Salford campaigners have hailed a theatrical anti-hate training session as a ‘unique way to support community cohesion’.
The theatre session hosted by Odd Arts was led on Monday 3 February, in Eccles and was ran as a part of Greater Manchester Hate Crime Awareness Week.
The session, held in partnership with Salford City Council, was designed to equip attendees from voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors with a greater understanding of radicalisation through new communicative techniques.
Attendees were encouraged to practice non-violent, restorative communication techniques, utilising theatre as a safe space for exploring the complexities of hateful extremism and radicalisation.
Rebecca Friel MBE, co-founder and CEO of Odd Arts, says the session highlighted a ‘real intersection of lived experience’.
She said: “It was really fantastic, We had some complicated, nuanced, interesting and meaningful conversations.
“There was a real intersection of lived experience and identity in the room, so we had lots of different perspectives and ideas.
“People really did put themselves out there; they gave things a go, and were willing to get things wrong and try again.” she added.
Rebecca MBE has worked on Odd Arts for over 20 years, and feels that theatre allows people to explore complex issues ‘one step removed from reality’.
She said: “Theatre allows people to explore things through somebody they relate to, and a circumstance connected to them, but it isn’t them or their neighbour.
“It allows people to explore the otherwise inexplicable; things that might be too complex, too painful or too complicated to put into words can be acted out, one step removed from reality.
“You’re feeling things, you’re really experiencing things and so it takes it away from the theoretical and into the practical.” she added.
The project places importance on enabling authentic, informed discussion, avoiding telling participants what to say, and Friel feels that part of understanding radicalisation is to understand human beings.
She said: “All of us are individual, and part of this is understanding human beings. We’re really clear to people, saying: ‘We’re not going to tell you what to say’.
“When you think about people who have been radicalised, the starting point is vulnerability. They’re often getting basic or complex emotional human needs met by somebody who is exploiting them, and we need to understand humans to explore those unmet human needs so that somebody can come in and offer those through support rather than grooming and exploitation.” she added.
Owen Power, a local activist who spoke last week about his hopes for the project, attended the session, and hailed the session as a ‘unique way to support community cohesion’.
He said: “I think the whole idea is brilliant. It’s a unique way to deliver a message, to support community cohesion. We as community activists should encourage them.
“It was very much about partnership, engagement and genuine sharing. The four of us that were participating really did feel we could say who we were, it felt as if we were really connecting.”
This morning I attended a training event delivered by @OddArtsUK as part of Greater Manchester Hate Crime Awareness Week. The aim of the training was to Increase understanding of the process of radicalisation, Increase awareness of how to support self and others at risk of… pic.twitter.com/VFON7Aqdrg
— Owen Power (@OwenOwenpower) February 3, 2025
During the training session, Odd Arts staged a performance of their play Here & Now, a play which explores hateful extremism and the process of radicalisation, which Owen described as ‘very real’.
He said: “It really was excellent. I think the strength was that it was showing two people, how and why they were heading towards extremism.
“It demonstrated possible ways individuals in the community could engage, could pull them back before they became radicalised. It felt very real.”
Owen opened an exhibition in Pendleton called ‘The Jewish Living Experience’, a project aimed at highlighting Judaism to Salfordians, in 2024, and believe schemes such as Odd Arts’ should reach wider audiences.
He said: “I was really blown away by Odd Arts. I’d love to see the training really be rolled out all over the place.
“I mean, I could see it locally here in Pendleton; where I live, it’s a diverse community. A training event like that in Pendleton would really, really be a brilliant way to encourage community cohesion.
“I’d love to see Odd Arts gain a higher profile, and the way that’ll happen is if we encourage and support them. It’s such an effective way of communicating a message.” he added.
Marcus Taylor, Chair of the Board at Salford Pride, added that equipping Salford’s communities with the tools to combat radicalisation is critical in reducing hate driven violence.
He said: “Preventative education is key to ensure schools and colleges are teaching critical thinking, teaching youth how to critically assess content they might encounter, particularly content that promotes antisocial behaviour.
“Giving local people the tools to identify and know how to report a hate crime, whilst cultivating a culture of respect within the city, helps to create a more informed and proactive community. This is essential for reducing hate driven violence.”
In 2024, Greater Manchester Police recorded an average of 86 hate crimes per month in Salford, demonstrating a near tripling of recorded hate crimes over a 10-year period across the city.
However, the previous three years have seen back-to-back reductions in the number hate crimes recorded.
Although Rebecca MBE is hoping to continue working within Salford to gradually build up community cohesion within the city.
She continued: “It’s hard graft, building trust, and it’s continuous. We’ve been collaborating with Salford on this for a long time.
“Even if we did this 15 times in that space, and built up a community group, we could go to another area of Salford and it would feel as though nothing’s been done, completely new.
“As part of our continued commitment, it’s forever building on those new partnerships that you make, new communities you meet, new perspectives that you hear.”
Odd Arts are appealing for volunteers, with further information available here.
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