Both engagement with and empowerment of communities, families and social care providers, are critical in the prevention of radicalisation leading to violent extremism.
Not only can they offer support, but most importantly they can guide practitioners in their difficult job of developing de-radicalisation strategies. The Social Care sector plays an important role in the prevention of violent extremism.
The key challenge for this sector is to interpret signs of radicalisation and help those individuals who might be at risk of being radicalised.
Videos
A community is a group of people bound by identity (moral, interest, ethnicity), location or organisation.
Whatever the makeup, one factor is constant: community engagement can be a valuable tool in preventing and countering violent extremism.
The Policy and Practice event that took place in Berlin on 28 September 2018 looked into how to engage with communities in the prevention and countering of violent extremism.
Policy makers and practitioners charged with preventing and countering violent extremism came together in Sofia (Bulgaria) on 4 April 2018 to discuss insights, needs and closer cooperation.
Shared challenges, and in particular those related to children, were the focus of discussions.
Papers
Following RAN activities and Working Group meetings, an ex-post paper highlights lessons learned, insights and follow-up initiatives.
- RAN FC&S Preventing Polarisation on a Local Level: Bringing Communities Together, Stockholm 04-05 October 2022
- RAN small-scale expert session: Conspiracy narratives: developing a tool to support families, Madrid 14 June 2022
- RAN FC&S Hybrid social work and digital awareness for family support, online meeting 16-17 March 2022
- RAN FC&S multi-meeting Violent right-wing extremism in communities, online meeting 23-24 November 2021 (also available in French and German)
- RAN FC&S multi-meeting Supporting families in fostering resilience against (Covid-19-related) conspiracy narratives, online meeting 28-29 September 2021 (also available in French and German)
- RAN Activities on Families, Communities and Social Care, June 2021 (also available in French and German)
- RAN FC&S multi-meeting Dealing with returning children and their mothers from Daesh: taking stock and going forward, online meeting 19-20 May 2021
- RAN FC&S Preventing Polarisation and Building Resilience by Creating a Shared Identity Dos and Don’ts, online meeting, 10-13 November 2020 (also available in French and German)
- RAN FC&S event Conclusion Helplines and hotlines in preventing and countering violent extremism, online meeting 15-16 September 2020 (also available in French and German)
- RAN FC&S Conclusions Challenges and solutions when working with families of foreign terrorist fighters, online meeting 29-30 June 2020 (also available in French and German)
- RAN YF&C Doing digital youth work in a P/CVE context, Copenhagen 29 November 2019 (also available in French and German)
- RAN P&P and RAN YF&C Radicalised and terrorist offenders released from prison: Community and family acceptance, Prague 06-07 June 2019 (also available in French and German)
- RAN YF&C Academy ‘Children growing up in extremist families’, 24-25 April 2019 (also available in French and German)
- RAN YF&C The role of sports and leisure activities in preventing and countering violent extremism, Lisbon 06-07 March 2019 (also available in French and German)
- RAN YF&C The role of gender in extremism and P/CVE, Manchester 29-30 November 2018 (also available in French and German)
- The role of non-formal education in P/CVE, Annex to RAN's Manifesto for Education, November 2018 (also available in French and German)
- RAN YF&C Vulnerable children who are brought up in an extremist environment, Stockholm 21-22 June (also available in French and German)
- RAN LOCAL and YF&C Collaboration between local authorities and communities in Preventing Violent Extremism, Prague 22-23 February 2018
- RAN YF&C Discussing Taboos and Controversial Issues - Practical guidelines for youth workers (also available in French and German)
- RAN YF&C The role of youth work in the prevention of radicalisation and violent extremism, Vienna 06-07 December 2017 (also available in: Albanian | Macedonian | Serbian.)
- RAN YF&C Strengthening community resilience to polarisation and radicalisation, London 29-30 June 2017
- RAN YOUNG kick-off meeting, Madrid 28-29 March 2017
- RAN YF&C and RAN H&SC Working with families and safeguarding children from radicalisation, Nice 02-03 February 2017
- RAN YF&C Family support: what works? Manchester, 29-30 September
- RAN Involving young people - Main lessons learned, Vienna, 01-02 June 2016
- RAN YF&C First meeting, Munich 28 January 2016
Contact

Working Group leaders:
- Angela Antonova, Bulgaria
- Milla Perukangas, Finland
For the Working Groups contact points, please see the contacts page