Call for participants: RAN LOCAL WG Meeting - The future and position of local P/CVE strategies and approaches, 08-09 June 2023

Background and aim of the meeting

In the ever changing extremist landscape, we have seen a rising number of civil protests against government policies on general issues that concern everyone like energy, housing and economic growth, but also on more divisive issues like climate change, refugee care and discrimination. With that, the drivers for radicalisation have also diversified and perhaps generalized. There are a number of groups who feel left out and excluded by their government for various reasons. They have radicalised due to feelings of losing control over their life or their privileges, and have even incited or committed violence against persons or institutions they feel are responsible for this.

Consequently, these anti-government sentiments have often been brewing for a longer time, mostly on the local or regional level. Local and regional municipalities or government offices are therefore often first in charge of engaging with a vast range of issues that are at the heart of peoples concerns today, as well as with their behaviour based on these concerns. These anti-government sentiments with a potential for extremist acts usually do not yet have a clear position in the organisation of a P/CVE approach, if any. In the first RAN LOCAL WG meeting of this year we, for example, identified how difficult it is to include the excluded and that it is incumbent upon a P/CVE approach or coordinator to accept potential government failures and invest in long-term engagements to rebuild trust between citizens and governments when dealing with anti-government sentiments to prevent extremism. However, the question remains: are local and regional authorities well-enough equipped and in the right position to do so?

The outcome of the meeting and its conclusions will be shared with the policy makers of the Member States and might feed into the agenda of RAN Practitioners, and the European Commission. It is an opportunity for exit and probation practitioners to voice their concerns and hopes for the future in a safe space protected by the Chatham House Rule.

Practitioners we are looking for are: The target audience for this meeting are local and regional P/CVE coordination and first line practitioners involved in a multi-agency (incl. non-security agencies) local P/CVE approach.

In order to find the best suited participants, we would like to kindly ask you to briefly answer the questions in the survey.

Deadline

If you are interested in participating in this meeting, please fill out this form by 21 April 2023. We will invite participants based on the information provided therein.

Please keep in mind that we only have a limited amount of places available for this meeting to foster exchange, so participation cannot be guaranteed. 

Please note, the meeting will be held in English (without interpretation).

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact v [dot] vaseurradaradvies [dot] nl (Vincent VASEUR) and m [dot] shahhoudradaradvies [dot] nl (Malaz SHAHHOUD).