The Community Immunity framework
A prevention and resilience-building framework describing the collective capacity of individuals, families, schools, institutions, and communities to strengthen the protective factors that reduce vulnerability to extremist ideologies.
Resilience develops across interconnected levels of society.
Individual
Critical thinking, purpose, and belonging.
Family
Trust, values, and early support.
School
Protective environments and student leadership.
Community
Social cohesion, participation, and ownership.
Institution
Ethical leadership and accountable systems.
Society
Inclusion, cooperation, and shared responsibility.
Africa
Peaceful, inclusive, and secure societies.
As protective factors such as trust, belonging, inclusion, critical thinking, leadership, participation, social cohesion, and adaptive capacity are strengthened across these levels, vulnerability to extremist ideologies decreases and Community Immunity grows. Resilience begins with people but is sustained by communities.
Ten interconnected factors that strengthen resilience.
Extremist ideologies rarely take root in isolation. They gain influence where trust is weak, belonging is absent, critical thinking is limited, leadership is ineffective, and social cohesion is fragmented.
Trust
The foundation of healthy relationships, effective institutions, and resilient communities. Communities with high trust cooperate, share information, resolve challenges peacefully, and resist attempts to create division or exploit grievances.
Belonging
A person's sense of connection, identity, acceptance, and value within a community. Individuals who feel included are less vulnerable to isolation, alienation, and recruitment by extremist groups that exploit exclusion.
Inclusion
Meaningful opportunity for individuals and groups to participate, contribute, and be represented regardless of background. Inclusive communities are more resilient because diverse voices are recognised, respected, and valued.
Critical Thinking
The ability to analyse information, evaluate competing narratives, challenge misinformation, and make informed decisions — one of the strongest protective factors against propaganda, manipulation, and disinformation.
Ethical Leadership
Integrity, accountability, fairness, service, and positive influence. Communities with trusted, credible leaders address challenges constructively, build confidence, and prevent division.
Responsible Digital Citizenship
The ability to navigate online spaces safely, identify misinformation, challenge harmful content, and resist extremist narratives and online radicalization efforts.
Civic Participation
Active involvement in community life, decision-making, and public affairs. People empowered to participate positively are more likely to contribute to community wellbeing and less likely to disengage.
Community Ownership
Shared responsibility for community wellbeing, resilience, development, and security. When challenges are seen as collective responsibilities, communities become more proactive and sustainable.
Social Cohesion
The strength of relationships, trust, cooperation, mutual respect, and solidarity within and across groups. Strong cohesion lets communities manage differences peacefully and resist efforts to promote conflict.
Adaptive Capacity
The ability to learn, innovate, respond to change, and recover from challenges. Communities with strong adaptive capacity respond effectively to emerging risks and evolving threats.
Community Immunity recognises that preventing extremist ideologies requires more than responding after radicalization occurs. It requires strengthening the conditions that make radicalization less likely in the first place.
When these ten factors are strengthened together, communities become more resilient, more secure, and better equipped to prevent extremist ideologies before they take root.
Stronger communities create stronger societies.
A suite of evidence-informed tools to assess and strengthen Community Immunity.
Assessment Tool
The primary instrument for identifying strengths, vulnerabilities, protective factors, and resilience capacities within communities and institutions.
Immunity Index
A standardized measure of a community's resilience and capacity to resist extremist ideologies and other harmful influences.
Scorecard
Supports performance monitoring, learning, accountability, reporting, and continuous improvement across Community Immunity domains.
Maturity Model
Helps communities understand their stage of resilience development and identify pathways towards long-term sustainability.
Stronger evidence contributes to stronger prevention. By measuring protective factors, tracking resilience trends, and identifying vulnerabilities early, communities can make better decisions, strengthen what works, and reduce the likelihood that extremist ideologies take root.
What gets measured can be strengthened. What is strengthened becomes more resilient.
Prevention before reaction.
Resilient communities are intentionally built through sustained investment in people, institutions, leadership, learning, and community systems. As protective factors strengthen, communities become better equipped to recognise, reject, and resist extremist ideologies before they take root.
Inputs
Resources, partnerships, expertise, and community engagement.
Activities
Education, leadership development, community mobilisation, research, and resilience-building initiatives.
Protective Factors
Trust, belonging, inclusion, critical thinking, ethical leadership, civic participation, community ownership, social cohesion, digital citizenship, and adaptive capacity.
Outcomes
Stronger resilience, reduced vulnerability, increased participation, and stronger social cohesion.
Impact
Community Immunity — and more peaceful, inclusive, secure, and resilient societies.
How change happens
Resources, partnerships, expertise, and community engagement.
Education, leadership development, community mobilisation, research, and resilience-building initiatives.
Trust, belonging, inclusion, critical thinking, ethical leadership, civic participation, community ownership, social cohesion, digital citizenship, and adaptive capacity.
Stronger resilience, reduced vulnerability, increased participation, and stronger social cohesion.
Community Immunity — and more peaceful, inclusive, secure, and resilient societies.
Read the full Blueprint.
The Community Immunity Blueprint sets out the philosophy, frameworks, programmes, and measurement systems in full.