“People felt that Prevent creates division and enforces attitudes that radicalization only effects Muslim and Black students. They felt it specifically promotes the profiling of students. They also felt it was a tick box exercise for politicians that also targeted people with mental health issues. Solutions to tackling extremism are often faith illiterate or seen as offensive.” 10.23 There was still felt to be a strong need to build trust in communities and there was a great deal of work to be done in this regard. The emphasis was consistently made about speaking directly to communities, not to “representatives of communities”. It was consistently stated that this would work best when done in collaboration with people / organisations who already had links and trust established within communities, but that it needed to be a consistent two way dialogue, not a “tick box exercise” or “only engaging when you want a survey filling in”, but a commitment to long term, meaningful engagement. 10.24 Research is required into what community experiences and beliefs of Prevent are. This still remains largely unknown. There is a need to engage meaningfully with members of the community directly to understand their thoughts and concerns around Prevent. This will provide an understanding of how messages can be effectively communicated to communities and allow a two way dialogue to begin. Experiences and understanding of communities and individuals is currently too heavily reliant upon ‘representatives of the community’. 10.25 Community resources are key - The lack of youth provision and community activities generally was consistently quoted as having a detrimental impact on young people and the potential for them to be drawn into terrorist activity. Isolation, a lack of positive role models and opportunities to discuss grievances and/or concerns in safe spaces with trusted individuals was strongly felt to be leading to a growing number of disillusioned people who were vulnerable to being exploited by people with an extreme political agenda. Volunteering and mentoring were seen as a great way to make effective use of community assets, but this needed to be resourced. “I think that support within the communities, of the religious members of the communities, would be a way to reach out. Youth clubs with trained members of staff reaching into schools, to involve young people. To get their trust. I also think that volunteering in the community gives pride to individuals.” “Investment in social enterprises, youth clubs, libraries, community activities, anything that gets people of all ages, genders, religions etc. socialising with one another. Basically don't target those at risk when it's too late, but instead approach the whole community with a view to include everyone and stop people from feeling isolated and/or ostracised in the first place.” “Have confidential support from community members and programmes to reengage people to be proactive in society, in charity etc. Give them a meaning to life other than their prejudices and hate.”
88 | P a g e – A S h a r e d F u t u r e