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Assessing interfaith activities

The question of overall assessment remained. The project team devised 25 criteria for assessing interfaith activities that involve young people: keeping up the P.A.C.E. of community cohesion.

They are not exhaustive, nor will all of them apply to every activity. They are, like all evaluative criteria, value-laden, for they work from the assumption that young people - both those of faith and spirit, and those of no faith - should be proactively involved in interfaith work because it helps promote community cohesion. For clarity and as a simple aide-memoire, they have been clustered under the acronym P.A.C.E. This clustering is not hierarchically significant; it is simply a convenient and memorable way to order the 25 criteria for assessing interfaith activities.

Do the interfaith activities:

P
 
  • provide a neutral space for participants to come together?
  • provide a sacred space for those who wish to worship?
  • provide a safe space for dialogue and dissent?
  • provide clear ground rules for dialogue and activity?
  • provide clarity as to the language and terms used?
  • promote a subject and cross curricular approach?
  • promote a whole school/college approach?
  • promote aspects of urban renewal?
  • promote longer term sustainability?
  • provide a mechanism for sharing insights and outcomes with a range of stakeholders? 
 A
 
  • actively involve young people at the outset?
  • actively involve young people throughout the activities?
  • actively involve young people in the monitoring and evaluation of the activities?
  • actively involve young people in twinning, virtually and actually?
  • accept there will be times when faiths have to 'agree to disagree'?
 C
 
  • celebrate young people's faith identities?
  • celebrate the religious and spiritual capital young people bring?
  • celebrate young people's multiple identities?
  • celebrate the commonalities of faiths?
  • counter the myths and stereotypes surrounding faith groups, including, in particular, Islamophobia?
 E
 
  • encourage dialogue and discourse?
  • encourage active citizenship and civic engagement?
  • encourage young people's self-esteem and confidence in expressing and celebrating
  • their own identities through faith?
  • encourage empathy and emotional literacy?
  • encourage bonding, bridging and linking?