A message from Groundswell Project founder Hadiya Masieh:

Dear friends


As we enter November and around the world we see no sign of the coronavirus pandemic easing up - with all the hardship and challenges that brings - our mission as a peacebuilder and community connector is becoming ever more important. Especially as the UK now plans for a second lockdown, projects like Groundswell and our partners can provide a lifeline to the vulnerable and isolated. Although we are still in the growing and development process, the feeling of change and the positive spirit I see all around me is confirmation that we are doing the right thing together and that we need to push on and continue with our efforts to make the world a better place.

Recent events in France also touched my heart, with a series of what appear to be extremist terrorism-related attacks, again trying to drive division rather than harmony, and war rather than peace. At the heart of Groundswell’s ethos is a commitment to fight against extremism wherever it arises, and we must work to continue our peace building activity despite all the terror and sadness that we see in the world today.

This latest edition of our newsletter introduces you to the core Groundswell ‘dream team’, my colleagues without whom none of this would be happening, we profile an amazing new community building initiative in north London and take a look at the first of our features on partnerships that have developed through our involvement in the Shared Endeavour fund.

Since our last newsletter, we have also run two webinars on topics of interest - one on 9/11 and the second during Hate Crime Awareness Week, looking at the spread of extremism online during the pandemic. You can watch both of these again here. Please also take the opportunity to respond to our poll asking you what type of interactive sessions you want to see in the coming months.

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With my love,

Hadiya.

Meet the Groundswell Dream Team!

Here at the Groundswell Project, we are all so thankful for your continued support and the opportunities to partner with so many of you and your organisations. But we thought you might like to get to know who we are.

Pictured above, we have (from left): Carla Tang, our tech guru, who is currently working on updating our community mapper and making it more interactive and useful to website users, as well as thinking about how else we can use technology to help find, connect and amplify like-minded groups across the world.

Next we have Eisha Shah, who is our operations expert. Eisha is responsible for making sure everything happens when and how it should, as well as co-ordinating our funding applications, reports and more. Hadiya describes Eisha as her right hand! On the other side of Hadiya is Wandel Moyo, our branding and marketing ‘go to’. With a Masters in the field and lots of practical examples of creating winning brands, Wandel is tasked with rebranding Groundswell and making sure we have a consistent look and feel across all our platforms.

Then finally, we have Adam Brichto - the ‘film guy’. Adam’s talents have been so valuable over the last few months, and it is he that has been responsible for our Communities Countering Hate series as well as several other short films showcasing our work and that of our partners.

Speaking this week, Hadiya said: “I really do feel lucky to have such a dedicated team of people behind me. Carla, Eisha, Wandel and Adam - as well as several others that all ‘do their bit’ to help - are making Groundswell more than a vision, it’s becoming a reality. Massive thanks to all of them, watch this space!”

Having the conversations that need to be had - Groundswell hosts key webinars

Now more than ever, voices of reason, moderation and love need to be heard louder than those of extremism, hate and division. That’s what we here at Groundswell are doing with two live webinars with some fantastic keynote speakers, online in September and October.

The first, hosted on 9/11, was all about what we have learned since that fateful day that changed the world nearly 20 years ago. Groundswell Project founder Hadiya Masieh was joined by educator, hip hop artist and public speaker Tavasha Shannon (aka. Ms Undastood); expert on far right extremism Brad Galloway; expert on Islamist extremism Rashad Ali and Ismail Lea South, Director of The Salam Project, for a debate that investigated what everyone’s memories of that day were, why it is still important to remember, and what hopes they have for the future. You can watch it in full on our Facebook page here. Hadiya was also later featured on Islam TV talking about the event - a channel watched by millions around the world.

More recently, we ran a webinar as part of Hate Crime Awareness Week (pictured above) that looked at what hate groups have been doing online since the start of the pandemic. Hadiya again hosted the session, and this time was joined by Dina Hussein from Facebooks Counterterrorism and Dangerous Organisations arm, Nigel Bromage from consultancy Small Steps/Exit UK and Chloe Colliver, from the Institute of Strategic Dialogue (ISD). A range of topics, from QAnon to ‘fake news’ and extremist video games were discussed. Watch the whole debate back again, here.

The team are now making plans to run a series of webinars as we head into winter, but we want to hear your views about what you would like to see. If you have a few spare minutes, please take the time to fill in our poll here.

A community-building gem in the heart of north London

Over the last few months, Groundswell has struck up a winning partnership with an incredible community cafe business in Friern Barnet, called Allotmentz N11. Run by the inspirational Nigeal Andall, the cafe has provided a mixture of employment, education and empowerment to more than 20 young disadvantaged young people living in the area, since opening in the summer.

Its group of ‘regulars’ is growing all the time, as its reputation across the borough of Barnet and beyond. Groundswell has even made the cafe its unofficial ‘base’ for conversations and business meetings - and what better place to go for a chat, drink and the tastiest Caribbean food.

Groundswell has helped to broker connections between Allotmentz and the council in Barnet, with Nigeal taking part in a recent Black History Month cook-a-long and Q&A, and featuring in the council’s quarterly magazine publication Barnet First.

Hadiya said: “Allotmentz has such an incredible buzz about it - I think on nearly every visit I meet someone new who has an interesting or unexpected background and everyone seems to want to help each other out. This kind of community building is what we need especially in the midst of a pandemic when so many people out there are suffering or facing challenges in their personal or professional lives.”

Check out Allotmentz on Instagram here, and if you are in north London, why not pay Nigeal and co a visit?

Introducing our partners: Universal Board Games

In every newsletter, we will be introducing you to at least one of our Shared Endeavour Fund partner organisations. We kick off this series with Universal Board Games, based in north London. The organisation exists to advance the education of the general public by providing workshops, developing and producing games.

They aim to promote social inclusion for the public benefit by preventing people from being socially excluded, relieving the needs of those people who are socially excluded and assisting them through creative design and play to integrate into society.

One game of particular interest to our vision was ‘Our World Too’, developed with young people in Hackney last year. The theme of the design project was countering extremist myths and narratives. Vicky from UBG said: “As we talked about the experiences of young people in Hackney, it became clear that developing advanced critical thinking skills are necessary to personal safety and to building community resilience against fake news and extremist narratives. All the content in this game was generously contributed by the young designers and their experiences provide a valuable insight into the extreme narratives they process and manage daily.”

Find out more about UBG here.

Can you donate to Groundswell?

We need your help to grow our counter-hate, extremism, and pro-peace building initiative. We pledge to support community organisations by giving them the tools they need to challenge hate and extremism effectively.

We are growing quickly and achieving some of our goals quicker than we ever thought possible. But to continue this growth, and to continue the good work that has been happening, we need your help. If you are able to make a donation, however large or small, we would greatly value your contribution. Donations will also be used to support projects close to our heart, including buying food and clothes vouchers for asylum seekers and other vulnerable groups.

Donate more than £50 and we will send you a limited edition ‘Find, Connect, Amplify’ Groundswell Project T-shirt!

We will continue to keep you updated on how we are using funds through this regular newsletter.

Further links…

We have been working with The Woolf Institute…

https://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/research/publications/reports

Working with…

Need help/support with your extremism concerns or interested in anything featured in this newsletter? Get in touch for advice. Email info@groundswell.world or just click reply to this email, and we’ll connect with you.