[WiLT] Preventing Violent Extremism - Community Leadership Fund - Muslim Women a Priority

[WiL Admin]

Preventing Violent Extremism - Community Leadership Fund
 - Muslim Women a Priority

Funding area: England
Final date for applications: 31 March 08 or when all funding is
committed. See 'Notes' below.

Preventing Violent Extremism Community Leadership Fund is a grants
programme to build the capacity of Muslim communities to take
practical steps to reject violent extremism and feel a welcome part of
wider British society.

The fund will focus on three strands -
* Leadership Capacity - building the capacity of today and tomorrow's
leaders in the Muslim community, to enable them to help the community
to resist the influence of violent extremists and promote a positive
and engaged citizenship.
* Organisational Capacity - building the capacity of organisations in
the Muslim community to actively resist the influence of violent
extremists.
* Capacity of Muslim Women - unlocking the potential of Muslim women
in tackling violent extremism, enabling their voices to be heard and
empowering them to engage with young Muslims at risk of being targeted
by violent extremists.

The grants programme will support projects with a national impact -
either a wide geographic impact or, exceptionally, 'trailblazing'
projects that will provide ideas/information which can form the basis
of national best practice. A priority will be to build on good
practice and lessons learnt from the wider voluntary and community
sector, including activities of individuals/organisations of other
faiths or none.

This fund will complement the Preventing Violent Extremism Pathfinder
Fund, which has allocated £6m to over 70 local authorities for the
support smaller projects to tackle violent extremism at a local level.
For further information on the Pathfinder Fund
http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1506075

Total Fund Value: £650,000

The total fund value is the amount that will be distributed as grants
between July 2007 and March 2008. The fund will close when all funding
is committed - this may be before 31 March 2008. All funding must be
spent by 31st March 2008.

The fund will be used to build the capacity of Muslim communities to
take practical steps to tackle violent extremism. This fund may be
used to support projects which fall under any of the three strands,
and which meet the criteria for that strand.

Leadership Capacity - building the capacity of today and tomorrow's
leaders in the Muslim community, to enable the community to resist the
influence of violent extremists and promote a positive and engaged
citizenship. Projects should achieve at least one of the following
criteria:
* Support emerging leaders, particularly women and young people, to -
--- become effective spokespeople to reflect the communities concerns
and views, including through civic engagement; and/or
--- develop their leadership skills; and/or
--- engage more effectively with the media.
* Provide opportunities for emerging leaders to build support networks
within and beyond the Muslim communities, with other emerging leaders
and those in established positions of leadership
* Support the development of leadership through mentoring support for
those who would not otherwise have access to support.

Applications should include information on how the skills gained by
individuals will contribute to wider society and especially to
preventing violent extremism.

Organisational Capacity - building the capacity of organisations in
the Muslim community to actively resist the influence of violent
extremists.

Projects should aim to build the capacity of Muslim organisations in
ways that will enable the organisations to counter those who espouse
violent extremism in their community. Applications may be made by
organisations seeking to build their own capacity and/or to help other
organisations (e.g. mentoring). The organisations to be capacity-built
will be expected to show clear evidence that they do or will work to
build resilience to violent extremism in their communities, and the
proposed capacity building will have a positive impact on this work.

It is a priority to ensure that the impact of this funding is felt as
widely as possible. When considering applications we will therefore
give priority to:
* Organisations able to reach a diverse range of denominations,
ethnicities and cultures from the Muslim communities in the UK.
Attention will be paid to the extent to which the final pool of
recipients covers the different traditions within the Muslim
population in England
* 'High impact' groups who can reach large memberships/audiences.
* Organisations that promote the involvement of women and young
people, as under-represented groups.

Capacity of Muslim Women - unlocking the potential of Muslim women in
tackling violent extremism, enabling their voices to be heard and
empowering them to engage with individuals at risk of being targeted
by violent extremists. Projects should achieve at least one of the
following criteria:
* increase the number of Muslim women who are empowered to participate
in the civic, democratic, social and economical life of the community,
by equipping Muslim women with the necessary confidence, opportunity,
tools and skills to participate fully within their immediate
communities and in the wider community more generally;
* break down barriers to the progression and participation of Muslim
women in society;
* build confidence/capacity of Muslim women to directly tackle signs
of radicalisation in their local communities.

An important part of the programme will be to share good practice and
lessons learnt with the wider voluntary and community sector and
successful organisations will be expected to work closely with the
grants administrator through monitoring visits and reports.

Those interested in seeking funding are advised to familiarise
themselves with Preventing Violent Extremism - Winning Hearts and
Minds before applying. This document can be downloaded by clicking
http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1509398

All applications should be submitted using the application form which
can be downloaded at
http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1511604

See also Press Release
http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1002882&PressNoticeID=2452

Posted on  WiLT blog at
http://www.freecharity.org.uk/~womeninlondon/?p=371