RAN thematic event - Online P/CVE Interventions, Zagreb 24 April 2024

The RAN thematic event on Online P/CVE Interventions brought together practitioners with various backgrounds including exit workers, community police, youth workers, OSINT experts, and counter/alternative narrative experts to discuss the practice of P/CVE practitioners working online. We sought to answer the question: how can the internet provide solutions for intervention providers to connect with clients effectively? 

We looked at the challenges practitioners face while working online, identified practical solutions to these, considered good practices in this field and neighbouring problem areas, and brainstormed about how to futureproof this work amid an evolving technological landscape.

 Key outcomes: 

• Practitioners need further training to scale their largely offline expertise to the online domain. Additional consideration must be given to develop new playbooks for doing this work effectively and safely. 
• Given the nature of the threat, and the use of technology, no service should be exclusively offline. However, hybrid interventions may be possible, with the first contact made online. Investment should be given to this first moment of contact and then the necessary triage mechanisms to distribute cases to practitioners. A strong focus on trust building and positive user experience will lead to greater retention of clients. 
• Advertising tools commercially can be used further for building brand awareness but may have limitations when it comes to reaching high-risk audiences. Rather, building strong multistakeholder partnerships with tech platforms is necessary to build stronger pathways for referrals. 
• New and emerging technologies such as AI certainly provide opportunities, and practitioners should be empowered to innovate, with clear guidance about safety-by-design principles to mitigate risks. Any findings should be shared among practitioners to help further innovation and scaling.