CEO Reflection

From Barracks to Belonging: What Crowborough can learn from Folkestone

Posted by Jenni Regan on February 5, 2026

When far-right groups targeted a town, 400 volunteers mobilised in secret – some too afraid to tell even their best friends. IMIX CEO Jenni Regan reflects on what happens when grassroots solidarity confronts organised hate in this long-form piece, and crucially, how the sector can use this knowledge to feed our work around the UK.

Context: A Town Under Siege

Crowborough, a market town in East Sussex, has become the latest flashpoint in the UK’s fabricated asylum debate. Men have just moved into barracks accommodation, and the response from the far right has been swift and loud. Local police estimate around 100 individuals in the town are the main organisers, with another 200 on the periphery who may attend protests. But when far-right demonstrations happen, the vast majority of protesters are organised groups being bussed in from outside – thousands can turn up, but only a small percentage are actually from the local area.

Something remarkable is happening in response. While national headlines focus on riots and hostility, 400 local volunteers have quietly mobilised. They’re not counter-protesting. They’re preparing to cook, garden, teach English, and build the kind of community cohesion that policy papers talk about but rarely deliver.

Last week, I joined a group of staff and volunteers from Napier Friends – a charity set up to support asylum seekers in Folkestone – to talk to the Crowborough group about what they’d learned from six years of community organising.

The Challenge: Organised Intimidation

These volunteers feel isolated and intimidated, both online and in person. One man arrived at the meeting delighted to discover two of his best friends there – the gathering had been so secretive they hadn’t dared mention their involvement to each other.

This isolation isn’t accidental. NCVO’s October 2025 listening sessions with 46 charity organisations revealed a sector-wide pattern:

“CEOs and trustees have been targeted online. There’s a lot of online hate, misinformation, disinformation… The hostility is as much online as it is in the street.”

Organisations are scaling back visibility and cancelling events at precisely the time when their work is most needed.

This is the reality of standing up for migrant rights in 2025. And this is where supporting peer learning between community groups becomes critical.

The Folkestone Model: What Works

Napier Barracks in Folkestone opened in 2020 amid controversy and national media attention. What began as a handful of locals noticing men walking around in flip-flops and shorts in the middle of winter evolved into something extraordinary.

Six years later, Napier Friends – which closed its doors in December 2025 – had supported approximately 6,000 asylum seekers through daily English classes, multiple weekly volunteer placements, and an innovative peer connection service. The trustee board became majority former Napier residents.

The result? While other towns saw violent protests in summer 2024, Folkestone remained relatively peaceful. A handful of protesters outside the barracks were vastly outnumbered by supporters showing solidarity – not counter-protesting, but standing alongside.

What Made the Difference

Napier Friends didn’t just provide services to asylum seekers. They created opportunities with them. Recent research by Hope not Hate on over 11,000 Reform UK supporters reveals something surprising: 64% say they like mixing with people of other ethnicities in their local area. Even among the most hostile segments, 58% report their local community is peaceful and friendly – only slightly less than the 65% national average.

The gap between abstract fears and lived reality is where community cohesion works.

“When people meet as neighbours rather than as categories, attitudes shift.”

Community Participation

Napier residents joined parkrun, participated in Folkestone Pride, volunteered at local organisations. When people meet as neighbours rather than as categories, attitudes shift. More in Common’s 2025 survey of 20,000 Britons found that while 57% worry British identity is disappearing, actual local experiences tell a different story. People’s attitudes to multiculturalism in concept don’t necessarily bear out in their attitudes to the real people around them.

Peer Relationships

People met as equals, not as “helpers” and “helped.” Among Reform voters – who might seem like the hardest audience to reach – 37% say they’d like to get to know neighbours better. The desire for connection exists; it just needs facilitation.

Normalisation Through Visibility

Through sustained, visible participation in community life, asylum seekers from Napier became neighbours, teammates, colleagues. The research shows that when immigration issues are brought “closer to home,” differences between even the most resistant voters and the general population narrow significantly.

Scale Matters

By reaching such a large percentage of the population through everyday activities, personal connections outnumbered abstract fears.

Understanding Who You’re Reaching

Here’s where the data gets really interesting. Reform UK’s coalition isn’t monolithic. Hope not Hate’s segmentation reveals five distinct groups, and two are surprisingly persuadable:

Reluctant Reformers (19% of Reform voters)

Who they are: Frustrated, not committed. They’re looking for competence and practical solutions, not radical change.

What they care about:

Who they trust: Doctors, nurses, teachers – professionals more than politicians

How to reach them: Show them practical, local solutions that demonstrate government competence. They want to see that something is working.

Squeezed Stewards (29% of Reform voters)

Who they are: People who hold seemingly contradictory views – expressing hostile immigration attitudes while enjoying multicultural communities.

What they care about:

What they want: Practical community power, not abstract political rhetoric. Local decision-making and visible action.

How to reach them: Frame integration work as building strong, resilient local communities with local control. Address their economic insecurity alongside immigration concerns.

The Opportunity

This isn’t about converting everyone. Hardline Conservatives (18% of Reform voters) are ideologically committed and unlikely to shift. But nearly half of Reform’s coalition is reachable – if we understand what they actually care about and speak to their lived experience rather than their abstract fears.

