PARTESS-COM - Participatory approaches to protecting place of worship, schools and community centres
- Project Duration: 24 months
- Start Date: 3 March 2025 - End Date: 2 March 2027
- Grant Agreement Number: 101190916
- EU Funding Programme: Internal Security Fund (ISF) 鈥� Call ISF-2024-TF2-AG-PROTECT
- Coordinator: oiip 鈥� Austrian Institute for International Affairs (脰sterreichisches Institut f眉r Internationale Politik)
Project summary:
PARTESS-COM develops and promotes preventive protection measures for religious communities, places of worship, and associated institutions across the EU. It responds to increasing threats posed by extremism, hate crimes, and disinformation targeting faith-based groups. Building on the lessons of predecessor projects (PARTES, SHRINEs, PROSPERES), it brings together stakeholders from security, civil society, academia, and religious organisations to co-develop practical, sustainable solutions.
The project combines a systematisation and evaluation of existing protection practices, a threat monitoring system, awareness-raising campaigns, and capacity-building for key actors. It delivers a multilingual digital platform and mobile application to support long-term knowledge exchange and access to resources. In doing so, PARTESS-COM strengthens coordination between public authorities and religious communities and contributes to a whole-of-society approach to protecting public spaces.
Context:
Recent years have seen a rise in extremist attacks, hate crimes, and disinformation campaigns targeting religious communities and places of worship across Europe. These developments highlight the need for more comprehensive and coordinated preventive protection measures that go beyond physical security. At the same time, religious actors are often insufficiently integrated into national and local prevention strategies, despite
their central role in community cohesion. PARTESS-COM was initiated in response to this gap. It aims to strengthen the security and resilience of religious communities by developing inclusive, participatory, and sustainable approaches to threat prevention 鈥� rooted in cooperation between civil society, faith institutions, public authorities, and security practitioners.
Objectives:
PARTESS-COM aims to achieve the following specific objectives:
鈥� Identify, systematise, and evaluate effective security concepts, tools, programs and solutions for the protection of places of worship, religious educational institutions, and associated communities (WP2)
鈥� Inform stakeholders and the broader public about threat realities concerning religious communities by providing regular, evidence-based analyses to counter disinformation and skewed perceptions (WP3 & WP5)
鈥� Provide easy access to effective and context-sensitive knowledge and tools, categorised by purpose, feasibility, and applicability, through a digital platform and mobile app (WP2 & WP3)
鈥� Train stakeholders (e.g. religious leaders, LEAs, civil society actors) in preventive security concepts, threat response, vulnerability assessments, and crisis communication, using hybrid training formats (WP4)
鈥� Facilitate exchange and networking between religious communities and relevant stakeholders at national and EU level, including through a dedicated digital forum and structured in-person training events (WP3 & WP4)
鈥� Raise public awareness and promote a whole-of-society approach by encouraging citizens to report securityrelevant incidents and take part in prevention through the app and targeted outreach campaigns (WP3, WP4 & WP5)
Impact:
PARTESS-COM will increase awareness of security threats and prevention methods, improve the capacity of authorities and communities to act, and institutionalise cooperative approaches to protecting places of worship and religious gatherings. It will contribute to national and EU efforts to address extremism, reduce vulnerability, and strengthen cohesion and resilience.
Project website: