School is an important forum for early and primary prevention. Creating a space for open and safe dialogue where ideas, opinions and ideals can be shared among others without prejudice or conflict is central to continued development in the education sector. This workshop discussed how we can create such a safe and open environment in the educational system and empower children and young people through dialogue and critical thinking and strengthen their resilience to radicalisation.

Dr. Ian Jamison – Head of Education & Training, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change | Biography
Dr. Stijn Sickelinck – Assistant Professor, Utrecht University | Biography

 This session featured emerging experiences and insights from a Strong Cities Network exchange project between municipal and local practitioners in Denmark, Jordan and Lebanon. This included experiences of setting up multi-stakeholder ‘Prevention Networks’ inspired by the Danish SSP model, as well as lessons Europe can learn from engaging with faith leaders and civil society activists in the MENA region.

CHAIR: Jonathan Birdwell – Head of Research and Policy, ISD | Biography | Presentations: Lebanon Jordan

CO-CHAIR: Khadije Nasser – SCN MENA Regional Manager, ISD | Biography

Henrik Holmskov – Viborg Municipality, Denmark

Mirna Sabbagh – Saida Municipality, Lebanon

Nidal Khaled – Majdal Anjar Municipality, Lebanon

Chadi Nachabe – Tripoli Municipality, Lebanon

Fatima Al Kafaween – Karak Municipality, Jordan

Mohammed Zawareh – Zarqa Municipality, Jordan  

This session focused on the opportunities and experiences with interreligious dialogue as a way to prevent radicalisation and violent extremism within local communities. The workshop featured short presentations followed by open debate and input from participants.

Rabbi Michael Melchior – Chief Rabbi, Norway | Biography 

Lene Kühle

This session focused on early prevention in the shape of community outreach and working with families from an NGO perspective. Non-profit organisations working within this field shared their stories, approaches and experiences in dialogue with the workshop participants.

Karolina Dam – Founder, Sons and Daughters of the World |Biography

Bydelsmødre | About

EU Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN) | About  

 This workshop focused on multiagency approaches in preventing radicalisation and violent extremism. Highlighting key examples of best practices, presentations drew attention to specific structures and covered different cultural and organisational settings.

EU Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN) | About

Marian Misdrahi –  Programme Coordinator, CPRLV, Montréal  | Biography | Presentation 

The Aarhus Model | About 

This session explored the growth of right wing extremism across European and North American geographies and discussed ways in which cities can be proactive, both in responses and prevention initiatives. This included a detailed guide to individual disengagements from leading one-to-one intervention providers as well as municipal strategies which cities have developed.

CHAIR: Daniel Hooton – Strong Cities Network Coordinator, ISD | Biography

Christian Picciolini – Co-founder, Life After Hate | Biography | Presentation | Life After Hate

Pat Nolan – Intervention Provider, Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT), UK Home Office | Biography | Presentation

Taking a whole-of-city approach, this session addressed where CVE work is appropriate and in what circumstances other relevant approaches may be more beneficial. It incorporated an open discussion of the strengths as well as the challenges of CVE work, drawing on pertinent international experience. It outlined a framework in which all aspects of public life can play an active role in work to challenge hate, division and violence in the most positive and proactive way, emphasizing the key importance of understanding and mitigating local risk, assessing municipal assets, and developing targeted local action plans appropriate to specific local and regional contexts.

Rebecca Skellett – Strong Cities Network Manager, ISD | Biography

Joumana Silyan-Saba – Director of Public Safety, City of Los Angeles | Biography

Kimberly Field – Countering Violent Extremism Practice Area Director, Creative Associates Intl | Biography

Deborah Kimble – Director, Local Governance and Community Resilience, Creative Associates Intl | Biography

This session focused on authority and community led initiatives can be designed to mitigate the negative effects of high-impact-low-probability events, such as terrorist attacks. The focus was on both pre- and post-incident mitigation, and addressing the question of how best to build resilience and preparedness in communities without breeding fear, and how to aid community recovery should prevention and interdiction fail.

David Eisenman – Director, UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters | Biography

Lasse Lindekilde – Associate Professor, Aarhus University | Biography

This workshop focused on mentoring programmes in the prevention of violent extremism and radicalisation, including the theoretical background of the mentorship alongside the practical experiences of a mentor from the Aarhus Model. Professor Preben Bertelsen and the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration presented the objectives and practical set up of the national mentor corps.

