In the prevention and countering of violent extremism (P/CVE), various approaches and methods exist to strengthen protective factors in the lives of young people and to ensure their positive development and resilience towards influences of extremist ideas and recruitment. Leisure activities, like sports, are often used in youth work activities and schools. We explored these sports methods during a RAN Youth & Education (Y&E) meeting in 2021, where we learned about the opportunities for fostering positive identities, social cohesion and citizenship.

To follow up on this meeting, we aimed to expand our focus to interventions that use arts to enhance protective factors and resilience. Forum theatre, music and (visual) storytelling are some of the many art forms being deployed in activities with young people, and which bear the potential to foster self-expression, talent development or intercultural dialogue, all important elements of positive identity development in young people.

On 22 and 23 November 2022 the RAN Y&E Working Group organised a meeting in Stockholm and convened frontline practitioners from all around Europe to share their experiences, insights and challenges regarding their arts-related activities in youth work and education. This was an explorative meeting to identify the different approaches, goals and outcomes of this kind of method.

The key outcomes were the following:

• Arts can provide an opportunity to build bridges between people. It is a way of telling stories and expressing feelings. When an audience experiences a performance, hears a song or sees a painting, they get a unique insight into the mind of the (other) creator. This can create a better mutual understanding.
• People need to express themselves and share what they feel and experience. Arts offer a way to do this in a creative manner. Those who usually do not get or feel heard can amplify their voice in society through arts.
• In an art project, the focus is obviously often on the creative outcome. If embedded in prevention work, however, it is essential for practitioners to mainly focus on reflection during and after the creative process. They should engage with the young person about the message they want to get across.