The Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism Fund is set up to support community and civil society organisations to deliver initiatives that counter and build resilience to violent extremism and radicalisation.
The Fund recognises that communities and sectors outside of government play an important role in helping prevent and counter violent extremism in Aotearoa New Zealand. This initiative supports the Government’s wider response to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch Terrorist Attacks.
The 2024/25 round of funding has closed.
You can read more about the Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism Fund on the Department of Internal Affairs Community Matters website.
Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism Fund: Round three successful projects
A special round of funding was recently awarded in May 2024. The priority for this round was:
- initiatives that prevent and counter violent extremism in response to current international conflicts.
Below is the list of successful projects.
| Project name | Project description | Grant amount |
|---|---|---|
| Understanding extremism to counter violent extremism | Develop a responsive facilitation guide to assist practitioners and provider-community organisations to support those in the community that are experiencing psychological distress and effects brought about by international conflicts. | $52,940 |
| Empowering critical thinking on the Gaza conflict | Develop a media literacy tool (a prototype app) to provide critical thinking lens on current conflict in Gaza, and enhance communities’ skills to critically assess information. | $50,000 |
| 4 for 40: a platform for social action on crucial global issues | This project aims to build community resilience against radicalisation by: a) creating a supportive community identity to reduce alienation and isolation that can be exploited by extremist ideologies; and b) promoting nuance and depth on critical issues for well-rounded understanding and challenge to extreme perspectives. The project encourages New Zealanders to adopt daily, actionable commitments over a sustained period, aiming for meaningful societal engagement and advocacy. | $70,000 |
| Safer community and connector project for Waikato youth and families | This project will demonstrate positive alternatives to violence by involving ethnic young people to use their creativity and expertise to be peer role models and work intergenerationally to build an understanding of radicalisation/extremism. | $48,660 |
| The Peace Project | The “peace project” deploys a compendium of strategies that frame a responsive and holistic approach to preventing extremism and extreme violence caused by psychological harm, emotional distress, trauma and other social disparities that are often attributed as key factors that underscore the “pathology” that leads to radicalisation. | $50,000 |
| Paeringa o te iwi – Protector of the people | This project will provide regularly-updated resources with objective, holistic analysis of violent extremism throughout New Zealand. Combining data, geospatial mapping, and socio-political analysis, these resources aim to be a touch-point for general, educational information about violent extremism and also an intervention. | $50,000 |
| Project Harmony | ’Project Harmony’ is a comprehensive initiative designed to empower the Iranian community in Aotearoa New Zealand, mitigating the impact of the ongoing international conflict and preventing violent extremism. The project encompasses a range of activities aimed at building resilience, providing tailored support, and fostering a sense of community cohesion. | $50,000 |
Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism Fund: Round two successful projects
The priorities for the second round of funding were:
- Protecting individuals on a path of radicalisation to violence from further harm (especially proposals that reach and support young men who are at risk of radicalisation to violence due to extreme beliefs around misogyny and other identity ideologies), and
- Positive online interventions that make online spaces safer and lower the risk of radicalisation to violence.
The second round of grants was awarded in November 2023. Below is the list of successful projects.
| Project name | Project description | Grant amount |
|---|---|---|
| Living Links: Global Roots, Local Branches | This project counters growing marginalisation and unhealthy ideological shifts within the Muslim community. Through regular gatherings, mentorship type programmes, and educational resources and events, this initiative will help grow community and connect community members to international scholars who promote and reflect a balanced, normative perspective on Islam. | $50,000 |
| Awareness Upskilling for Disability Sector Workforce and Family Carers | This project will assist providers, family carers and neurodiverse people to be aware of the risks of violent extremism grooming by providing necessary information and tools to keep their vulnerable people safe. | $105,608 |
| Youth at Risk – Community Support and Intervention Project | This project will establish youth peer groups for community engagement within a specific demographic, and develop youth mentors to be ‘thought leaders’ and ‘awareness- builders’ on the potential trajectory towards radicalisation. | $15,000 |
| Empower Muslim Youth with Critical Skills to Resist Online Extremism and Radicalisation | This project will provide Muslim youth (ages 13 to 18 years) workshops (provided by the Classification Office) which include content on the harm of extremism from a faith-culture perspective . It will also teach critical thinking skills and other competencies to empower them to resist radicalization and extremist ideologies. | $45,000 |
| Talking Masculinity | This project will deliver to teachers, youth workers and local councils/governments research-based workshop and training on harmful narratives around gender that proliferate online within an extremism context. These trainings will prepare them to deliver a lesson plan-based workshop to youth in their communities/locations. | $68,110 |
| New Zealand Online Interventions Playbook | This project will work on designing a playbook which will equip frontline practitioners with practical guidance for delivering positive online interventions to prevent extremist violence. | $50,000 |
| Building Community Capacity to 'Call In' Harmful Views | This project builds capacity to counter racism as a pathway to violent extremism. This course offers an 8-week free public training on how to decide when to 'call in' or 'call out' problematic views when they are expressed, and provides original resources, practice, and a community of support. | $84,000 |
