Empowering Communities for CVE: Strategies for Engaging Youth Workshop (UAE)

From 20-22 October 2015, Hedayah and United States Institute Peace (USIP) organized a joint Capacity Building Workshop entitled “Empowering Communities for Countering Violent Extremism: Strategies for Engaging Youth”. This workshop convened community actors from six different countries where there is a significant threat of violent extremism.

Interactive sessions at the start of the workshop discussed the drivers of violent extremism, drawing out participants’ own expertise on their local environment. Elements of global good practice in Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Programming were then discussed, with a focus on youth as both the target audience for the radicalizing narrative and also the potential target for CVE interventions.

Over the course of the three days, participants were invited to use this more developed understanding to create and develop a vision and strategy to foster engagement approaches and reduce risks and factors leading to radicalization among youth in their country.

In line with the workshop objectives, over the course of three days, everyone involved enhanced their understanding of the factors that lead to youth radicalization and all were better equipped to design and deliver more effective responses to this complex challenge.