers immediate support to victims of racism.

A key feature of the roadmap is its reporting template, which helps organisations document incidents, track cases, and support multiple victims at once. The structure also reduces the risk of retraumatising victims by ensuring oraganisations have the ability to delegate multiple cases between members, leaving no victims on their own. 

Addressing Challenges with Reporting Racism

Participants shared their experiences with racism and the difficulties of reporting these incidents. Many described negative encounters with Gardaí, including being ignored, discouraged from reporting, or witnessing Gardaí prioritising the voices of white bystanders over victims’ testimonies.

One particularly alarming case involved a recent violent racist attack on a homeless refugee camp. Despite threats and repeated assaults, a witness indicated that Gardaí arrived hours late. When they responded to the incident, the police force engaged in victim-blaming behind the scenes rather than offering meaningful support.

Siphiwe emphasised that systemic gaps in Gardaí protocols, in addition to the absence of detailed racism legislation until recently, leave many officers feeling no obligation to act. As a result, asylum seekers, who often fear that reporting racism may affect their applications, are left unsupported.

The roadmap aims to change this by creating accountability through detailed documentation, providing reassurance that reporting racism does not affect asylum applications, ensuring complaints are properly recorded and followed up on, and building a community safety net to prevent victims from facing incidents alone.

It also strengthens the position of organisations when engaging with Gardaí and other oversight bodies.

Moving Forward: Building an Anti-Racism Network

The workshop engaged in group discussions centered on self-care for volunteers dealing with traumatic stories, the importance of not internalising incidents, and the need to build a comprehensive list of support organisations for victims.

A number of community initiatives were highlighted including Food for All, Film for All and the Community Sponsorship programmes by Phibsboro for All along with Cross Culture Conversations’ workshop on Hate, and others.

The groups emphasised that while these actions are meaningful, there is still much more to do to ensure that all local residents feel safe and supported.

Phibsboro for All is committed to the fight against racism and our mission of ensuring that our community remains a warm and inviting place for individuals from all walks of life. We aim to achieve this through a range of different initiatives and activities. A meeting with the Police Ombudsman has been arranged to discuss the lack of Gardaí protocol around racism and to present them with a copy of the roadmap.