What we do
Open Minds is based upon belief in independent choice and freedom of mind. With your help, we will make the world a better place. A world without coercion +Support our cause +
Working with Jigsaw Education Group
We have put in place a nationwide primary school programme in the UK to teach the skill of critical thinking in the crucial early years.
Working with Jigsaw Education Group, the Open Minds Foundation has delivered a series of webinars on the importance of critical thinking in children and young people. These are available for children and schools across the UK.
Stop Mandated Shunning
We have established the ‘Stop Mandated Shunning’ project and website to raise awareness that this is against individual’s human rights, and to fight against it.
We have also been party to High Court legal actions across Europe to prevent mandated shunning by high control groups, with some success
Academic Research
We are sponsoring a comprehensive project with the University of Roehampton to measure the effects of mandated shunning on society.
We will use the evidence generated by this project to further our legal campaigns against mandated shunning.
We plan to continue and extend these initiatives in service of our mission to Prevent Coercion across the World.
Working with young people
Young people (particularly those aged 12 to 19) are most susceptible to coercion and coercive control and it is at this age that they risk being ‘recruited’ into a coercive control environment such as gangs. This is also however the key age range in which to encourage critical thinking skills and teach them how to recognize coercion in its many forms, helping to reduce the long-term cases of coercive control. Therefore, it is imperative that we work closely with young people, their parents, their caregivers and educators to help facilitate these important discussions, as well as working with medical and legal professionals to ensure societal protection too.
Sharing our Knowledge
The Open Minds Foundation is a group of people who understand manipulation and undue influence and want to share their knowledge. We bring together counselors and scholars from the many disciplines where manipulation is treated or studied. We offer advice about manipulation wherever it occurs – in partnerships, families, cults, gangs, grooming rings, terrorist groups and even totalitarian countries.
Global Awareness
We promote education about the dangers of human predators and the techniques they use, from propaganda and sales tricks, to thought reform and hypnosis. There are Open Minds Foundations in the United States, and pending in the United Kingdom and Belgium, with more countries ready to join. As a group of interlocking charities, we share the same desire to proof people against manipulation in all its many forms. All donations are used to promote our work, most of which is provided free of charge.
Partnering with support charities
At the Open Minds Foundation, we seek to combat the issue of coercion and coercive control as a whole, and work as a preventative entity to reduce the long-term impact and cost on society. We do however recognize that individuals who are already victimized and the families who support them, will require help and support, which is why we are partnering with specialist charities to offer these connections. These charities usually focus on one specific application of coercion, giving them a unique, specific and beneficial focus on an individual’s personal experiences and thereby making them better able to support. Once these relationships have been established, we will list them on our website.
