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Transatlantic Dialogue Initiative: City-Led Strategies for Strengthening Community Resilience to Extremist Violence and Hate

Publication Date:

17/07/2000

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City-Led ActionHate SpeechStockholmTransatlantic Dialogue Initiative

— 29 minutes reading time

Summary

On 3 – 5 June 2024, in Stockholm, Sweden, the Strong Cities Network brought together nearly 60 mayors and other city officials, as well as national government and civil society representatives from Europe and North America, to share experiences and challenges and identify good practices for enhancing city-led efforts to maintain social cohesion in the face of global crises – from migration to international and regional conflicts to the erosion of democracy. The workshop provided a platform for participants to discuss several timely challenges affecting cities on both sides of the Atlantic, such as the growing threat of online and offline hate speech and its detrimental impact on social cohesion, enhancing information sharing (including between police and non-law enforcement professionals) on prevention and leveraging urban planning to build cohesive cities.

Convened under the Strong Cities’ Transatlantic Dialogue Initiative, the workshop was made possible by support from the Swedish Center for Preventing Violent Extremism (Swedish Center), the Swedish Ministry of Justice, the City of Stockholm, the United States Embassy in Stockholm and the European Union.

Key findings from the workshop included:

• The extremist and hate threat landscape is evolving, becoming more complex and unpredictable due to successive and concurrent global crises and rising mis/disinformation. Authorities in Europe and North America continue to face threats from Islamist, right-wing and other violent extremist groups. Lone actors, who plan and carry out violent acts independently, are posing an increasing threat to public safety as they are more easily radicalised via the internet. This complexity is heightened by the involvement of individuals who are younger and the prevalence of mental health issues. The involved individuals often lack a coherent extremist ideology, complicating threat identification and assessment efforts.
• Empowering municipalities and local actors to lead prevention efforts is becoming increasingly important given the nature of the threats facing and, at times, emanating from communities. The Swedish Center plays a crucial role in supporting the prevention efforts of cities and other local actors in Sweden, including by deploying mobile support teams and offering training to teachers to identify and mitigate risks among youth.
• Effective cooperation among social workers, law enforcement and city administrations is essential, including for creating supportive environments for vulnerable individuals and integrating prevention efforts into broader crime prevention strategies.
• Cities are taking a number of steps to address online threats and their impacts offline and, more broadly, to create a united front against hate and extremism. These include: a) offering digital literacy courses to different communities that contribute to countering hate speech, intimidation and harassment; b) delivering activities to foster civic responsibility; c) engaging communities to discuss sensitive topics such as antisemitism and anti-Muslim sentiment through roundtable discussions; and d) investing in community partnerships that improve trust and collaboration by empowering diverse groups to tackle local challenges and involve vulnerable populations and key allies in prevention
• Cities are crucial in identifying and intervening with individuals vulnerable to radicalisation before they commit to violence, including by developing and using referral mechanisms and other multidisciplinary approaches to provide timely, tailored support.
• Effective secondary prevention requires robust tools and mechanisms for information sharing and collaboration among stakeholders as well as programmes that emphasise safeguarding, mentorship and comprehensive support to address the underlying factors that contribute to vulnerability and prevent individuals from radicalising.
• Thoughtful urban planning and design are vital for fostering social cohesion and inclusivity. Cities need to engage community members in planning processes to address safety concerns and create multi-use spaces that serve community needs. For instance, public spaces for art installations and local markets can strengthen community ties and foster a sense of belonging, while social capital and trust can be strengthened by updating building or zoning codes based on empowering communities, not gentrifying neighbourhoods.

Threats & Key Challenges

Participants pointed out that the hate and violent extremist threat landscape on both sides of the Atlantic is changing and becoming more complex and difficult to predict; fuelled or exacerbated, at least in part, by global crises and mis/disinformation. Authorities in Sweden shared how the country has traditionally faced threats to public security from extreme Islamist and right-wing extremist groups. Maria Öhman, Regional Coordinator, Redex, Swedish Police Authority, added that today the greatest threat has shifted to lone wolf actors – individuals who plan and carry out violent acts by their own volition. She noted that the two terrorist attacks in Stockholm: one in December 2010, when two car bombs exploded in the city centre, and another in April 2017, when a truck drove into pedestrians, killing five and injuring 14 were perpetrated by lone wolfs. Björn Berglund, Manager, shared that lone actors make up 90% of their clients who are going through the process of disengagement. He added that an increasing number of clients are exhibiting severe mental health issues. Sweden shared that lone actors make up 90% of their clients who are going through the process of disengagement. He added that an increasing number of clients are exhibiting severe mental health issues.

