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Migration and Home Affairs
News announcement25 January 2023Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs

Call for Working Group Leaders

Local authorities working group (RAN LOCAL) | Families, communities and social care working group (RAN FC&S) | Youth and Education working group (RAN Y&E).

RAN Practitioners Logo

The Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN)

Following the framework contract (which specifications can be found here) the RAN Practitioners part of the Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN) is looking for three future candidates to replace one of the two working group leaders in each of the following working groups: LOCAL, Families Communities & Social Care (FCS) and Youth & Education working group (WG).

Next to these WG leaders, the activities of the RAN are supported by an external contractor, a consortium, which is headed by RadarEurope. As mentioned in the EU Security Union Strategy: “the ever-increasing cross border/cross sectorial dimension of the threat calls for further steps in EU cooperation and coordination” in this respect, RAN has proven to be a key network for first line practitioners across the EU dealing with prevention and countering radicalisation.

Within the RAN, first line practitioners can exchange expertise and knowledge, learn from each other, identify good practices, discuss implementation and come forward with lessons learned, recommendations and support for European practitioners and its Member States. Supporting the development of local approaches on prevention in multi-agency settings and protecting communities at risk are at the core of RAN’s work. This is reflected in the RAN objectives and applied in several national policies on local counter radicalisation (CR), counter violent extremism (CVE) and prevent violent extremisms (PVE) across Europe.

The RAN Working Groups

The RAN working groups are the backbone of the RAN Practitioners network. WG meetings usually gather around 35 participants and take place 2 or 3 times a year in person and/or online. The WGs are led by one or two WG Leader(s) who are first-line practitioners, have extended knowledge and on topic expertise and the skills to chair and steer the work of a WG. RAN’s working groups language is English.

The purpose of the working group meetings is to bring together the relevant practitioners (ensuring the widest possible coverage in terms of Member States and professional backgrounds), to discuss specific challenges allowing for an exchange of practices and the development of approaches and lessons learnt transferable to other contexts. Working groups can deliver input towards the European Commission on trends, challenges, specific interventions and tangible solutions. They can also be the platform where implementation on specific recommendations from EU level can be discussed and tested.

WG Leaders

Tasks

The working group leaders are expected to:

  • coordinate and liaise on a regular basis with the contractor to steer the work within the working groups;
  • steer, animate and organise the work of the working group;
  • prepare and report on a work plan (including the preparation for the Annual Activity Plan, the Annual Progress Report, and the Quarterly Progress Reports) in a limit of one AAP, one APR and four QPRs per year;
  • identify good practices/lesson learnt;
  • be consulted on any RAN papers related to the topic of their working group which are intended for publication;
  • promote dissemination of the outcomes of the WG;
  • select participants and new members with a view to participate in working group meetings  and/or delivering of working documents making  sure  that  participants are representative in terms of Member States’ coverage and professional background;
  • be a member of the RAN Steering Committee and participate in its meetings in Brussels or online at least three times per year;
  • participate in the annual RAN Plenary and (biennial) High-Level Conference;
  • represent RAN and its first line practitioners at conferences.

Each meeting will focus on working towards tangible and concrete outcomes to share with other practitioners and EU Member States. Before a meeting of the WG takes place, the RAN staff drafts a discussion paper in cooperation with the WG leaders to prepare the participating practitioners for the meeting. The outcomes of the meeting are shared in a conclusions paper after the meeting. The WG leaders deliver input for these papers.

We are looking for one co-leader for each of these working groups:

RAN Families, Communities & Social Care (FC&S) working group

The Families, Communities & Social Care (FC&S) working group supports practitioners that aim to prevent and/or counter violent extremism The key challenges for this sector are to interpret signs of radicalisation, help those individuals who might be at risk of being radicalised and empower communities and families to become more resilient. A paper summarising the work of the working group can be found here. See also the  FC&S webpage

RAN LOCAL working group

RAN LOCAL is the working group for the practitioners, who at the local level, coordinate the local efforts and organise the information sharing between practitioners contributing to the prevention and countering of radicalisation leading to violent extremism, and other threats to democracy, shared values and rule of law. Local or regional coordinators are the ones connecting the dots at the local or regional level. The Local authorities working group is tasked with bringing together local authorities in charge of coordinating practitioners at the local level and organising their multi-agency work and structures. They are crucial to linking NGOs, civil society, schools and police on the one side, and the national government on the other. An overview paper summarising the work of the working group can be found here. See also the RAN LOCAL webpage.

