1037 – HOPE – HOlistic radicalisation Prevention initiativE

Name of the lead partner organisation: Qualify Just – IT Solutions and Consulting Lda

Country of the lead partner organisation: Portugal

Project summary: 

HOPE – Holistic Radicalisation Prevention Initiative – is a project that strives to create a network that supports continuous training and knowledge sharing in the Balkan, Southern and Eastern European countries, that is, a European learning hub on Radicalisation. Such a network will be composed of training providers (incl. national sectoral training academies), research centres (from the public and private sector), as well as prison and probation services, hence organisations that play an active role in preventing and countering radicalisation and violent extremism.

This network should also be invested in improving the transition process from prison and/or probation to the community for those at risk of radicalisation or who have already been radicalised.

Hence, the project comes to add value to the European discussion on radicalisation, violent extremism, and deradicalisation/disengagement strategies, with a focus on the vulnerabilities of the Balkan, Southern and Eastern European states. Despite its regional focus, the project should be able to contrast different regional approaches and ensure the transferability of the project results to the wider European context. 

The project will achieve the results by promoting a holistic prevention approach focusing on offenders, criminal justice staff, and community organisations.

Main specific goals

• Develop newly designed, innovative, and multidisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning, in order to raise awareness, foster overall knowledge, and improve radicalisation prevention skills within a network of stakeholders;
• Create a network of training institutions, introducing new content and teaching/learning innovations that aim to increase the efficiency and the results of training interventions;
• Improve the skillset of judicial, prison and probation professionals on how to identify and prevent radicalisation in correctional settings and improve the skills of staff in community organisations (including religious ones) on how to deal with offenders at the prevention, management, and intervention stages;
• Implement a regional-specific approach, supported by active and collaborative methods (with expert partners), that will be not only for collecting and discussing needs, learnings and best practices – training sessions, workshops, high-level seminars and policy forums – but also for the development and implementation of effective training programmes.

Main expected outcomes

• Creation of a network for training and knowledge sharing (Balkan, Southern and Eastern European learning hub);
• Increased awareness, in detention environments, about the phenomenon of radicalisation and extremism that can lead to terrorism;
• Improved understanding about detecting “red flags” of radicalisation and violent extremist viewpoints, as well as in regard to the prevention and detection mechanisms, currently in place in some European countries;
• Enhanced capacity to deal with inmates at risk of radicalisation (or with those who are already radicalised) by receiving training and gaining new knowledge (incl. about screening and assessment tools) that is useful for everyday challenges;
• Common understanding, by practitioners and decision-makers, of the necessary strategies to be implemented when dealing with the transfer of radicalised individuals in detention or under community supervision (therefore contributing to the application of various European Council Framework Decisions).