EPAREX – Ealing Partnership Against Radicalisation and Extremism
COUNTRY
GB
region
UK
contribution
377190.00
budget
471658.00
programme
Prevention Of and Fight Against Crime
organization
Ealing Council
contacts
Calum Murdoch murdochc@ealing.gov.uk
program
Prevention of and fight against crime
policy
Anti radicalisation and extremism Community Cohesion Faith development Cross sectoral partnership
reference
HOME/2010/ISEC/AG/074
activity
EPAREX: An introduction and overview The Ealing Partnership Against Radicalisation and Extremism (EPAREX) is a European Commission funded project that seeks to reduce and prevent the risk of extremism and radicalisation in Ealing including; a focus on specifically the Afghan, Pakistani and Somali communities. It has a lifespan of three years and has completed its first operational year. The project is run by a cross-sectorial partnership comprising of Ealing Borough Council, the Metropolitan Police Service and Ealing Community and Voluntary Service.Partners have designed a programme comprising a range of interventions thought to be effective. Many have already been trialled in London and across other parts of the UK. Thje project will complete a comparative examination of their individual impact and outcomes within one London Borough. Researchers supporting the initiative are also keen to understand the impact of our holistic approach which supports: individuals, families, communities and faith-based institutions.Core Objectives The key objectives of the EPAREX project build upon the partnership-held beliefs that stronger, more cohesive and tolerant communities with an understanding of each other can help reduce the threat of extremism, and that those closest to people at risk of radicalisation to violent extremism are in the best position to help them: • Strengthen families as the first line of defence against radicalisation and violent extremism • Strengthen civil society organisations and support them to develop grassroots-led initiatives to prevent radicalisation leading to violent extremism • Build cross sectorial partnerships • At the scale of the individual, the partnership seeks to identify those most at risk and to work to achieve: • Participants who identify themselves as a welcome part of a wider British society and are accepted as such by the wider community • Participants who reject violent extremist ideology and actively condemn violent extremism • Participants who help to isolate violent extremist activityProject Activities The 10 local interventions or stands were selected on the basis of solid reported impact. They had been developed and deployed in a range of settings and by a range of organisations. Appropriately implementing these actions in one locality by one coherent partnership has required in depth understanding of the way in which each is best targeted and deployed as well as the development of appropriate local partnerships to implement the actions, and an evaluation framework to consider impact.F1 – Family Empowerment: Strengthening the capacity of families to counter radicalisation through providing advice, information and empowerment activities.F2 – Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent (WRAP): Designed for front line staff from partner agencies to help recognise the initial signs of those vulnerable to radicalisation as well as those who radicalise.F3 – All Communities Together Now (ACT Now): Community members taking part will get an insight into the kinds of decisions the Police have to make in extreme situations and will ultimately gain a better understanding of counter terrorism procedures. It will also demonstrate how agencies and communities can work together to defeat terrorism.F4 – Being Muslim, Being British: To help young people understand how to reconcile being both Muslim and British - the programme teaches young people how to remain commited to core faith values but to be able to engage with other views to find common views.C1 – Promoting Volunteering: Volunteering helps to build solidarity and understanding between different communities This work will enable people from identified communities to take up opportunities to volunteer in their wider community. Local research has shown an increase in enquiries about volunteering, and a need for one to one support to ensure that disadvantaged and marginalised communties are able to volunteer to best effect.C2 – Civil Society Training and Capacity Building: Strengthen capacity of civil society organisations to engage with projects which counter radicalisation by providing them with advice to help them to become more effective. There are over one hundred small voluntary and community groups in the borough which work with the priority groups, with new groups being started up regularly. Surveys of civil society groups have shown that they often lack the capacity or resources to meet the needs of their community, and that providing training in key skills and one-to-one funding advice can help them to develop, become more effective, as well as providing financially sustainable futures for them. Engaging and developing these groups can help them to meet the needs of their communities and reduce the kinds of grievances which feed the radicalisation process.C4 – Faith Development: Engage faith-based groups to develop opportunities to engage volunteers. There is currently a shortage of quality volunteering opportunities in the borough. Recent faith volunteering projects have shown the value - to individuals, organisations and the wider community - of engaging faith-based groups to develop volunteering opportunities for local people. This can also help to build understanding and solidarity between people from different backgrounds.C5– Beacon Mosques: To help build resilience, capacity and training for Imams, Mosques and Islamic Centres.P1–Community Forum: This multi-agency partnership brings together the key agencies active in the field of counter radicalisation and terrorism in Ealing, overseeing the EPAREX project as well as wider counter terrorism work.The forum also provides a broader community interface with the EPAREX project.P2– Private Sector Engagement: To combat the transfer of money to extremist causes across the world, training will be developed to allow Money Transfer and Bank staff to recognise patterns of use that might indicate cause for concern. The aim will ultimately be to identify radicalised individuals to be targeted by Combating Terrorism partners.
budget
471658.00
Author
By the end of the programme the EPAREX partnership intends to deliver:
• Material to allow local actors to develop a risk-based ‘reducing susceptibility to radicalisation and violent extremism’ action plan and a package of tools to help with evaluating the impact of interventions
• Assemble a toolkit of evaluated interventions designed to combat radicalisation –with commentary and advise on how and with whom to best deploy them
• Explore the sustainability of actions brought about by our holistic approach to individuals, families, communities and faith-based institutions
• The toolkit and other findings will be launched at an end of programme dissemination conference planned for September 2014.