Countering Violent Extremism in Australia

This project involved a $100,000.00 research consultancy from the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet to guide their expenditure of $8 million countering violent extremism (CVE) fund. It consisted of a literature review of global countering violent extremism best practice, the running and recording of a series of state-wide community consultations, and the creation of the architecture for a NSW CVE program. It resulted in the creation of the COMPACT CVE program - a unique form of CVE that focusses on building social resilience to the impacts of violent extremism and hate through the creation of a range of community partnerships. COMPACT, which is run by Multicultural NSW, has since been extended, re-funded, and independently evaluated and found to be successful.

This project's main finding/contribution to practice was reorienting CVE away from purely 'prevention' and instead focussing on building networks of resilience. This embedded CVE in an emergency management framework that was more successful and did not harm community groups through their securitisation.