RAN Youth & Education working group

RAN Youth and Education brings together youth workers and educators to connect these professions and their experiences. Educators and youth workers alike support youth in building life skills, develop healthy relationships, build resilience and develop critical thinking skills. Combined, they can play an invaluable role in the prevention of extremism and radicalisation. The focus of the working group is to better equip teachers and youth workers in their role in detecting and preventing radicalisation and to strengthen the cooperation between the two sectors. The aim is to raise awareness of the topic, its different challenges and find solutions to empower and build capacities for teachers and youth workers to address radicalisation. An overview paper summarising the work of the working group can be found here. See also the RAN Youth & Education webpage.

Profile and Requirements of Working Group Leaders

To qualify for the position of WG Leader, the following requirements need to be met :

  • Be a current practitioner (not retired or having moved on to another position)
  • Feeling comfortable speaking and writing in English;
  • Networking and chairing qualities:
    • being able to lead and steer the group in online and offline discussions, experience in networking,  chairing, presenting, facilitating and stimulating group exchange ability to reconcile different approaches and opinions, formulating concrete and tangible learnings  and drafting recommendations.
    • having minimum 5 years of experience and knowledge in moderating group-and panel-discussions;
    • bringing energy and enthusiasm to WG sessions;
    • being practitioner minded: having relevant practitioner experience for leading the WG, being a practitioner in one of the specific topic areas listed below, and to be able to connect to other practitioners;
    • being able to work in a multi professional setting.
  • Topical knowledge, skills and commitment:
    • having relevant and proven experience regarding the prevention and countering of radicalisation leading to violent extremism and terrorism. You need to have experience with at least one of the ideologies mentioned under ‘General P/CVE knowledge and experience’ in table 1 and preferably also with one of the other topics;
    • having substantial and proven experience in PVE/CVE regarding at least one of the topics specific to the FC&S,  LOCAL, and/or Y&E Working Groups mentioned under ‘WG specific knowledge and expertise’ in table 1. Combined expertise would be highly appreciated.
    • General or specialist understanding of the approaches,  structures, laws and regulations regarding PVE/CVE in Europe;
    • Willing to commit to travel and participate in the WG meetings (3 per year) and the meetings of the Steering Committee of RAN Practitioners (3 per year) in the related meetings;
    • Able to spend to a total of 16-25 workdays a year to fulfil all tasks and duties described.

Table 1: Knowledge and experience

General P/CVE knowledge, expertise and experience

Ideologies

  • Far-right extremism (including related mixed ideologies such as incels, misogynist movements)
  • Islamist extremism
  • Far-left extremism
  • Environmental extremism
  • Anti-government/anti-establishment extremism

Methodologies and interventions

  • Evaluation
  • Counter-and alternative narratives
  • Crime/terror nexus

Factors that contribute to radicalisation process

  • Internet
  • Transgenerational aspects
  • Hate speech

 

WG specific knowledge, expertise and experience

LOCAL

  • Understanding the role of local and regional authorities and local coordination of P/CVE strategies
  • Being familiar with multi-agency cooperation of practitioners
  • Understanding the political and judicial implications of local and regional P/CVE policy
  • General crime preventions strategies
  • Local prevention and countering of Polarisation
  • The societal dimension of P/CVE

FC&S

  • Being an active community worker empowering communities and/or engaging communities in P/CVE
  • Having experience with the support of families in P/CVE
  • Having experience as a social worker in P/CVE
  • Having experience as a P/CVE community worker with improving social cohesion and/or preventing polarisation

Y&E

  • Being an active youth worker or educator (teacher, professor or children instructor)
  • Formal/informal education
  • Youth engagement in P/CVE
  • Vulnerable youth
  • Primary prevention
  • Sports
  • Polarisation
  • Gender
  • Hate speech
  • Internet and digital communication

 

Application procedure

  • Please fill in the application form by completing the application form.
  • Potential candidates are also required to upload their Curriculum Vitae (in the Europass format). If you do not have one yet, please follow the link and create your own and upload the document in our form.
  • For questions or additional information please contact:

    LOCAL: s [dot] lenosatradaradvies [dot] nl (Steven Lenos)
    FC&S: e [dot] zuiderveldatradaradvies [dot] nl (Esther Zuiderveld)
    Y&E: b [dot] broedersatradaradvies [dot] nl (Boy Broeders)

  • The deadline to send in the application is 15 February 2023
  • The selection for WG leaders will be communicated in the week of 20 February 2023
  • WG leaders receive an annual compensation of € 4,800 per person.
  • To secure a diverse and representative group of WG leaders we are looking for a good geographical spread among EU Members States and an equal gender balance.

Sources

Details

Publication date
25 January 2023
Author
Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs