Description
Between 2017 and 2020, the UK Home Office ran a counter-extremism programme called Building a Stronger Britain Together (BSBT) that funded community organisations and charities to conduct counter-extremism work. With a broad remit of building resilient communities and encouraging integration, the programme brought around 250 charities into the counter-extremism space. While the programme provided a much-needed source of funding at a time when austerity was decimating the civic sector in the country, some organisations were wary of getting involved with the Home Office or take part in counter-extremism policing. As a result, while organisations took the Home Office funding, they managed it while centering their own ethos of independence and solidarity with their communities. This paper will draw on the findings of 25 interviews conducted with charities involved in the BSBT programme to highlight how these organisations operating at grassroots level navigated the tensions of working with the state while retaining the trust of their service users. While these dynamics can be found in any relationship with a disproportionate power imbalance, it becomes even more acute in security policy where getting involved in a counter-extremism programme can make community organisations complicit in the violence of the security state. As such, this paper will unpack how cash-strapped organisations strive to stay true to their missions while navigating challenging circumstances.
