Call for participants: RAN in the Western Balkans Training: “Communicating with radicalised individuals”, Belgrade 12-13 June 2023

12-13 June 2023, Belgrade, Serbia

Context

Working with radicalised individuals requires communication in order to build trust and to work on ideological and/or behavioural change. Achieving this can be a challenging and time-consuming process. Their firm black and white world view makes change difficult.

• A first barrier is the idea of the us-them division. For the most part practitioners will initially not be considered worth talking to as they are not one of them, and – even worse – can be seen as an opponent.
• A second obstacle is that individuals often hide their personality behind a shield of ideology, of how the extremist group is expecting them to (re)act. This behaviour can be part of an unconscious adaptation process related to how interaction takes place in a radicalised group, and it can also be used in a more conscious way to keep people at a distance.
• A third aspect is the strong convictions radicalised individuals have, which don’t leave much room for discussion, leaving only few openings to have a meaningful conversation.

During the training participants will learn how they can recognise they are in contact with a radicalised individual, what the radical mindset is and what consequences it has for communication. Moreover, they will learn conversation techniques as well as how to ensure safety for the practitioners and radicalised individuals. Participants will gain the following knowledge, skills and competences through five different modules:

• Knowledge: insights into the radical mindset and principles of conversation techniques that can be used.
• Skills: how to ask questions in an effective way and how to respond to verbal and non-verbal communication.
• Competences: how to better prepare, hold and follow up on a conversation with a radicalised individual and how to be aware of the effects of their own behaviour.

Target group

The target group of this training are social workers and youth workers working with radicalised individuals or those vulnerable to radicalisation. There is place for 15 participants, with equal participation from the different Western Balkan states. Simultaneous interpretation can be provided based on participant needs.

Application

We kindly ask you to fill out this questionnaire before 17 May. We will select participants based on their answers.

This call is also available in: Albanian | Macedonian | Serbian.