Tough Options Programme
Tough Options is a core programme at FODIP, supporting young people across the UK to engage with complex and often sensitive issues, including the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. While the programme has evolved over time to reflect changing global dynamics and the realities facing young people today, its central purpose remains the same: to create safe, structured spaces for meaningful dialogue across differences.
Why It Matters
Safe spaces are essential where dialogue can promote understanding of the positions, experiences, and anxieties of others. This is particularly important for young people, as ideas, friendships, and identities are being formed.
Supporting these to develop in partnership with others, rather than in opposition, is vital for building stronger and more connected communities.
How It Works
Tough Options brings young people together across communal boundaries to learn dialogue skills and engage in conversations about complex and sensitive issues, including the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
Participants are supported to:
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Understand perspectives other than their own
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Build the confidence to engage in difficult conversations
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Develop skills to address challenging issues across communal boundaries
The programme focuses on creating an environment where open, respectful dialogue is possible, even on topics that are often seen as difficult or divisive.
Building Skills and Networks
Participants develop practical communication skills and form networks that enable ongoing engagement across communities.
Alumni from earlier programmes play an active role in supporting each cohort, helping participants to build these skills and recognise the importance of responding to negative stereotyping.
The first Tough Options programme was delivered in 2017–18 through five workshops across Leeds, Leicester, and Manchester.
The second phase, Tough Options: Moving Forward, was designed to expand the programme—enabling new participants to develop more extensive skills while also supporting alumni from earlier cohorts to reach more young people and community groups. This phase was extended in response to ongoing global crises, with two cohorts delivered.
The 2026 phase, Tough Options: Space Between, is the fourth cohort and continues to build on this work, creating opportunities for young people to engage across differences and explore the space between differing perspectives.
Click here to read our participant’s experience:
"Through Clouds of Conflict and Confusion" by Raahim Zafar
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