Evaluation of the CCE Prevent Programme

Authors: Ewan King, Sarah Holloway, Kate Brown, Shama Sawar

Institution: Office of Public Management (OPM) and Development Education Association (DEA)

Full reference: King, E., Holloway, S., Brown, K., and Sawar, S. (2010). Evaluation of the CCE Prevent Programme. Newcastle: Creativity, Culture and Education

Summary of key findings

This report evaluates the CCE Prevent programme. CCE was funded by the Department of Communities and Local Government to deliver a pilot programme using creative and cultural approaches to increasing communities’ resilience to violent extremism. The researchers looked for evidence of 4 outcomes:

1. Participants addressing grievances with issues relating to violent extremism.
2. Participants engaging in critical debates around issues relating to violent extremism.
3. Participants developing a confident sense of identity which is sympathetic to otherness and hybridity.
4. Practitioners are able to deal more confidently and creatively with the PVE Agenda.

The evaluators found Outcome 3 was strongly evidenced in the creative writing and film bursaries for young people. They found widespread evidence of participants developing a more confident and complex sense of identity, in part via engaging with creative media as a vehicle for “self-expression”, but also through contact with other individuals with whom they would not normally engage. This was also evidenced in the two series of Dialogue events. The evaluators found that, for the majority, both these projects also represented a “safe space” in which participants could discuss grievances (Outcome 1). The evaluators found evidence of participants engaging in critical debates around issues relating to violent extremism as part of their involvement in both the creative media and dialogue projects (Outcome 2).

The evaluation records that practitioners who had taken part in capacity building projects reported increased confidence in undertaking creative media and dialogue approaches to work related to preventing violent extremism (Outcome 4). This was also the case for some of the partners working in the creative media projects.

Research Questions & Methodology

A theory of change logic model was developed and bespoke evaluation plans were designed to address each of the projects within the CCE Prevent programme.

Qualitative research was carried out with a combination of both providers and participants of the projects. Approaches included group discussions, telephone and face to face interviews with participants, providers and mentors, and content analysis of creative outputs (short films, creative writing, vox pop recordings).

A literature review accompanies the evaluation.

Read the report.