Pushing the Boundaries (360G-HeartofEnglandCF-A508588)

Since December 2018, brap has been delivering Building a Stronger Britain Together-funded workshops to 16-18 year olds across colleges in Birmingham. Workshops have been facilitated using a method called process work, which allows deeper conversations with young people who are particularly susceptible to far-right or Islamist extremism. Process work is a psychotherapeutic approach to dialogue that recognises the central role emotions play in the formation of views. Our use of this method reflects the fact that extremism is driven by emotion (fear, isolation, anxiety) and that we need facilitation techniques that surface these emotions to help people deal with them and build resilience to extremism, whilst understanding how their beliefs were formed. Since running this project, we have been overwhelmed by demand for these sessions and are therefore looking to work with other organisations. In particular, we would like to respond to requests to work with a younger cohort (Key Stage 4). Additionally, we’ve been asked by schools/youth organisations in Coventry to deliver sessions to young people there. We are attracted to the idea of trialling process work in a new local authority area, but appreciate there are a number of challenges to this (see below). As such, we’re looking for funding to: - work with Birmingham colleges/schools to deliver six workshops to approximately 60 people aged 14-18 - pilot and evaluate four workshops in Coventry to approximately 40 people aged 14-18 - deliver a youth practitioner workshop to disseminate learning arising from this work Project objectives: - Increase resilience to extremism by helping 14-18 year olds reflect on how their beliefs about politics, religion and gender are formed - Promote belonging by exposing the cohort to different views and help them understand more about their peers - Help students promote values such as equality and decrease 'segregation' within their college