The Safe Cities Norway initiative receives 25 million NOK from Gjensidigestiftelsen

The Safe Cities Norway initiative receives 25 million NOK from Gjensidigestiftelsen

Gjensidigestiftelsen continues to support Nordic Safe Cities through the Safe Cities Norway initiative with NOK 25 million for the next two years. The funding will initiate stronger prevention efforts and safeguard local democracies across the 12 cities in the network.

– We are very grateful that Gjensidigestiftelsen wants to continue the collaboration. Safe Cities Norway is a unique initiative – in a Norwegian as well as a Nordic context. It provides the opportunity, time and resources for municipalities and the voluntary sector to develop and spread strong efforts, release cooperation for safe local democracies and be at the forefront of prevention, Jeppe Albers, CEO of Nordic Safe Cities, says.

Besides working with Norwegian municipalities, Safe Cities Norway also engages more than 50 civil society organisations and 80 leading professionals in the work against extremism and polarisation.

The NOK 25 million from Gjensidigestiftelsen will be allocated from 2024-2026 and allows Nordic Safe Cities to strengthen this work and develop and launch new concepts across Norway.

Collaboration has proven very effective

Safe Cities Norway was initiated by Nordic Safe Cities in 2020 in collaboration with Gjensidigestiftelsen to support local initiatives tackling hate, extremism and polarisation in Norway.

This concept has proven very effective, which is why the Foundation has chosen to continue the support.

– The purpose of the foundation’s distributions is to create good lives in a safe society. The aim of Safe Cities Norway is to build a safe democracy, and this is at the very core of what we work for, Ingrid R. Lorange, managing director of Gjensidigestiftelsen, says.

Benefits the entire Nordic region

Moreover, the funding also supports the recent recommendations from the Norwegian Extremism Commission. In the beginning of march, they published a report with 40 recommendations on how to prevent future violent extremism and radicalisation.

– The commission’s report points to the importance of involving civil society in preventive work. We are therefore happy and proud that our funds have made it possible, and still make it possible for the participating municipalities to test out new ways of doing this, says Lorange. The aim in the coming years is to be able to carry out several innovative measures to prevent racism, hate speech and extremism, Ingrid R. Lorange, explains.

Jeppe Albers underlines the importance of the recommendations from the Extremist Commission and adds that the knowledge and learnings from the Safe Cities Norway not only benefits the country’s prevention work against extremism and radicalisation – it benefits the entire Nordic region, because the learnings are shared within the Nordic Safe Cities Alliance, that consists of 20 cities throughout the Nordic region.

– The initiative will contribute to spread important experiences, prevention and democracy models that work – to the benefit of Norway and the Nordic region. The initiative has already had a significant impact on the development of democracy building in Norway, and we look forward to a strengthened collaboration with the foundation and all the partners in Nordic Safe Cities in the coming years, Jeppe Albers, concludes.

Since 2020, Gjensidigestiftelsen has allocated 38.4 million to the Safe Cities Norway initiative. Combined with the renewed funding, the total support amounts to NOK 63.4 million.

Facts – Safe Cities Norway:

Nordic Safe Cities Norway cities consists of Tromsø, Skien, Sarpsborg, Oslo, Larvik, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Haugesund, Fredrikstad, Bodø, Bærum and Arendal.

The objective is to contribute to building a safe democracy. This means taking care of key values ​​such as openness, democracy, human rights, legal certainty, and freedom of expression and improving the country’s and cities’ ability to prevent radicalisation, polarization and the rise of extremism.

One of the newest initiatives in Safe Cities Norway is called “Oslo snakker” (Oslo talks). The initiative gathers the whole city in debates about cancelling culture and trust towards politicians. Partners include the municipality of Oslo and the Nobel Peace Center.

Read more about “Oslo snakker” here.