Evidence shows that the long term solution to tackling violent extremism lies in prevention. The most effective way to prevent young people from turning to violence is to encourage open and honest conversations on attitudes, ideas and choices in a safe and positive environment.

To this end we’ve developed Choices&Voices, class room delivered lessons based on short interactive role-play games in which pupils are encouraged to explore different points of view and make a range of decisions. The aim is to counter the spread of misinformation, negative ideas and attitudes by offering an interactive session in which students are presented with a series of choices, encouraging them to develop their understanding of consequences.

At specific points in the scenarios, students are presented with challenging decisions that form the focal point for class discussion. Positive messages are woven into the narrative throughout, and group discussions will encourage students to extract the positive ideas and to reflect on their merits.

Choices&Voices has been supported by the Police, developed by PlayGen in collaboration with Birmingham University’s School of Education and relevant academics, the DCSF and a number of regional schools.

It has been rigorously researched and is in full accordance with the National Curriculum, DCSF’s National Strategy, and covers specific areas within the Citizenship, PSHE and SEAL curriculum.

Learning objectives

• To promote understanding and critical conversation on belief systems, as well as social and economic inequality.
• To encourage productive teamwork in response to difficulties and grievances to get students to learn together, develop their social skills and empathy and work towards a safe and cohesive community
• To emphasise commonality and respecting differences between students.

Our ultimate aim is to support communities and local government to engage more effectively with young people in fostering better community cohesion. Our work is toward aiding the process of building strong and positive relationships between young people of different backgrounds and fostering a sense of commonality and a positive vision of the future.

Prevent aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting violent extremists. It is one of the four components of the government’s counter-terrorism strategy, known as CONTEST.

Prevent violent extremism builds on and is linked to local partners’ wider work to create and support cohesive, resilient and empowered local communities.