Josefin Bergström, Senior Advisor, Swedish Center, confirmed that autism featured in most cases involving extremism dealt with by the Center and that a coherent extremist ideology rarely manifested. Consequently, the Swedish Center has encouraged local practitioners to reach out to them even when they do not identify a clear political motive in an individual’s activities. Lars Stiernelöf, Coordinator for the Work against Violent Extremism, Agera Värmland, Sweden, added that it was also becoming more difficult to identify and assess radicalisation drivers and factors that contribute to extremism. Even more alarming, he pointed out that his organisation sees increasingly younger people drawn into violence, sometimes as young as 10 years old.

Ryan Switzer, PhD Candidate, Stockholm University, Sweden, noted that violent extremist groups are also trying to sow discord by non-violent means and enact their objectives by participating in civic initiatives. For instance, citing protections under freedom of speech caveats, individuals associated with the far-right in Sweden burned a Quran, which sparked massive protests and even hindered Sweden’s application to NATO. Additionally, they tried to infiltrate a Swedish village of 400 people and cement themselves as a cultural base by offering to build an outdoor gym and keep a public library open when funds dried up.

Addressing the situation in Norway, Cathrine Thorleifsson, Associate Professor, University of Oslo, and Head of Norway’s Commission on Extremism, shared key findings from a recent Commission report, including a finding that threats from far-right and Islamist groups are the most prominent violent extremist threats in the country. Additionally, she noted that digitalisation and new and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), provide new opportunities for malign actors to tailor and disseminate extremist narratives. She said this was particularly evident following the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack, which saw an increase in hate and racism online, with one study showing that 12% of Norwegians hold antisemitic beliefs.

Turning to the threat environment in Canada, Dr. John McCoy, Executive Director, Organization for the Prevention of Violence, Edmonton (Alberta), Canada, highlighted that anti-authority and sovereign citizen movements are on the rise, with ‘salad bar extremist’ accelerationist groups targeting liberal democratic institutions and values. He added that, like in Sweden, individuals are becoming involved in extremist activities in Canada, as evidenced by the significant increase of youth offenders aged 11-14 involved in all forms of accelerationism.

Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, dissected the deep-rooted prejudices and conspiracy narratives that feed antisemitism into three levels of threats. The first level targets Jewish people and those associated with them. The second threatens democracy, because antisemitic conspiracy narratives purporting that Jews control the state, its financial institutions, media etc., erode trust in the rule of law. The third threatens national security and international stability by sowing unbridgeable divisions amongst communities and detrimentally impacting social cohesion and the wellbeing of residents. Additionally, she mentioned that a rise of antisemitism represents an early warning sign of broader rise in extremist and hateful ideologies as well as threats to democratic and pluralistic orders. She underscored the role that mayors can play in consistently speaking out against all forms of hate and ensuring their cities have the necessary policies and programmes in place to address these threats. More broadly, Strong Cities Executive Director Eric Rosand reminded participants that stepped-up efforts to combat antisemitism should not result in siloed approaches that target different types of threat, but should be part of holistic and integrated approaches that look at all forms of hate. 

Participants discussed how cities, big and small, are on the forefront of these threats, regardless of whether perpetrated by homegrown extremists or influenced by global crises. They further shared how many local governments in Europe and North America are facing the same challenges, with trust in public institutions decreasing and the acceptance/normalisation of violence increasing. At the same time, it was highlighted how extremists, with the help of new technologies and the internet, are able to impact cities and communities beyond their countries of origin and form alliances with like-minded groups. Participants said this underscores the need for strengthened international city-to-city cooperation, which Strong Cities is facilitating through its ongoing Transatlantic Dialogue Initiative.

The size of your municipality does not exclude you form the problems we all face. In Spring Lake, we may face them on a smaller scale, but we still see hate and discrimination in all forms.

