Waltham Forest has made early intervention a priority as part of its Prevent work. One of it’s flagship programmes is ‘Digital Resilience’, an education resource for secondary school children and staff designed to safeguard young people from potentially harmful information or views online. This case study forms part of our counter extremism resource.
The London borough has worked closely with local schools. More than 1,600 pupils have taken part in its Digital Resilience programme to help children stay safe online. A Young Leaders training programme is also being run to create a network of ‘community connectors’ to tackle extremism.
Waltham Forest has made early intervention a priority as part of its Prevent work. One of the London Borough’s flagship programmes is ‘Digital Resilience’, a suite of education resources for secondary school children and staff. The programme is designed to safeguard young people from potentially harmful information or views found online.
It was developed by Waltham Forest Council in partnership with local schools and includes lesson plans, peer education schemes and teacher training.
It has been used in all secondary schools since it was launched in 2012 and helped more than 1,600 pupils in years nine, 10 and 11.
The programme is delivered by the council’s Community Safety Team although there are now plans to train teachers to run it as part of a drive to get the course incorporated as a core part of the curriculum.
Cllr Liaquat Ali, Waltham Forest Council’s Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Cohesion, says:
“It teaches children to recognise bias and propaganda. We started it because it was clear teachers were becoming concerned that if children lacked the tools to make sense of their digital environment it would have a direct impact on their vulnerability. It builds pupils’ individual resilience in order for them to think critically and make informed and rational decisions.
The course can be tailored depending on what each schools wants. But a typical programme would include five lessons, covering issues such as how extremism is defined, values and culture in Britain, exploring the influences that social media has on their lives, how to spot propaganda and considering issues such as the importance of authenticating online resources.
In some cases children have subsequently taken part in a peer education project whereby pupils from different schools get to work together to design their own workshops with a particular emphasis on theatre to spread what they have learnt.
Students who have taken part are full of praise. One said: “Being part of it has actually changed me as a person. I wasn’t turning up at school before and didn’t really bother.
“Then my teacher asked me to get involved in this. We started to meet every week and I had a whole new group of friends from different schools.”
Last year the council launched a new programme ‘Identity, Belonging and Extremism’. It complements the Digital Resilience programme and is based more around multi-media, such as short films which pupils get to produce.
There is also more targeted prevention provided under the Prevent agenda, which in Waltham Forest is overseen by a steering group incorporating a range of core partners and co-chaired by the Borough Commander and the council’s Director of Early Help.
There is also significant buy-in to the Prevent agenda from senior management from within the council. Chief Executive Martin Esom chairs the Pan-London Prevent Board.
The Prevent team works closely with Walthamstow-based Active Change Foundation. One of the schemes the group runs is the ‘Young Leaders’ programme.
Councillor Ali says: “Pupils will be nominated through their schools and the aim is to turn them into community connectors by teaching them leadership skills, crisis management and critical-thinking as well as educating them about community cohesion, civic responsibility and extremism.”
The aim is that the young leaders will then act as peer mentors and train other young people. By the end of 2015, 90 young people will have gone through the scheme.
The Active Change Foundation also runs a programme of monthly workshops. They are provided on a drop-in basis and generate discussion among young people. The workshops are complemented by ‘Newgen’, a monthly magazine published by the foundation with contributions from those who have taken part in the workshops.
Training and improving awareness has been prioritised too. The Capacity and Resilience Building Project, which incorporates WRAP training, has targeted the council’s own staff and core partners such as health organisations and the probation services.
Over 300 people have already been through the training and by the end of 2015/16 it will be up to 500.
The Prevent team has also worked with staff and managers in charge of bookings at local community and private venues to make sure they are informed of the Prevent processes and understand how to block people who may be intending to use the spaces for malicious purposes.
And, what is more, it has used its powers to disrupt extremist leafleting; last year Waltham Forest became the first local authority in the country to obtain a five-year pan-London ASBO against an individual doing this. Councillor Ali says Waltham Forest, which has been working on this issue since 2011, has tried to develop a programme which is “both proactive and reactive”.
“We think it responds to the challenges and we’re proud of the way it works with families, schools and communities to build resilience and cohesion as well as protecting people and communities from extremism.”
Mark Collins, who until recently was the Borough Commander and co-chair of the Prevent steering group, agrees. “It has been a privilege to witness first-hand the excellent work being carried out by the Prevent team in delivering so many engagement programmes within the communities of Waltham Forest.
“Their hard work and dedication has resulted in the Waltham Forest model being upheld as best practice across London and the UK.”
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