Jan Gehlert – Head of Section, Department of Social Services, Aarhus Municipality | Presentation

Preben Bertelsen – Professor of Societal and Personality Psychology | Biography | Presentation 

This session focused on trends and developments in a new area of social work within families – where children (perhaps without any risk behaviour or visible signs) are growing up in families where one or two of the parents are radicalised to some extent. Contributors included social workers operating within the Aarhus Model and the European Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN). Aarhus Model practitioners also presented a new tool for working with children in radicalised families. 

EU Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN) | About

The Aarhus Model | About 

This session explored local resilience-building from a policing perspective, taking into account multiagency approaches. Police officers from the Aarhus Model presented practical experience, examples of casework and questions for debate. Besides telling more about the experiences in Aarhus, participants were invited to exchange best practices where the police are part of a multiagency approach to prevent radicalisation and violent extremism.

The Aarhus Model | About 

This session took the participants through a personal journey in and out of an extremist movement. The main focus was on assessing risk to radicalisation and online counter-extremism. The workshop presented examples of how to work with awareness of radicalisation, and how to develop and divert young people from the path of relying solely on information that can take them on a journey towards extremism and hate. There was a focus on developing critical thinking amongst youth and understanding the minds of those who are vulnerable to the messages of extremist ideologies.

Munir Zamir – Director, Zamir Creative Ltd. | Biography | Presentation

The City of Copenhagen presented their work with female returnees and through their case-based experiences facilitated a dialogue and debate with the participants of the workshop. The workshop focused on the context of female radicalisation in Copenhagen and the challenges that are particular to the female returnees, before inviting participants to share their best practices and experiences from across the world.

This workshop examined the adaptation of a public health approach – secondary violence prevention – for reducing risk among young people for joining groups prone to violent behaviour. The secondary violence prevention intervention adapted from the gang prevention field in the City of Los Angeles and implemented in Central America has been effective in diagnosing those most at risk of joining gangs, reducing risk factors with sustained and intensive family counselling. The case study of Tunisia was highlighted, where a current adaptation of secondary violence prevention is taking place within the context of countering violent extremism.

Enrique Roig – Practice Area Director for Citizen Security, Creative Associates Intl. | Biography

Halima Bali Mrad – Chief of Party “ETTYSAL Project”, Tunisia, Creative Associates Intl. | Biography

This session focused on key challenges surrounding refugee crises, internal and urban displacement, and countering polarisation and building cohesion in host communities. The session looked at refugees and displacement in cities across South Asia, Europe and North America, showcasing innovative municipal responses and establishing good practice for cities across diverse contexts. It also demonstrated the importance of local integration initiatives, looking at how these can be most effective and what kind of local partners cities should work with.

CHAIR: Jørgen Kristiansen – Deputy Mayor, City of Kristiansand, Norway | Biography | Presentation

Gulmina Bilal – Director, Individualland, Pakistan | Biography | Presentation

Raphaela Schweiger – Senior Project Manager, Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH | Biography | Presentation

Dr. Muhammad Babar – City of Louisville, Kentucky | Biography | Presentation 

This session asked how cities can work effectively with their local youth to ensure sustainable youth engagement, and involve local youth as key partners in PVE/CVE, and how cities can empower their local youth as independent actors. It provided a platform for young people to address the conference as well as key practitioners working on youth engagement around the world.

CHAIR: Hon. Hans Bonte – Mayor, City of Vilvoorde, Belgium | Biography

Niddal El-Jabr – CEO, Mino Denmark | Biography

Achaleke Christian Leke – Youth Activist | Biography

Kelsey Bjornsgaard – Youth Civil Activism Network (YouthCAN) Coordinator, ISD | Biography | Presentation

Louis Reynolds – Project Coordinator, ISD | Presentation

Claire Ignatowski – Senior Strategist for Youth and Systems, Creative Associates Intl. | Biography  | Presentation

The workshop focused on the idea of offline prevention of online radicalisation in youth education through offline platforms. The Aarhus Model approach builds on direct contact and dialogue with its target group with a focus on digital resilience and skills, critical thinking, and strong fellowships. The Aarhus Model presented its ideas and status and invited additional contributors and workshop participants to discuss the initial draft setup in terms of exchanging ideas and further development.

The Aarhus Model | About