Violent extremism is on the rise in Europe and groups that profess ideologies of hatred, intolerance and violence are growing. The RAP project aims to prevent social polarisation and violent radicalisation by promoting human rights, community work and by strengthening the role of civil society.
RaP: Rhizome Against Polarisation aims to prevent social polarisation and violent radicalisation in Europe and in particular in Spain, Austria and Italy, through a methodology of promoting human rights, community work and of strengthening the role of civil society. The project questions the current definitions of Violent Extremism to include in this category all the groups affected by the phenomenon and avoid the risk of stigmatisation of specific communities.
The context
The impact of forms of violent extremism has worrying dimensions on the lives of the population across the continent, in particular towards the most vulnerable people, such as young people, women and minors. Violent extremism is on the rise in Europe, where radical movements spreading racist, Islamophobic, xenophobic and far-right ideologies are gaining attention and institutional representation, as is Islamic radicalism.
Faced with the new growth of groups that profess ideologies of hatred, intolerance and violence, an approach of public order and security proves to be limited.
On the basis of European policies in support of the prevention of radicalisation, the RaP project creates training courses for front-line operators, strengthens the resilience processes of the communities at risk, shares protocols and guidelines with the institutions for the management of polarisation and of radicalisation and strengthens the knowledge within the European society of good practices to mitigate polarisation.
Actions
- Training events, training, exchange of methodologies aimed at the operators in the field.
- Academic course in collaboration with the University of Bologna aimed at students and operators in the field.
- Creative workshops for young people at risk.
- Development of educational materials for young people and operators in the field.
- Research activity on the phenomenon in Italy and elaboration of an Action Plan.
- Initiatives to raise awareness and promote innovative actions and policies aimed at the institutional actors and civil society.
- The recommendations that have emerged from the research Violent extremism and youth radicalization and from the roundtable on March 19th 2021 Which strategies can prevent youth radicalization?
- Events and awareness-raising campaigns for citizens:
- online European Conference, Preventing Polarization & Violent Radicalization April 26th– April 29th. Register now > https://bit.ly/32e2QIk
