- Case Studies
'What Works' research project
The Lokahi Foundation has been researching how religious and ethnic individuals and communities have successfully contributed to the wider community and whether various economic, professional, religious or social factors have played a role. Britain will always be a diverse nation, and people will always want to retain important aspects of their religious, cultural, ethnic and other heritage. Much public discussion has concentrated on what has not worked with integration. We need to look more closely at 'What Works': the ways in which individuals and communities have been successful in building social cohesion within Britain.
We have conducted about 100 interviews with members of the Black Christian, Muslim and Hindu communities, and continue to study and analyse what they have told us. If you would like to contribute by adding your voice to this project, please contact us.
British Library ‘Sacred’ Exhibition -
‘Ways of Reading’ Conference
We created a conference with leading scholars of Jewish, Islamic and Christian texts for members of the general public. Topics considered included political uses of the Scriptures, morally challenging texts, feminist readings of the Scriptures, Law and the Sacred texts, and communicating scriptural scholarship to the faithful. Footage of these presentations will be available in our downloads section shortly.
Cultural training in Lambeth
We deliver training to Lambeth city, police and local authority members. The training provides a historical and international backdrop to political thinking and movements in Islam, and research-based practical guidance on building trust between police and Muslim communities. Comments from participants:
‘Incredibly interesting day - I remain very hungry to learn more!’
‘Thoroughly interesting and very relevant to my work.’
‘All the trainers wore their considerable expertise lightly, but covered a large amount of detail very clearly. Despite individual views, a strong thematic logic.’
‘What I found most useful about the day: the clear logic of the day - history to the political/religious mix to operational guidance. Each gained impact as it succeeded the previous section. Overall, the direct application of expertise and experience to a local operational challenge that is seldom, if ever, contextualised.’
‘A really valuable day. Good pace and opportunity to discuss complex issues.’
Operation Nicole community project
We facilitate a weekend joint community/police training event generating intensive dialogue between a national police body and members of the Muslim communities. The aim is for each to understand what it feels like to be in the others’ shoes and have to take key decisions, especially when it all starts to fall apart. The event - which may roll-out to a national programme - contains a mix of role play exercises, uses of the imagination, expert briefings from Special operations teams and intensive group discussions.