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Transatlantic Dialogue Initiative: Community Safety and Well-Being Amidst Consecutive Global Crises — The Role of Mayors and Local Governments

Publication Date:

27/02/2025

Content Type:

Event Reports

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community safetyGlobal CrisesManchesterTransatlantic Dialogue Initiative

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This report provides a summary of discussions during the event and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Strong Cities Network Management Unit, Strong Cities members, event sponsors or participants.

Event Details

Description: A two-day workshop convening over 90 representatives of cities, civil society and national governments from Europe and North America, with over 35 cities represented from 15 countries, to share challenges with and innovations in the prevention of hate, extremism and other harms to social cohesion, particularly in the context of consecutive national, regional and global crises.

Where & When: 26 – 27 February 2025, Manchester (United Kingdom)

Cities Represented

• Belgium: Mechelen
• Denmark: Copenhagen
• England: Birmingham, Liverpool, London, Luton, Manchester, Norwich, Portsmouth
• Finland: Vantaa
• France: Paris, Strasbourg
• Hungary: Budapest
• Poland: Gdansk, Katowice
• Portugal: Braga
• The Netherlands: The Hague
• Norway: Oslo
• Scotland: Glasgow
• Spain: Fuenlabrada, Madrid
• Ukraine: Ivankiv, Kherson, Lviv, Novoukrainka, Borodyanka, Velykiy Dymer,
• United States: Albuquerque (New Mexico), Athens (Ohio), Aurora (Colorado), Boise (Idaho), Brooklyn Center (Minnesota), Columbus (Ohio), Highland Park (Illinois), Overland Park (Kansas), Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), Raleigh (North Carolina), Rochester (New York)

Partners Represented

• Greater Manchester Combined Authority
• Manchester Building Society
• Field Fisher
• Sister

Key Takeaways

For Mayors & Cities

• Local governments should invest in a more strategic approach to urban planning and design, recognising that a city’s ‘built’ environment can foster (or impede) inter-communal interaction and soft target protection.
• Cities should also invest in co-governance platforms to ensure their (prevention) policies and programmes respond to the actual – rather than assumed – needs and concerns of communities.
• Whether through providing funding and/or capacity-building, or serving as a convenor to streamline community-based prevention efforts, local governments should tap into local organisations to strengthen community-wide primary prevention efforts.
• Cities should also consider how local, national and international businesses can support their prevention and response efforts, tapping into corporate social responsibility mandates and recognition that local businesses thrive when communities thrive. 

For National Governments

• National governments should invest in building the capacity of local governments to understand and respond to online harms, including strengthening the digital hygiene and resilience skills of city officials themselves.
• As cities continue to grapple with the severe impacts of cascading national, regional and global crises, national governments should also consider how best they can support local governments with long-term mitigation of and response to such crises: in this context, it is important not to overlook the often-unique needs of smaller and rural cities and villages.

For Donors and other Partners:

• Donors should continue to support (transatlantic) city-city cooperation, recognising that sub-national diplomacy and exchange is even more important as the multilateral landscape changes.
• The private sector, particularly companies with philanthropic or corporate social responsibility departments, should invest in city-led action against hate and extremism, whether through providing funding support, facilitating capacity building or partnering on specific prevention and response efforts.

Next Steps

Key findings from the workshop will inform future events held under the auspices of Strong Cities’ Transatlantic Dialogue Initiative, including an Autumn 2025 event in Fuenlabrada, which will build on this dialogue’s discussions on co-governance, community-based and public-private partnerships, and more.

Strong Cities will also build on its City Spotlights Library, working with participants of this dialogue to create spotlights featuring their various prevention and response efforts. Further, as Strong Cities continues to navigate a rapidly changing multilateral and donor landscape, it will consult with its city members on how best to sustain city-city transatlantic dialogue.

Additional Resources

Manchester’s Resources

• Manchester’s Hate Crime Plan, Greater Manchester Combined Authority; October 2024
• Manchester’s Preventing Hateful Extremism and Promoting Social Cohesion Commission, Greater Manchester Combined Authority; undated. See also it’s A Shared Future report.

Strong Cities Initiatives

• Global Crises, Local Impacts Initiative, undated
• Transatlantic Dialogue Initiative and Key Findings 2024, Strong Cities Network, February 2025

Strong Cities Policy Briefs

• Managing Migration: City-Led Approaches for Being an Inclusive, Welcoming and Socially-Cohesive City, Strong Cities Network, December 2024
• Countering Hate Speech in Times of Crisis: Considerations for Mayors and Local Governments, Strong Cities Network, December 2024
• City-Led Prevention of Hate, Extremism and Polarisation: Leveraging Local Youth Councils, Strong Cities Network, December 2024
• City-Led Youth Engagement in Addressing Hate, Extremism and Polarisation: Ten Recommendations for Cities, Strong Cities Network, December 2024
• Creating Safe, Cohesive and Resilient Cities through Urban Planning & Design: Ten Considerations for Mayors and Local Governments, Strong Cities Network, December 2024

Donors

We are grateful to Mayor Andy Burnham and Greater Manchester Combined Authority for generally co-hosting the workshop, and to Manchester Building Society, Fieldfisher and Sister for their support in making this happen.

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