Stronger communities

Communities play a vital role in preventing identity-based violence and supporting those affected by it. Our work focuses on strengthening the capacity of community-based organisations to lead prevention, provide trusted support, and shape wider responses, recognising that effective solutions must be rooted in lived experience and local relationships.

We work alongside community-based organisations to build skills, infrastructure, and collective influence, helping community-led approaches move from isolated activity to sustained, system-level impact.

Building the capacity of community organisations
We support community-based organisations to design, test, and deliver their own prevention and support approaches. Through programmes such as Design.Build.Act, we provide tailored training, peer learning, and flexible funding to help organisations develop initiatives that respond to the specific needs of their communities and demonstrate what works.

Connecting civil society into decision-making
We convene and support civil society networks that enable community insight to shape policy and practice. This includes coordinating the MOPAC Hate Crime Stakeholder Reference Group, and the London Resilience Equalities Partnership as well as contributing to cross-sector partnerships that bring community organisations into dialogue with funders, statutory bodies, and policymakers.

Strengthening hate crime support in communities
We deliver specialist hate crime training for community-based organisations, helping them understand how to recognise identity-based violence, support victims appropriately, and navigate reporting and referral pathways. 

Coordinating community-led support at scale
We set up and coordinate the consortium delivering On Your Side, a national support and reporting service for East and Southeast Asian communities affected by hate crime. This role brings together community organisations with complementary expertise, strengthens shared standards of support, and ensures that services are rooted in trust, cultural competence, and community leadership.

Preventing identity-based violence requires policies and systems that address root causes, are informed by lived experience, and work across sectors. Our role is to sit at the centre of these conversations, bringing together community insight, evidence, and decision-makers to improve policy and practice at local, regional, and national levels.

We combine deep community listening with strategic convening and applied research to help ensure that responses to identity-based violence are holistic, preventative, and grounded in what communities say they need.

Developing local strategies rooted in community insight
We support local authorities and partners to develop comprehensive approaches to cohesion and hate crime prevention, grounded in extensive community listening. This includes delivering Stoke-on-Trent’s Community Cohesion Strategy, following a major listening exercise with local communities. The strategy takes a holistic, multi-agency approach and focuses on addressing the root causes of division, exclusion, and harm.

Informing place-based hate crime responses
We have led large-scale community listening and consultation to inform local approaches to hate crime prevention and response. In Brent, this included a borough-wide engagement exercise that brought together community perspectives to produce practical recommendations for improving how hate crime is prevented, reported, and responded to locally.

Convening national conversations on prevention
At a national level, we bring together policymakers, civil society, and practitioners to shape conversations on the prevention of identity-based violence and its underlying drivers. This includes convening national discussions on community resilience, social cohesion, and prevention in times of crisis, helping to move the focus beyond incident response towards long-term, preventative solutions.

Producing evidence to inform policy
We produce research and policy outputs that translate community-led insight into evidence for decision-makers. This includes the Manifesto for Change, developed in partnership with the Centre for Hate Studies at the University of Leicester to inform future national approaches to hate crime, and Building Resilient Communities: The Case for Social Cohesion, which sets out the role of community-based organisations in strengthening cohesion and resilience across the capital.

Together, this work positions us at the heart of national and local efforts to prevent identity-based violence, ensuring that policy is informed by communities, grounded in evidence, and focused on long-term systems change.

Preventing identity-based violence also depends on the actions people take in everyday moments; at work, in public spaces, and within their communities. An active bystander is someone who takes positive action to prevent or reduce harm when they encounter prejudice, discrimination, harassment, or identity-based violence.

Our Active Bystander training supports individuals to recognise harm, understand their options, and respond in ways that are safe, proportionate, and supportive of those affected. We emphasise that being an active bystander is everyone’s responsibility, both in moments of immediate harm and through everyday actions that help tackle long-term injustices.

Delivering Active Bystander training
We deliver interactive Active Bystander training, online and in person, across workplaces, education settings, transport networks, and community spaces. Led by experienced facilitators, sessions combine discussion, reflection, and real-world scenarios to explore how people can take safe and appropriate action when witnessing harm.

Working with partners to scale impact
We work with partners to embed Active Bystander approaches within organisations and sectors. This includes designing tailored training and supporting delivery at scale, such as our partnership with The Football Association, where we co-designed training and trained over 100 staff members to roll it out nationwide. We have also delivered training in partnership with Transport for London, the Mayor of London, and Govia Thameslink Railway.