Sport Against Youth Radicalization-SAYR

Europe is facing one of the most demanding challenges due to the need to defeat radicalization and terrorism: an increasing number of marginalized youths, with migrant background or not, are more and more targeted by, and sensitive to, terrorist speeches and ideology and are exposed to the risk of being actively recruited. Beside prevention and intelligence activities, aimed to arrest and sentence them, there is an increasing need to develop effective re-education programmes (exit strategies) and to foster social reintegration by providing equal educational and integration opportunities toward qualified jobs.
Europe is changing, people make the continent richer and plural, but at the same time we have to face some unbalanced situations for our youngsters: lack of opportunities and real cultural interaction, economical disadvantages, religious confrontation, gender discrimination, political changes... all these aspects cause the arising of extremist positions that can lead in real radicalization.
Young people are very sensitive to all these situations, and their nonconformity makes them an easy target group to be caught by extremist positions that conduct them to radicalization.
To avoid and prevent such situations, mainly in those youngsters with more possibilities to fall in the hands of radicalization, the sport is a very useful tool to combat any kind of radicalization.
The role of sport in preventing and counteracting crime, radicalization and (violent) extremism has gained increased attention in the past decades. On a higher level, several institutions continue to acknowledge that sport and physical activity can serve as an effective tool in the prevention of violence, crime and radicalization as well as in the behavioral change of (young) individuals that were engaged in criminal or extremist activities.
The United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace argue that "sport can cut across barriers that divide societies, making it a powerful tool to support conflict resolution and peace-building efforts..." (UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Sport and Development for Peace, 2005). According to the Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN) (2014), on the European level, the role of sports to increase resilience against extremism was endorsed in recommendations from the European Commission. Following the 2015 Doha Declaration, which included references stressing the importance of youth participation in crime prevention efforts, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has launched a global youth crime prevention initiative. The initiative uses the power of sport to build resilience in young people by enhancing their life skills and by increasing their knowledge of the consequences of substance use and crime (UNODC, 2020). As one main outcome of this initiative, an "evidence-informed and sports-based life skills training curriculum has been designed as a unique tool that transfers the accumulated expertise of the United Nations and other partners in implementing life skills training for crime and drug use prevention to sport settings" (UNODC, 2020, para:6). The so-called Line Up Live Up trainer manual programme was designed for people working with children, young people and adolescents (e.g. sport coaches or teachers) in sport settings (UNODC, 2017) and entails a comprehensive set of "interactive and fun exercises" (UNODC, 2020, para:7) targeting the mediation and transfer of valuable life skills (UNODC, 2017). In addition to the training curriculum, UNODC is planning to release a guide on the Prevention of Violent Extremism and Sport in spring 2020 (UNODC, 2019).
In 2018, the UNODC and UNESCO jointly organized an Expert Group Meeting in Vienna to discuss how sport and sport-based learning could be used to prevent violent extremism (UNODC, 2018; 2019). Among the outcomes of the meeting was a consensus on the power of sport programmes helping young people to refrain from crime, radical or extremist ideologies and behaviour.
About the project
The project is a collaborative partnership in the field of sport whose goal is to prevent radicalization of young people encouraging social inclusion and equal opportunities in sport.
The project partners will achieve this objective by creating a network of local NGO`s that will reach young people in events at the local level using the Education Through Sport (ETS) methodology. The NGO`s will constitute a transnational network for sport education against radicalization strengthening the links between project partners and external stakeholders. A comprehensive research will provide the European state-of-the-art about current practices to prevent radicalization in sport and through sport education. Afterwards, the ambassadors will realize a set of awareness-raising actions online and sport events.
SAYR project combines sports practice and transversal skills with the aim to minimize the factors that intervene in the process of youth radicalization. Furthermore, it seeks to improve integration channels for youngsters at-risk of exclusion and keeps gender-based perspective crosswise throughout the project. SAYR will produce several tools to measure the effectiveness of programs aimed at preventing extremism thought sport.
The project has a multidimensional, proactive and positive approach to radicalization that aims towards collaborations between different actors, combating isolation and helping young people from identified communities at risk to take part in sport and leisure activities.
SAYR, seeks to create tools for sport associations and local NGO`s to prevent radicalization among youth by cooperating with local organizations (partners), institutions and public authorities, and, prevent discrimination of all forms by organizing sport activities for youth at risk of radicalization.
SAYR will have 5 main phases: Comparative research of the national contexts, Increasing the resilience of key actors working with youth, Increasing the resilience of youth from communities at risk, Valorization and Dissemination.
SAYR`s project specific objectives:
• Develop sport programs aimed to prevent the process of adopting all types of violent ideas and behaviors among youth.
• Increasing positive and strong relationships in the community by developing integration channels and social cohesion.
• Improving young people’s skills and values though sport and transversal skills.
• Enhancing youth wellbeing and health through sports practice.
• Reinforcing cooperation among different stakeholders by creating a triangle of intervention between the public administration, sports organizations and NGOs.
Expected Impacts
1. Coaches, Teachers, public authorities and youth workers develop new knowledge, awareness, skills and tools to prevent youth from being radicalized as a result of the national/local workshops;
2. Marginalized youth and youth at risk of radicalization are included in combined sport and leisure activities that create a sense of belonging and shared identity, reducing isolation and developing intercultural skills;
3. Awareness raising of the larger public on the different narratives of radicalization through digital story telling;
4. Development of new collaborations between different local actors and institutions.

Main Activities – Events

• Project preparatory meeting
• Local workshops for teachers and coaches;
• Peer Learning Training Course
• Coaching activities;
• Communities at risk Workshops and coaching sessions;
• Organizing local sport activities for youth at risk of marginalization and radicalization;
• Final conference

We are looking for sport organizations interested in joining this partnerhip. Those interested, please send us yout PIF by e-mail to: office@modoflife.ro.