Challenge it! Combating Youth Extremism Silvia Bernardo November 7, 2019

Challenge it! Combating Youth Extremism

Raising awareness about similarities and differences in participants’ national contexts and subjective perceptions.

On the first week of November, Innovative Prison Systems, participated in a training programme in Utrecht entitled Challenge it! Exploring Approaches for Combating Youth Extremism, dedicated to fostering debate on current issues such as youth radicalisation and violent extremism. It was funded by the Council of Europe, the European Youth Foundation, as well as other private entities. The workshop, having as main goal to develop analytical skills, promote critical thinking and democratic values, was organised and held by WSCF.

Overall, the training programme worked in seeking to link participants with their peers through a shared reflection about each other’s needs and realities.

Concluding the works, writing a memorandum addressed to national, regional and Europe-level relevant political entities on the debated issues provided the ideal opportunity for participants to reflect on the work developed throughout the week.

The collective effort for tolerance and respect for one another granted participants the opportunity to freely express themselves and confront their own subjective ideas and worldviews on the trainings’ topics, being that multiculturality and inclusion were cited and emphasised as key values during the training programme in order to successfully combat youth radicalisation and violent extremism.

Challenge it! Combating Youth Extremism