Kia Anthony, Mayor, Spring Lake (North Carolina, United States)

Key Themes

1. Empowering Cities to Lead on Prevention – the Swedish Approach

The Government of Sweden adopted a new National Strategy Against Violent Extremism and Terrorism at the start of 2024 to respond to the more complex and fast-evolving threat landscape. Elisabet Modée, Senior Advisor, Division for Police Issues, Swedish Ministry of Justice, introduced its four pillars: Prevent, Avert, Protect and Manage. She emphasised that the multifaceted threat environment necessitates a “unified, interdisciplinary and adaptable approach where cities play a pivotal role”. A key focus of the strategy is thus supporting municipalities and other local actors to reach their potential and lead on prevention in their jurisdictions.

Edvin Sandström, Head of Research and Analysis, Swedish Center, shared that the Center provides tailored support to municipalities, helping them integrate efforts to prevent and respond to extremism into broader existing crime prevention. For instance, the Center frequently deploys mobile support teams that assist local stakeholders in developing and implementing effective prevention models for different scenarios. This includes providing assessments and mapping extremist hotbeds, while at the same time guiding social workers, educators and police officers on how they can use various, and often underutilised, prevention mechanisms. He said that since 2022, a key area of work for the Center in this regard has been providing teachers in different cities across the country training to identify risk and strengthen protective factors among youth to prevent school shootings. Instead of developing new models, Sandström said the Center pointed to already existing guidelines for the management of individual cases and developed a platform through which teachers can refer students who are showing signs of radicalisation to violence.

Swedish practitioners also underscored the importance of effective cooperation between law enforcement and city administrations for meaningful local action against extremism and hate. This partnership includes sharing intelligence and information to identify and address early signs of radicalisation to violence. Leila Baksi, Crime Prevention Coordinator, Swedish Police Authority, pointed to how the integration of police work with social services has helped create a supportive environment for vulnerable individuals, especially youth. This approach, she said, avoids stigmatisation that can result from criminal justice proceedings, and focuses instead on guidance and rehabilitation. She reminded participants of the responsibility law enforcement, social services and other local stakeholders leading prevention efforts have to engage and support youth from all backgrounds by sharing an old African proverb, which states “the child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth”.

The City of Stockholm’s approach to crime and violence prevention was highlighted as an example of the successful implementation of Sweden’s national strategy at the local level. Alexander Ojanne, Vice Mayor of Stockholm, noted the city’s commitment to creating a safe environment through a new crime prevention programme aligned with recent national legislation that gives all Swedish municipalities responsibility over public safety. Key components of this programme include decentralisation of decision-making to the city’s 11 district councils, as well as building trust amongst government stakeholders and with local communities. He said that the collaboration between social workers and the police has been particularly successful, with the former embedded into the work of the latter to foster trust and cooperation. The Vice Mayor added that this model has contributed to notable reductions in violent crime and drug use and has enhanced the overall safety and resilience of Stockholm’s communities.

City of Stockholm, Sweden

• Challenge: Stockholm, like many large cities, faces the challenge of addressing radicalisation and violent extremism within its diverse population. The city has seen instances where individuals, particularly youth, have been drawn towards extremist ideologies, leading to concerns about public safety and social cohesion. These challenges are exacerbated by issues such as global crises, social isolation, unemployment and the influence of online extremist content. Authorities are concerned about the recent growth of Neo-Nazi groups in the capital, with the April 2024 incident, where masked attackers stormed an anti-fascist event and injured three people, being a recent manifestation of this particular threat.  
• Approach: Stockholm adopted a new prevention programme which is
  based on trust-building through collaborative approaches and further
  decentralisation of safety work to the city’s 11 district councils. Local
  authorities in each district work with social services, law enforcement and
  other relevant actors to assess the threat landscape and community-wide
  vulnerabilities. Additionally, they have received training on new guidelines for
  preventing extremism (delivered by the Swedish Center), which include sections on addressing threats from lone actors and the online space.
• Impact: Since different parts of the city have different vulnerabilities, needs and challenges, empowering local actors to address hyper-local issues has helped the local government provide support to communities most susceptible to hate and extremism. It has enabled the development of local action plans that are tailored to address the unique challenges in each district. Additionally, the city’s multi-stakeholder approach is significant because it:
  – allows stakeholders to work with individuals that pose a risk, but are not subject to criminal proceedings;
  – introduces various forms of support to vulnerable individuals in addition to the criminal justice approach; and
  – strengthens trust between communities and authorities.  

The cooperation between local authorities, police and social workers has contributed to a reduction in shootings and other violence in the city.

