Mosaic: The Prince of Wales's Muslim Mentoring Project

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Background At the behest of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, Business in the Community, one of his major charitable initiatives and The Prince’s Seeing is Believing Programme have worked in association with a number of individuals to develop a unique alliance of moderate Muslim individuals and organizations with the aim of promoting tolerance and understanding across society.

The Prince’s charities group have, alongside other key partners, identified certain specific areas of activity which they believe working collaboratively can have a profoundly positive effect upon U.K social cohesion and Muslim community leadership in particular.

The aim of Mosaic is therefore to establish the means through which both individuals and organizations can have a collaborative positive impact in this area of concern.

Focus Areas of Action Mosaic has identified the following initiatives:

1. Mosaic Muslim Mentoring Network: This network will contain successful young Muslims from across the corporate and public sectors in, for example Investment Banks, Law firms, and Government departments. They will utilize their skills and experiences by mentoring young Muslims from between the ages of 12 and 25 in some of our most deprived areas starting in Burnley, Bradford and Tower Hamlets. Their aim is to see more young Muslims maximising their opportunities and with experiences and similar cultural/religious backgrounds, the mentors are well suited to become role-models for the young target audience. Their focus will be on:

  • Recruiting 500 mentors across the country by the end of 2008
  • Develop a programme of e-mentoring and advice exchange via the Mosaic web presence
  • Organize a minimum of 50 “world of Work” visits taking classes of Pupils into work environments by end of 2008.
  • Mosaic wishes to expand the geographical reach of the programme to cover towns in E.Lancs & the Midlands.

This Group is chaired jointly by young professionals from Lovells and HSBC & supported by CLG, SJ Berwin, Deutsche Bank, Fortune Group, Fenchurch partners and a variety of private Muslim individuals.

2. Mosaic Muslim Media Network: This network is exclusively for Muslims working in the media and will focus on the following:

  • Be a source of information to the Muslim community with regards to the workings of Mainstream media
  • Be a source of information about dominant Muslim media attitudes to HMG policy makers, journalists and broadcasters in the UK
  • To promote positive Muslim role models in order to act as a catalyst for increased Muslim representation in the Media
  • To provide a platform for Media professionals to network, exchange ideas and develop partnerships.
  • To provide media literacy education to increase critical analysis and understanding of how information is presented across the mediums.

This group is chaired by a senior Muslim professional at Channel 4 with representation from individuals across the Media.

3. Mosaic Muslim Business Bridge: This project will support the capacity of community leaders in deprived Muslim areas to better develop and operate their own operations whilst at the same time increase their ability to present community leadership issues and represent their specific customers, stakeholders and communities.

This project will focus on the following:

  • Establish three such bridges between business and local communities in Bradford, Burnley & Leicester
  • Each Bridge will recruit a minimum of 12 local leaders and through the bridge process of regular meetings broker in appropriate capacity building support from local businesses via Business in the Community.


4. Mosaic Muslim Speakers Bureau: A key concern for moderate Muslims is the apparent lack of speakers and role models available to talk as successful mainstream Muslims across all manner of areas from School presentations, through to national media programmes. This Circle will focus on the following:

  • Developing a range of competent moderate Muslim speakers who by utilizing training provided by the Muslim Media Network will be available for comment, participation and interview as and when required.
  • Establish a group available for approaches from Government & other agencies for active involvement in initiatives.  Build an awareness of emerging young Muslims who can be developed to become ambassadors for moderation by being supported themselves from within the network.

The lead initiators on this development are a variety of individuals from various sectors alongside prominent individuals who are prepared to act in this role.

5. Mosaic Muslim Finance Initiative: This initiative will focus on some of the issues surrounding the provision of Islamic financial solutions to those in most challenging circumstances within the U.K. It will work with legal and financial experts to undertake a review of what might be required to produce products and services which are acceptable & accessible, make recommendations in order to see if such gaps in provision can be addressed.

6.The Mosaic Alliance: This initiative aims to build a major cross sector partnership alliance of moderate Muslim organizations willing top tackle the concerns surrounding Muslims in Britain by sharing experience, resource, knowledge etc. by developing a Mosaic alliance of associated partners it is perceived that collaboration , the sharing of resources, knowledge & connections will increase the positive impact of partner initiatives. It aims to achieve this by focusing on the following:

  • Develop a network communication channel to support the capacity of smaller groups, transfer experiences and build collaborative responses to emerging needs.
  • Hold a major Mosaic gala evening in the Autumn of 2008. This event will celebrate the very best of Muslim activity in Britain from the Arts to Business, from Community leadership to Public sector delivery. It is envisaged that this will be the largest such event of its kind in the U.K.

Summary The Mosaic initiatives set out above provide a set of collaborative, mutually supportive programmes with an unrivalled breadth of engagement. Mosaic itself will provide a rallying point for the very many moderate Muslims and community led initiatives who wish to counter the negative influences in our society and the effect that such influences have in feeding anti Islamic sentiment within the wider community.

The management of this ambitious alliance will be maintained by a representative advisory board of prominent Muslim individuals from the public, private and not for profit sectors. This board will continue to be supported and inspired by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales who has acted as the catalyst and motivator behind the initiative to date.

Others actively involved with this project include: Jemima Khan, Baroness Pola Uddin, Princess Badiya of Jordon, Baroness Kishwer Falconer, Baroness Sayeed Warsi, Lord Hameed. The Project is led by John O'Brien the Director responsible for The Prince of Wales's programmes.