Following a successful tender, the Active Citizen Project was chosen as one of the 8 pilots nationwide to deliver the SBRi Home Office Initiative to Prevent Young People from Radical Extremism. Our process included:

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Engage: to engage the youths in advance, to identify them early on and interact with them effectively and positively by meeting them where they live, in their community centres, schools and known hotspots and online amongst others.

 

Inspire: one of the reasons young people are easily attracted to extremism and radicalization is because they do not see a positive future for themselves and feel disconnected from mainstream UK and disenfranchised. We sought to provide them with a more compelling future and a stake in society.

 

Educate: Education is the best way to empower people, the right education will open the youths to a whole range of potential that can truly change their orientation, lives and future. We sought to provide them with access to courses that will enlighten them on the bright future they can easily have.

 

The project was an intensive 16 weeks direct intervention project designed to increase the target groups' engagement with the wider (mainstream) society, protect and to divert them away from the risk they may face before radicalization occurs by ensuring they develop the resilience to resist all forms of coercion to violent extremism.

 

To do this we worked collaboratively with a wide range of sectors,  in the statutory, commercial and third sectors to reduce the risks of radicalisation and or exposure to extremist ideology.  Our approach had a wide appeal, not only because it was person-centred providing support for individuals, to explore fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs, but also combines a number of programmes to cater for a wide range of cohorts.