2. City-Led Community Engagement and Partnerships on Prevention

Participants agreed that city-led community engagement and partnerships are critical in addressing hate, extremism and polarisation and fostering resilient communities. For example, they allow cities to better understand their communities and gather insights to develop relevant prevention strategies and programmes. Furthermore, they strengthen trust between local authorities and the communities they serve, which contributes to more effective and sustainable solutions. Equally important, through this engagement and partnerships, local residents are more likely to feel empowered to take ownership of their safety and well-being.

Andrew Ginther, Mayor of Columbus (Ohio, United States), and incoming President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, said that these concepts are also at the foundation of Columbus’ approach to prevention. He noted that Columbus has experienced rapid growth in the past; however, not all parts of the city benefited from this success. To respond to this issue, the City is taking a community investment approach based on equity to ensure that no neighbourhood is left behind; a situation which can cause inequality, instability and potentially undermine initiatives to prevent polarisation and hate. In addition to financial investments, the City has launched initiatives to empower residents through a leadership academy, which aims to recruit people to join community leadership positions, emphasising diversity and inclusion to ensure that local leadership reflects the make-up of the community.    

Don’t tell me what your values are. Don’t tell me what your priorities are. Show me your budget. Our budget reflects our commitment to equity and addresses the needs of neighbourhoods that have been left behind.

Andrew Ginther, Mayor, Columbus (Ohio, United States) and incoming President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors

Deputy Mayor Lakeesha Eure, Newark (New Jersey), United States, said that her city, which saw an increase in hate and violent crime after the COVID-19 pandemic, has been moving away from a traditional, often securitised, approach to preventing and responding to crime to a community safety model, based on law enforcement and wider city cooperation with affected constituencies. For example, the local government has employed a social worker in every police department and trained officers in root causes of violence and extremism and trauma-informed responses. Additionally, under the leadership of Mayor Ras Baraka, Newark has built a network of community stakeholders and a mechanism for data sharing to respond to violent incidents. A key feature of this system is the engagement of former gang leaders who have connections with parts of the community that are unreachable to local authorities.

Nancy Rotering, Mayor of Highland Park (Illinois), United States, stressed the importance of continuous community engagement in her city following the mass shooting on 4 July (Independence Day) in 2022. Following the attack, Highland Park saw an increase in homicides, suicides and domestic violence. In response, the local government, under Mayor Rotering’s leadership, is providing continued psychosocial support to victims and their families to help address trauma. Additionally, Highland Park has been allocating more resources for mental health support, including providing counselling services in high schools to assist vulnerable youth. To build on these efforts, Mayor Rotering said the local government, in cooperation with the police department, will be launching a parent education programme on how to discuss sensitive topics. More broadly, the City has launched campaigns against hate, reiterating the values of tolerance and inclusion around which the community is united.

Kia Anthony, Mayor of Spring Lake (North Carolina), United States, reminded participants that if cities want to succeed in prevention, they need to meet residents where they most often congregate; to literally “meet them where they are”. She underscored the importance for local governments to organise creative and interesting community activities that will attract the attention of residents from all parts of the city and inform them about different relevant topics. Additionally, she emphasised the importance of reaching out to and partnering with local leaders who have credibility within their communities, to spread messages of tolerance and compassion in order to avoid escalation between residents and foster a safe and secure environment. 

Cianna Flyger, Project Manager, City of Copenhagen, Denmark, pointed out that despite decreasing crime rates in Copenhagen, residents feel unsafe in their neighbourhoods. To help address the disconnect between data on and community perception of public safety, Copenhagen is prioritising partnerships with community stakeholders and deepening cooperation with law enforcement and civil society in the most vulnerable neighbourhoods. This includes funding community-based groups to deliver various activities, from housing initiatives to managing community gardens and kitchens. The purpose of this work is to engage a wide variety of groups and communities, including senior citizens, single parents and migrants.

Participants discussed how online harms, including hate speech, intimidation and harassment, are becoming an increasing threat to social cohesion and peace. To strengthen community resilience to such harms, cities have taken a number of steps, including developing and delivering courses on digital literacy. For instance, Alexandra Tully, Deputy Chief of Staff for the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, New York City (New York), United States, shared that New York City has produced a digital safety curriculum for youth, which is administered through City’s public school system and intended to help not only students, but also teachers and administrators, better understand and respond to hate. These courses aim to foster a sense of civic responsibility, and encourage residents to embrace pluralism and democratic governance. To further strengthen social cohesion, she also noted that New York City has initiated Breaking Bread, Building Bonds to break down silos and segregation and strengthen trust between different communities across the city.

