Back to overview
Ongoing Projects

PREPARE

The EU faces ongoing concerns from radicalisation and terrorist violence posed by Islamist (including returnees) and far-right extremists. Yet there remains a significant knowledge gap related to state-led interventions to manage, support, and (as required) rehabilitate, and reintegrate children whose parents are affiliated with violent extremist organizations.

The societal bias, sensationalism, and exceptionalism often associated with violent extremism compounds risks of stigma and securitisation of these children. Steps, where required, should be taken towards their rehabilitation and reintegration as measures to address their  vulnerabilities. Viewing children as vulnerable (and sometimes traumatised), rather than as ‘ticking time bombs’, will ensure that approaches to their disengagement and reintegration prioritise their rights and well-being, further enhancing their resilience.

This urge led to the start of a new, EU-funded project in 2022: Promoting collaborative policies of inclusion relating to children of far right and Islamist parents in Western Europe (PREPARE). PREPARE is guided by a human-rights, rule-of-law and gender informed approach. PREPARE will help make contemporary knowledge, training, and tools accessible to directly inform state-led interventions with children of violent extremists. The PREPARE project will focus on six case studies: Sweden, The Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain and Kosovo.

Topics
Rehabilitation & Reintegration Religious Extremism Right-Wing & Anti-Government Extremism Terrorism & Violent Extremism
Region
Wider Europe

Highlights

PREPARE Workshops May - November 2022

Body

The First PREPARE workshop, coordinated by Leiden University, took place on May 11, 2022 in The Hague. The workshop brought together professionals, as well as project partners and advisory board members to discuss vulnerabilities and risk factors of children from violent extremist families. The expert insights that were unpicked at the workshop are informing PREPARE's ongoing work. The Second PREPARE workshop was held in Dublin from November 16-17, 2022. The consortium joined a range of experts and front-line practitioners working with children exposed to and affected by violent extremism, such as psychologists, social workers and law enforcement professionals, to discuss PREPARE. The workshop was dynamic and collaborative, with practitioners participating both in-person and online. The workshop involved front-line practitioners in the process of creating the training and tool PREPARE is developing to support these practitioners in their work with children of violent extremism. 

Learn more here.

PREPARE Blogs

Body

A series of blog posts written by ICCT experts and the project team gave concise summaries of the approach and initial findings of the PREPARE team on the topics of:

- rule-of-law and human rights-based approaches toward children of violent extremist parents;

- an overview of good practices on trainings for first-line practitioners working in the field of violent extremism; Children of far-right violent extremist families;

- multidisciplinary approaches to support children growing up in violent extremist environments;

- whether growing up in a violent extremist environment can be considered an 'Adverse Childhood Experience' (ACE) like 'any other'?

Access these publications here.

About the project

Extra body

This project has a bold aim: to identify the vulnerabilities and stigmas children may face when their parents are part of violent extremist networks and how those can best be addressed by relevant front-line actors in an informed, prepared, and collaborative way that centres on the needs of the child.

This will be done through:

  • The development of a new, unique Child Vulnerability and Intervention Tool;
  • Train-the-trainer activities to assist professionals in delivering support;
  • Targeted workshops focused on identifying and supporting the vulnerabilities of children in these environments;
  • Knowledge dissemination through leveraging networks and publications, promoting the preparedness and stakeholder collaboration of those working directly with these children and families.

You can find the official website for the PREPARE project here and more related publications and regular updates here.

Staff5

Partners