There are a number of strands to the PREVENT project where Shama Women’s Centre’s aim is to reduce the risk of radicalisation by increasing awareness of this issue by engaging women from ethnic minorities communities and wider communities. Due to a whole array of issues such as digital poverty and language barriers; women may be influenced by family members and their community and may not have the skills, knowledge and opportunity to recognize and challenge concerns around radicalisation. Shama Women’s’ Centre has over 35 years of experience of reaching out and engaging the most vulnerable women in our communities, who are overlooked and under-valued in terms of their contribution to society in bringing about positive change. Though this project we are endeavoring to approach a much needed meaningful and reflective dialogue on a very important subject area; treading sensitively and cautiously, with creativeness – we aim to do this in number of ways.
At present we have been busy recruiting and training multi-lingual volunteer Ambassadors for this project – to support the raising awareness of radicalisation and extremism in their own communities; key areas of dialogue include: ‘What is radicalisation?’, ‘how to spot the signs’ and ‘If you are concerned what to do next?’ – So women are aware of how to refer their concerns about an individual who is vulnerable to radicalisation. We are also engaging face to face / online bespoke sessions in different languages such as Urdu, Gujarati, Bengali and French to raise awareness of this issue through an informal and interactive discussion; using our staff, volunteers and specialists in this area.
We are producing posters and running a series of promotional campaigns available across all of our social media platforms; and in the community about this issue as well have designated an area within the Centre as an information point in different languages to raise awareness of the key issues, and as a part of that a safe and confidential system to signpost individuals to further support is also being offered.
What to do if you spot the signs?
If you are concerned about someone, you should call National Prevent Advice Line: 0800 011 3764 or 101 to get in touch with your local Police team. If you are unable to speak to the police it’s important you speak to someone about your concerns. For more information please Contact: Shama Women’s Centre on 0116 251 4747 and ask to speak to Beena.