| Podcast Documentary: Countering Violent Extremism Online | This project will produce a edutainment-style documentary podcast series that communicates: The nature of New Zealand’s counter-terrorism effort, including current risks and threats, who is involved in the counter-terrorism effort and their roles (local and online); the challenge of balancing privacy of individuals and the safety of individuals (especially online); concerning behaviours and incidents that may demonstrate a person’s potential for engaging in violent extremism and terrorism (with an online lens); and understanding the social licence that enables agencies to engage in counter-terrorism and countering violent extremism activities. | $19,500 |
| Te Whakaora - Mentoring for High-Risk Youth to Prevent Violent Extremism | This project provides wrap-around holistic programmes and mentoring services to young men who are violent offenders and to assist them to relinquish their hate and anger which often lead to misogyny and violent behaviour and successfully reintegrate into their families and communities. | $75,000 |
| Level Up: Preventing Online Radicalisation by Promoting Positive Masculinity | The project offers real-life alternatives to negative online influences and ideologies that are predicated on male dominance, anti-feminism, and a return to traditional gender roles. It provides evidence-based education promoting positive masculinity, mental health, healthy relationships and disrupt unhealthy social norms. | $60,000 |
| New Zealand Online Violence Prevention Programme | This project will build sustainable online referral mechanisms to provide community-led off-ramps for individuals who are embarking on harmful and potentially violent pathways. The project will build the capacity of selected New Zealand service providers to safely intervene with people at-risk of violent extremism online and test campaigns safer alternative on-line content, such as self-help guidance, de-escalation videos, and other resources, to New Zealanders engaging with violent extremist content online. | $300,000 |
Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism Fund: Round one successful projects
There was a great deal of interest in the first round of funding, which closed in May 2023.
Below is the list of successful projects.
| Name of Project | Project Description | Grant amount |
|---|---|---|
MOSAIC tool and online hub
| This project will utilise the MOSAIC resource to create an online interactive tool to support challenging conversations related to matters of identity, violence, hate and racism and establish a community of practice and collate accessible readings and visual resources to support the online tool. | $50,000 |
| Cyber safety resources for the autistic community | Focus on developing resources for the prevention of violent extremism in autistic young people and support wider cyber safety for the autistic community. | $50,000 |
| Proactive approach to understanding radicalisation to violence | The project provides common sense and practical resources on the emotional and psychological stages of radicalisation to teachers, principals and students and other at-risk audiences. | $50,000 |
| Capability training for Imam and community leaders working with in prisons | This project funds capability training to support Imams and key community leaders to provide faith-based counselling, education and mentoring to Muslim inmates in prisons. | $50,000
|
Building capability for Muslim leaders
| This project builds capability of imams and religious leaders to understand of the root causes of violent extremism, recognise concerning behaviours, and develop narratives that counter extremist messaging. | $50,000 |
| Countering media content to increase resistance to mis/disinformation | This project will focus on developing counter narratives, media content and artifacts designed to increase resistance to mis/disinformation. | $50,000 |
| Challenging harmful ideas about transgender people | This project aims to enhance understanding of and challenge harmful ideas about trans-people in Aotearoa New Zealand and create resources that promote understanding of the issues facing transgender people. | $49,950
|
Paeringa o te iwi - Protector of the People
| Paeringa o te iwi - Protector of the People is an awareness, education, and intervention tool that combines objective, holistic socio-political analysis, open-source intelligence (OSINT), and data-driven geospatial mapping to identify harmful ideologies in each region, build localised risk profiles, and produce reports to build community resilience against violent extremism. | $50,000
|
Making online hate visible
| This project will provide publicly accessible, community-specific dashboards showing the levels, nature, and intensity of online posting of extremist ideas about at-risk communities (eg, Muslim, Jewish, LGBTQ and Māori communities). It will also provide a baseline of data for public discourse on hate and extremism. | $50,000
|
Building capability to respond to antisemitism
| This project aims to upskill teachers and schools to prevent violent extremism through creation of lessons for understanding Judaism and the roots of antisemitism and develop tools to respond to incidents of antisemitism on campus. | $49,950
|
| CHILL Project | The CHILL Project is an online social media campaign to challenge misconceptions about Muslim women and create a positive and inclusive space that celebrates the achievements and contributions of Muslim women. | $50,000 |
| Promoting correct interpretation of Islamic religious texts | Promoting correct interpretation of Islamic religious texts This project will produce counter-narratives to counter and correct any misinterpretation of Islamic religious texts that may be used by some to justify violence to achieve political objectives. | $5,000 |
| Building capability in the Redirect Method | Partnering with Moonshot to train and upskill Netsafe staff in the Redirect Method to build capability in redirection to counter radicalisation to violence in New Zealand’s online ecosystem. | $50,000 |
| Hui on issues facing international students | Deliver a 1-day conference that aims to identify and address the specific challenges faced by international students in relation to violent extremism. | $16,000 |
| Empowering communities to take a proactive role in prevention of violent extremism | This project will use a positive and safe space for refugee and migrant communities in NZ to promote awareness of the danger of online extremism and radicalisation to violence and promote digital and media literacy critical thinking. | $50,000 |