Radicalisation, discrimination, extremism. Little mentioned in everyday life, but all the more crucial problems of today’s world.The following projects are working to prevent these difficulties: RETHINK, CEAR, PRECOBIAS, YARSPE, EXTREMELY EUNITED, which are described in detail in the following article.
Subjective Values Foundation main focus is on this topic, here you can read a short introduction what SVF is doing on the field.
RETHINK
The general objective of the project is to prevent vulnerable audiences from starting a process of radicalisation by offering them resilience and critical thinking mechanisms, as well as convince those already engaged within a process of radicalisation to abandon it or dissuade them from going further by providing an alternative narrative that deconstructs extremist rhetoric, in order to change violent behaviour.
This will be achieved through 7 social media campaigns:
- VULNERABLE AUDIENCES TO ISLAMIST EXTREMISM
- COMMUNITY HEROES – Aim to provide resilience mechanisms, such as sense of community belonging or identity to vulnerable young people (aged 12-16) from Muslim communities;
- NARRATIVES OF GLOBAL ISLAM – To empower Muslim communities through specific features of Islam, such as fundamental rights based on testimonies from Muslims leaders or activists;
- THE TRUE FACE OF EXTREMISM – To present the reality of violent extremism based on former extremists, their families and friends, in order to deconstruct idealistic views.
- VULNERABLE AUDIENCES TO FAR-RIGHT EXTREMISM
- CONSPIRACY THEORIES – From satire to danger: to demystify social myths and conspiracy theories propagated by far-right extremism through a factual and humorous tone;
- WHAT IT IS TO BE PART OF A FAR-RIGHT VIOLENT GROUP – To share real narratives that identify the risks associated with being a former far-right violent extremist based on real experiences.
- GENERAL PEOPLE VULNERABLE TO POLARISATION AND MISINFORMATION AND EXTREMISM
- CRITICAL THINKING TOOLS – To teach how to critically analyse information by recognizing assumptions or implications, specially as concerns information disseminated by both traditional and social media;
- PEER2PEER COMMUNICATION A CALL-TO-ACTION AGAINST EXTREMISM – To engage and reach local communities and call them to action against violent extremism.
CEAR
Community Engagement Against Radicalisation
The overall aim of the project is primarily to systematise practical models of community and civic engagement that can improve civil society skills and capacities to prevent and counter radicalisation by developing digital tools for dissemination in local communities.
Second, the development of support structures that offer tailor-made training and advisory services to all relevant local actors to help them implement concrete initiatives to prevent and counter radicalisation.
This will be achieved through 3 toolkits:
- YOUTH ENGAGEMENT AGAINST RADICALISATION – Identifies and shares social activism skills to prevent radicalisation, such as campaigning, non-formal education and fundraising.
- FAMILIES’ ENGAGEMENT AGAINST RADICALIZATION – This CVE & Campaigning Toolkit is dedicated to improving the understanding of front-line practitioners, activists and professionals working in the field of youth-facing counter-violent extremism (CVE) efforts.
- MUSLI. ENGAGEMENT AGAINST RADICALIZATION – This toolkit is aimed at practitioners designing or preparing for interventions to counter Islamist extremism involving Muslims, with a special focus on Muslim youth. It serves a three-fold purpose.
PRECOBIAS
PREVENTION OF YOUTH RADICALISATION THROUGH SELF-AWARENESS ON COGNITIVE BIASES
PRECOBIAS will enhance digital resilience and critical thinking. It centres around the mental processes and biases at stake when youngsters are faced with extremist discourse online.
Who do we turn to? Our social campaign will first target young people who may be at risk of radicalisation, or those who have already been radicalised. We want to help them to better know themselves, by revealing the mental processes and cognitive biases which are at the basis of their interpretation and analysis.
Our second audience are teachers and social and youth workers who work closely with the vulnerable young people and could find our research and resources useful in their work.
We will also organize a one-day Training Programme for civil-society organisations who will, in turn, train teachers and social and youth workers at the local level.
YARSPE
Youth Anti Radicalisation through Sport in Europe (YARSPE) is a three-year project (from January 2020 to December 2022) funded by the European Commission, and is a collaboration between Fare network, INEX – Sdruzeni Dobrovolnych Aktivit, GEA, Fundacja dla Wolności, and the Subjective Values Foundation.
The project aims to create tools for coaches, teachers and sport associations to prevent radicalisation among youth by collaborating with local organisations, institutions and public authorities, and prevent discrimination and extremism of all forms by organising sport activities for young people at risk of different forms of radicalisation.
EXTREMELY EUNITED
The primary objective of the EU-funded Extremely EUnited project is to prevent the radicalization of youth and dissuading those who are already sensitive to radical/violent propaganda from engaging further in this direction.
The project, which is funded by the Internal Security Fund – Police program, centers on an innovative platform that will be able to reach our target group effectively and promote the fight against extremist propaganda. This online platform will include videos, podcasts, infographics, photos, drawings and articles.
The project is running between January 2020 and December 2021, and incorporates 7 coordinated social media campaigns: the Extremely Tolerant, Extremely Creative, Extremely Inclusive, Extremely Critical, Extremely Informed, Extremely Ethical and Extremely Aware campaign.
