Samiya Butt is the Prevent & Community Cohesion Coordinator at Manchester City Council.

Samiya has over 20 years’ experience in working in Local Government, and has extensive experience in managing the delivery of large scale projects, building partnerships and working collaboratively with a wide range of stakeholders.

Samiya has been in her current role for the last five years and at the heart of developing Manchester’s approach to delivering the Prevent strategy in the city. This includes the co-creation of a campaign designed with local communities to build community resilience called RADEQUAL and piloting new processes and support to safeguard those most vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism.

Samiya’s skills and experience are key to building a better understanding about community cohesion in the city encouraging positive relationships between and within communities. She has been part of the delivery of a number of programmes of work aimed at seeking a better understanding of community sentiment and the drivers that can lead to potential tensions along with tackling the multi-faceted cross-cutting approaches needed to address long standing socio economic factors.

Samiya has worked across Greater Manchester to develop tools and support for a range of partners aimed at establishing a better understand about the risks associated with terrorism, the delivery of the Prevent Duty and working with communities to rethink radicalisation and build community cohesion.