Georgios Sotiriadis, Consultant, Berlin Senate Department for the Interior and Sport, Germany, emphasised that while some online content constitutes a criminal offence in Germany, and companies can be compelled to take down the content in question, there is material that does not reach this threshold but still causes trauma and other harm (i.e., lawful, but awful). He highlighted some of the city-led community engagement efforts to prevent and mitigate the impact of hate more broadly. For instance, the local government hosts monthly roundtables on antisemitism where the Jewish community can raise safety concerns with political leaders and law enforcement. Berlin has a similar framework for engaging a much more diverse Muslim community, which focuses on other issues in addition to security. However, there have been challenges in bringing together different communities which are at odds with each other to resolve their issues.

Abdullahi Mohamed Alason, Member of City Council of Kristiansand, Norway, shared that inter-community tensions in Kristiansand, particularly during the Israel-Gaza crisis, have escalated. The local government is responding to these divides by trying to create a sense of belonging for each community under a city for all banner. Additionally, the local government has launched various initiatives to engage youth through cultural centres in different communities that offer extracurricular activities and inter-faith dialogue sessions hosted in cooperation with civil society organisations.       

Similarly, through its Espace Egalité, the City of Strasbourg uses role-playing and simulations to broach the topic of hate and discrimination with children as young as six. The Espace serves as an education centre on discrimination, teaching visitors the 20+ characteristics that are considered protected in French law, the impacts of discrimination and the steps victims and witnesses of discrimination can take to seek justice. It also humanises the experiences of migrants and refugees by taking children through the typical journey of an asylum seeker, while also teaching children to think critically through games and puzzles that seek to raise awareness about (unconscious) biases.

3. Role of Cities in Secondary Prevention

Participants discussed the important role cities can play in secondary prevention (i.e., a set of programmes and other measures that identify and intervene with individuals vulnerable to radicalisation and/or recruitment to hate or extremist violence). They explored how the role of local governments in secondary prevention can include managing referral mechanisms that typically involve formal or informal processes, whereby individuals demonstrating certain concerning behaviours or vulnerabilities are referred to a group of practitioners and professionals from different disciplines and/or agencies and organisations to identify, assess, assist and treat them.

Participants shared how secondary prevention has become increasingly difficult to deliver because different demographics are becoming more constantly targeted and radicalised by extremist organisations or hate groups. Dr. Heidi Ellis, Associate Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, Cambridge (Massachusetts), United States, said that children are increasingly the ones being targeted or otherwise victimised. This means that attention should be given to ensure that secondary prevention mechanisms are fit for purpose. For example, clinical child psychologists, whose involvement in secondary mechanisms is likely to be more needed than before, are typically not trained in violence prevention or extremist ideologies but will now need to be. Moreover, it was pointed out that there are few, if any, adequate information-sharing mechanisms to receive and provide data about a child patient and it is difficult to engage children’s families on these issues.   

Sean Arbuthnot, Prevent Manager, Birmingham City Council, United Kingdom, noted that Birmingham has also seen a spike in the radicalisation of school-aged children. Rather than being identified by and thus benefiting from secondary prevention measures, they are being arrested by counter-terrorism officers. More broadly, however, he said that even despite budget cuts, Birmingham’s secondary prevention efforts have yielded important good practices and lessons learned. He emphasised that Birmingham, through its Channel programme, has set up a safeguarding panel made up of professionals from a wide range of backgrounds. The panel meets monthly to discuss the individuals referred via the police, schools, social or health services, etc. Treatment is voluntary and, once individuals provide consent, they are supported through different means to address their identified vulnerabilities and/or needs, including through the provision of education, housing and job opportunities. Sean stressed that mentoring is one key type of support: this involves UK Home Office-accredited individuals from a range of backgrounds and professions serving as role models for the referred individuals. Some intervention providers are former extremists, some have worked with gangs, while others specialise in complex mental health issues, which is significant because around 70% of the referrals in Birmingham include such issues. He shared that, even though the Channel Panel considers each exit from the programme a success, the local authority-run Panel performs additional reviews of the case to ensure individuals are supported and do not re-engage with extremism.

