Aim and Background

The training webinar will focus on basic knowhow in the field of preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE). Broadly defined as a form of extremism that condones and enacts violence with ideological or deliberate intent such as religious or political violence, Violent Extremism (VE) can manifest with a range of issues and is an evolving phenomenon. Radicalisation on the other hand is a related concept that is understood as the process by which an individual or group adopts violence as a legitimate means to achieve an end. The phenomenon of violent extremism is broad and encompasses violent right-wing extremists, Islamist extremism, the Incel movement, hybrid ideologies and other similar groups that may still be unknown. Efforts to curb the threat posed by violent extremism are diverse and engage different interventions at different phases of the process. These fall under the auspices of the relatively new field of prevention (prior to engagement in violence) and countering (during or after engagement in violence) hence the phenomenon of Prevention/Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE).

In the European context, the EU Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN) connects frontline practitioners who engage with vulnerable individuals as well as those already on the path to violent extremism. As civil society representatives, social workers, youth workers, teachers, healthcare professionals, local authority representatives, police and prison officers, these practitioners are engaged in both preventing and countering violent extremism in all its forms, including the rehabilitation and reintegration of violent extremists offenders back to society. Through RAN, practitioners, policy makers and researchers in the P/CVE field regularly exchange knowledge on their work and improve through best practises in order to achieve the best possible outcomes on the problem of VE.

So, if you are a newcomer to the field of preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) and are interested understanding radicalisation processes into violent extremism and how to address them from a practitioner’s perspective, then this training webinar is for you! There are a lot of insights that will be shared with participants during the webinar including this tapping on knowledge gathered through RAN meetings, specialised papers and from the working groups.

Target Group

As this training webinar covers the basics of P/CVE, the group targeted are mainly first line practitioners engaged in multitude of activities, who are not experienced yet or completely new to the field of P/CVE. In case you know any of your colleagues who may benefit from this webinar, feel free to forward them the registration link.

Set-up

The webinar will begin with a presentation on the basic concepts of P/CVE. What is violent extremism? What is radicalization? What is P/CVE and what constitutes its activities? How is this field different from other related field and concepts such as extremism? This will be followed by a Q&A from participants.

Thereafter participants will join small break-out sessions for an interactive exercise, to discuss real-life case-studies, after which they will return to the plenary to share the results of their discussions and follow-up questions. In that regard, please note that this is a training webinar, so active participation is expected.

Practical

• If you would like to attend this training  webinar, please register via this link. The deadline for registration is Thursday, 22 June.
• Please note that participation is not guaranteed – there is only a limited number of participants because of the interactive nature of this training webinar. We will select participants based on their answers in the registration form. You will be contacted about your participation after the deadline for filling in the registration form.

If you have any questions related to this Webinar, please feel free to reach out to the organising RAN Staff: Hawa Zitzmann, Alwyn Voogd or Niv Zonis.