What IMIX Is Doing: Supporting Grassroots Peer Learning

Community cohesion is often spoken about by policymakers as a concept. What we witnessed in Crowborough – and what IMIX has supported across multiple communities this year – is what it actually looks like: messy, brave, underfunded, and powerful.

Over the past year, IMIX has:

Why This Support Matters

The sector needs this. As one charity told NCVO’s researchers:

“Our biggest problem is people accusing immigrants of doing things that are just not true. Our volunteers and staff are now under threat… The press are hounding us for stories that just do not exist and will not leave us alone.”

Another noted:

“Organisations are dialling down their online presence at a time when they are already under immense pressure.”

NCVO’s findings are stark:

“If community leaders, selfless volunteers and those in need of support feel they must stay silent, or even hidden, to protect themselves, the space civil society occupies shrinks. Our collective voice and impact will be diminished. And communities will suffer.”

These groups don’t need national coordination – they know their areas best. But they do need to learn from each other. They do need resources. And they urgently need to know they’re not alone.

Practical Resources: What the Data Says Works

Whether you’re part of a community group facing similar pressures, or you want to support those who are, here’s what the research shows actually changes attitudes:

1. Start with Welcome, Not Opposition

What to do: Don’t organise against the far right. Organise for community connection. Cook together. Garden together. Play football. The relationships you build are your strongest defence.

Why this works: 58% of Reform voters say their local community is peaceful and friendly. Build on that reality, don’t fight against abstractions.

2. Target the Persuadable Segments Strategically

For Reluctant Reformers (19% of Reform voters):

For Squeezed Stewards (29% of Reform voters):

3. Create Opportunities for Peer Participation

What to do: Activities where asylum seekers and locals meet as equals – not as “volunteers” and “beneficiaries.” Think parkrun, community meals, gardening projects, English conversation cafés.

Why this works: 64% of Reform voters like mixing with people of other ethnicities locally. The desire for connection exists – you’re just facilitating it.

4. Address Integration Concerns Head-On

What to do: Don’t dismiss concerns. Create visible examples of integration happening. Document it. Share it locally.

Why this works: 65% of Reluctant Reformers think Muslim communities need to do more to integrate. Rather than arguing, show integration in action. Hope not Hate’s research shows: “Reluctant Reformers need to be made aware of community power and cohesion initiatives, both at the grassroots and national level, to see that there are people who are doing something about these issues in a constructive way.”

5. Go Public Strategically with Trusted Messengers

What to do: You don’t need to announce everything, but visible participation matters. Epping for Everyone started as a Facebook group responding to far-right protests and evolved into a visible community presence with walks, meals, banners and ribbons.

Use messengers with credibility: Healthcare workers, teachers, and local community figures have higher trust than politicians, especially among persuadable segments.

6. Ground the Conversation Locally

What to do: Make it about your town, your neighbours, your community – not abstract national debates.

Why this works: The research is unequivocal: bringing immigration issues “closer to home” closes the gap between Reform voters and the general population.

7. Build Your Resilience Toolkit

IMIX can support you with:

8. Document Your Work

What to do: Take photos (with consent), collect stories (with safeguarding front of mind), note numbers.

Why this matters: This evidence matters for funding, for replication, for showing policymakers what works—and for reaching those Reluctant Reformers who want to see practical solutions.

The Hope in the Room

What struck me most about the Crowborough meeting wasn’t the fear – though that was real and valid. It was the relief.

Person after person expressed gratitude at realising they weren’t alone. The intimidation they’d felt online and in person had made them doubt whether anyone else in their town shared their values.

They do. 400 volunteers prove it.

More in Common’s research consistently shows that an “exhausted majority” exists – 60% of Britons feel tired of division in politics. People are looking for something different. But that majority stays silent when they feel isolated.

Breaking that silence – creating spaces where people realise they’re not alone – is the first step toward resilient communities.

The far right’s power comes from making people afraid to speak up. Community cohesion’s power comes from people discovering they don’t have to.

Why This Matters: The Human Moment

Two men cooking side by side at Napier

As one Napier Friends volunteer said during the meeting:

“The people in this room may be the first people the residents meet who treat them like humans.”

Up until that point, their experience of the UK will have been about authority and process. At Napier, men were given numbers instead of names. The volunteers were often the first to learn their actual names. The first to call them by those names. The first to ask “How are you?” and wait for a real answer.

And here’s what matters: it works. Not on everyone – 18% of Reform voters are Hardline Conservatives, ideologically committed and unlikely to shift. But for the 19% who are Reluctant Reformers, and portions of the 29% who are Squeezed Stewards, seeing community cohesion in action – practical, local, human – can shift the ground beneath their feet.

While 63% of Britons say they want migration reduced in the abstract, 65% say their actual local community is peaceful and friendly. That two-point difference is the space where community work happens.

One conversation, one meal, one football game at a time.

Resources & Support

IMIX supports migration sector organisations, journalists, and community groups with training, resources, and strategic guidance.

If you’re working on community cohesion, facing hostile attention, or want to learn from groups like Napier Friends and the Crowborough volunteers, we can help.

Get in touch: media@imix.org.uk

Learn more: imix.org.uk/community-cohesion-support

Research Sources

This piece was written following a peer learning session between Napier Friends volunteers and the Crowborough community group in January 2026.

Tags
asylum accommodation, community cohesion, grassroots solidarity,
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