When it comes to the type of support that we offer, there is pretty much nothing off the table. If we can think about it, we can do it. This can be fairly straightforward things like providing education, or help finding housing or applying for a job. It can also be providing mentorship.

Sean Arbuthnot, Prevent Manager, Birmingham City Council, United Kingdom

The Hague’s secondary prevention approach is similar, whereby the local government works together with different institutions and organisations to provide tailored support to vulnerable individuals. Fleur de Braaf, Policy Officer and Case Manager, Municipality of The Hague, the Netherlands, shared a case study on how the city intervened when a 14-year-old boy with mental health problems threatened to kill certain ethnic groups while holding a knife and wearing a Nazi sign on his arm on social media platforms. She emphasised that the key component in The Hague’s multi-actor approach is information sharing. When developing a needs-based treatment plan for this child, the City worked with his parents, law enforcement, teachers, child protection services, mental health professionals and youth workers to better understand his circumstances, motives and interests to meaningfully engage him. As in Birmingham, mentorship features prominently in The Hauge’s approach, so the City engaged a coach to regularly converse with the boy and help him distance himself from violent extremist groups and ideologies.

Similarly to Birmingham, Stockholm, and a growing number of other cities across Europe and North America, the City of Aurora (Colorado), United States, is also seeing an increase in the number of referred individuals with mental health issues. In response, Dustin Petersen, an Aurora Police Officer, shared that as in Stockholm, Aurora is strengthening cooperation between law enforcement and mental health and social workers under its multi-disciplinary targeted violence prevention programme. For example, where possible, mental health-trained police officers are paired with mental health clinicians to follow up on individuals whose concerning behaviour is reported to law enforcement instead of a police officer showing up at their door alone to apply a criminal justice measure (e.g., arrest).   

He explained that this programme – the goal of which is to provide trauma-informed care to prevent acts of mass violence – works across three lines of effort: community outreach, education and direct intervention. The latter includes risk and needs assessment and then referrals based on an anonymous reporting system to a resource group, followed by the development of a cross-management plan to provide bespoke support for each case. As part of this process, representatives from schools, workplaces, hospitals or other institutions or settings that have had interactions with the referred individual are consulted to better understand concerning behaviours and what physical safety and other supporting measures need to be implemented.

As in Aurora, law enforcement plays a central role in secondary prevention in Finland in line with the country’s Anchor Model. Anneli Portman, Senior Specialist, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland, shared that police officers work with social and youth workers and mental health professionals. While initially this model was designed for broader crime prevention, it is also now being used for addressing radicalisation and violent extremism. The work is based on the ‘do no harm’ and ‘duty of care’ principles to avoid stigmatising individuals going through this process and ensure that everyone gets equal attention in line with the type of treatment they are receiving.

4. Designing Resilient and Cohesive Cities

Participants discussed how thoughtful urban planning and design contribute to fostering social cohesion and helping make a city more resilient to hate and extremist threats. They shared how urban environments significantly impact social dynamics and inclusivity within communities and explored how creating spaces that encourage interaction, inclusion and a sense of community can prevent the isolation and marginalisation that can create feelings of lack of belonging of which hate groups and extremist organisations can take advantage.

Mariela Ruiz-Angel, Associate Chief Administrative Officer, City of Albuquerque (New Mexico), United States, emphasised that urban planning starts and ends with a conversation with community members, especially those who feel unsafe in their neighbourhoods. For instance, she noted that when the City was considering where to build a behavioural health hub, there were concerns from residents about the negative attention this facility might bring to their area. In response to these concerns, the local authority engaged residents to better understand their concerns and explain how the planned hub would not only create opportunities for first responders to support vulnerable individuals, but also provide an open space for residents to use for community interests and needs.

Keyron Blakely, formerly Manager of Homeless Prevention and Resource, City of East Orange (New Jersey), United States, and now working for the City of Newark (New Jersey), explained that Newark uses urban planning approaches to create a better sense of community, for example, by providing public spaces for local artists to develop art installations and small businesses to sell their products at pop-up local markets. Additionally, he noted how Newark is using improved urban design to address the housing needs of migrants and refugees. He said the City is exploring different options to move from providing shelter to decent and dignified housing for vulnerable new arrivals to help them establish themselves in Newark. When developing housing projects, the local government is assessing various socioeconomic and environmental risks to ensure residents can access jobs, schools, religious institutions and health clinics from where they live.

As a city with one of the highest numbers of refugees per capita in the United States, Boise (Idaho), faces similar challenges with integrating migrants and refugees. Kate Nelson, Boise’s Director of Community Partnerships, explained that the city experienced rapid population growth in the past ten years, in part because of the availability of land, which she said had caused angst amongst the local population.

The local government traditionally invested in particular parts of urban renewal projects that led to gentrification of some neighbourhoods and often exacerbated existing inequalities. However, through its new zoning code, the City is now looking at developing a mechanism for land development that would focus on strengthening social cohesion by building social capital, including through enhanced trust with and between residents and enhanced economic equality.  

City of Boise (Idaho, United States)

• Challenge: Boise’s rapid urban growth combined with a growing refugee and migrant population caused concern for local residents who were worried about the increased pressure on public service delivery and uneven development across the city.
• Approach: Local authorities updated its approach to urban planning by adopting a new zoning code for the first time in 70 years. Its aim is to encourage fair and affordable housing, stimulate economic opportunity and promote diverse, inclusive communities with a variety of housing choices for present and future residents. With the new zoning code, the city administration changed its approach from investing in urban renewal projects, which gentrify neighbourhoods, to remove urban blight and developing a mechanism to ensure residents are not priced out of their neighbourhoods. Furthermore, the city placed greater emphasis on enhancing social cohesion by building social capital in its urban development approach. This includes working to reduce suicide rates, domestic violence and drug abuse. Additionally, the aim is to make each neighbourhood a neighbourhood hub where residents determine the personality of their urban space with support from existing neighbourhood associations to ensure all voices are heard. To respond to residents’ concerns, the City has given priority to more green spaces, supporting small businesses and enabling subsidised child-care.
• Impact: While properly evaluating the impact of the new zoning code will take time, the approach has helped enhance trust between residents and local government and improve public places. For instance, instead of acting on perceptions of what residents want, under the City’s new approach to urban planning, local officials started going to communities to better understand urban development needs.

Next Steps

Key findings from this workshop will inform upcoming Transatlantic Dialogue events, such as in Columbus (Ohio), United States, 17 – 19 September 2024, as well as the Strong Cities Fifth Global Summit, being held in Cape Town, South Africa, from 3 – 5 December 2024.

Practices shared during the workshop and captured in this event report will also be integrated into the Strong Cities Resource Hub, which houses a library of living guides and toolkits on mayoral leadership and city-led action to prevent and respond to hate, extremism and polarisation. In addition, to build on the Resource Hub’s growing City Spotlights Library, Strong Cities will partner with city officials from the workshop to create spotlights capturing their local governments’ inspiring and innovative prevention efforts.

Strong Cities will also explore opportunities to build synergies and complement efforts with other city networks across Europe and more broadly, including Eurocities and the European Coalition of Cities against Racism, in an effort to build a network of networks where city practices will be further amplified and city needs more consistently met.   

Finally, in line with Strong Cities’ commitment to respond to the needs of cities as shared directly by cities, findings from the workshop will be used to drive forward Strong Cities initiatives on: a) enhancing city’s urban planning and development approaches to strengthen social cohesion; and b) building digital literacy and resilience to constantly evolving online threats.

Additional Resources

• Impact: Catalysing City-Led Prevention, Strong Cities Network, June 2024
• Global Crises, Local Impacts, including latest findings and recommendations, April 2024
• A Guide for City-Led Response, Strong Cities Network, April 2024
• Preventing and Responding to Election Disruption and Violence: Ten Considerations for Cities, Strong Cities Network, March 2024
• Transatlantic Dialogue Initiative: Ten Key Findings in 2023, Strong Cities Network, March 2024
• Navigating Local Impacts of Global Crises: Ten Considerations for Mayors and Cities – Lessons Learned from the Israel – Gaza Crisis, Strong Cities Network, December 2023
• A Guide for Mayors: Preventing and Responding to Hate, Extremism and Polarisation, Strong Cities Network, September 2023
• A Guide for Cities: Preventing Hate, Extremism and Polarisation, Strong Cities Network, September 2023

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Contact Information

For more information about this event and the Strong Cities’ Transatlantic Dialogue Initiative, please contact Strong Cities at [email protected].

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