Stories of Former Extremists - The ConnectJustice Crowdfunder

BIRMINGHAM, England, March 26, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Five films, five formers.

Crowdfunder link (including a one-minute video) 

https://peoplesrepublic.co/p/connectjustice/ 

"Those who have 'been there, done that' have a compelling story to tell us about why people join and then turn away from extremism. We want all our communities to better understand these complexities in order to create solutions, so that the politics of fear do not divide us."

Prof. Lynn Davies

ConnectJustice - a Birmingham-based social enterprise which builds trust between communities, police and state agencies around extremism and exploitation, recently launched a crowdfunder initiative to film former extremists. The film is a preventative measure to stop people from joining violent extremism groups.

The film includes stories and powerful testimonials of five former UK extremists (Islamists and far right) in a 15-minute film, to create a community-led counter narrative on extremism.

By speaking to those who have "been there, done that", ConnectJustice aims to raise £17,500 from a variety of community and individual backers. In less than two weeks the community-led enterprise has already raised £5,500. The social enterprise only has until 30  March 2015 to meet its target and is appealing for support from communities to business, to enable them to independently produce a free grass-roots film resource. 

"We want to raise this money from communities, as we believe the project will gain credibility if it is free from government funding, because we know that the problem needs addressing from within all our communities. The Crowdsourcing route will help to produce a free, practical, online video capturing the stories of former UK extremists because connecting with 'real' voices is important in preventing and halting the path to violence."

All monies raised will go directly into the project, and none of the money raised will go to ConnectJustice.

ConnectJustice:  http://www.connectjustice.org

2014/2015 EU-funded "Formers and Families" research . ConnectJustice have recently completed interviewing 10 former extremists (far right and Islamists) and their family members for a one-year, EU-funded research. This complements the joint research being undertaken by Dutch and Danish researchers. A final report is due to be launched in May 2015.

Notes to editors

For further information and interviews, please contact Zubeda Limbada, +44-(0)7984909001 or z.limbada@connectjustice.org