Belgium: behind the scene: Study Visit about the role of youth work in addressing the risks of radicalization

This Study Visit will tackle the aspects of the role of youth work in addressing the risks of radicalization, and will provide encounters, discussions and sharing spaces with experienced Belgium realities. This Study Visit would be an enriching moment for both sides that will have opportunities to focus on their professional development.

Framework:

There are more than 1.2 billion young people (ages 15-24) in the world today with about 89 million youth (ages 15-29) in the countries of the European Union. Young people are impacted by constant changes in global social and economic realities, and many of them face poverty, exclusion, inequality and marginalization. Their personal circumstances and wider political, social and economic environment may make them vulnerable to various radical influences and also violent radicalization. Realities of this emerging trend make it necessary to emphasize the need to work with young people in Europe and its neighboring regions, in order to strengthen their resilience to violent radicalization, and reinforce the openness and inclusiveness of communities in which they live.

Study Visit: “Belgium: behind the scene”

The Study Visit will tackle the aspects of preventive role of youth work in field of violent radicalization. The concept will allow participants and hosting NGOs to share their practices, to compare challenges and significative situations that they are facing in their daily work. Time will be provided to discuss between the group and the hosting organizations during the field visits and to discover the frame of actions and activities of these organizations. Stronger focus would be the reflection (before, during and after) about their practices in preventing violent radicalization as well to share their experiences. The study visit would aim at providing elements for professional development to the whole group (including the representatives of the NGOs that will hosts the field visits).

Objectives:

To provide opportunities for all participants to reflect before, during and after about their practices through the lens of their competencies in preventing violent radicalization

To gain understanding of different levels/actors involved in preventing violent radicalization in Belgium

To share experiences and practices about the role of youth work dealing with prevention of violent radicalization

To provide professional development opportunities to be applied/transferred in the respective organizations of the participants

Target Group:

- Participants with experience working with prevention

- Who are willing to share their experience but also discover other practices

- Who would like to reflect together about their competencies

- Who are active in their organization and able to transfer this experience

Background of the project:

The Study Visit is part of long term partnership between a group of National Agencies of Erasmus + / Youth in Action Programme and some SALTO Resource Centers: SALTO EuroMed, SALTO EECA and SALTO SEE together with the National Agencies of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom, Belgium (FL and FR) as well as the EU-CoE youth partnership. It started in 2017 in order to determine and illustrate the role of youth work in the prevention of violent radicalization and to support the communities being more resilient. They worked on researching and showcasing positive ways and initiatives in which youth violent radicalization can be addressed and prevented. They also examined how we can strengthen the role of different actors, in an attempt to compile a long-term strategy about youth work against violent radicalization

Several activities have already been implemented:

Research 2016/2017: Youth Work against violent radicalisation: Theory, concepts and primary prevention in practise

November 2017: Conference in Malta

November 2018: Crosssectoral seminar "Building youth people's resilience against violent radicalization" in Tirana

March 2019:  Youth work against violent radicalization: competencies development, in Macerata (Italy)

Next Steps:

And in 2019/20 the partnership is working on a specific research about competences developments for youth workers and some more activities as this Study Visit in Belgium.

In the future, other activities are planned :

Training Course about Competencies developments of Youth Workers as follow up of the mentioned research;

PBA for NGOs that would like to foster more international cooperation about the role of youth work in preventing violent radicalization and supporting more resilient communities;

Final Conference for sharing the achievements and collecting needs.

The aims of 2019/20 of the long term strategy are then:

To develop a specific framework of competencies needed for youth workers who are working or would like to work on the field of prevention of violent radicalization;

To promote more opportunities for NGOs involved in the prevention of violent radicalization to meet, share and create new international projects and networks.