ARMOUR – A Radical Model of Resilience for Young Minds
ARMOUR is Mapping Challenges, Needs and Innovative Solutions Required in the Process of Prevention and De-radicalization
The ARMOUR Project aims to address societal polarization via strengthening the resilience of individuals, communities and vulnerable groups (such as children, youth, etc.) against polarisation, and to promote interaction and cooperation between different local actors from public sectors, i.e. law enforcement, social services, etc., that specialise in working with vulnerable groups in preventing extremism through development of cooperation models. The project will design and create a Toolkit for first-line practitioners to employ in reducing polarization among children and youth.
The Toolkit, capitalizing on previous work carried out by project partners, takes the form of experimental laboratories (experimental labs) which together work towards: strengthening individual capacity to resist push and pull factors of radicalization; creating community empowerment and resilience to social polarization and violent extremism and assisting states deploy proportional responses against provocations and latent conflicts. The model will then be promoted through a social media campaign.
The expected impact of the project covers the following aspects:
Increasing awareness and capacity of first-line practitioners: ARMOUR achieves this through the experimental labs and the related training programme. The first tool will help practitioners better understand and identify instances of radicalization and polarization among children and youth while the second one will help them improve their ability to use the project toolkit.
Promoting interaction and cooperation among different stakeholders: ARMOUR achieves this by organizing the experimental labs in which practitioners and members of vulnerable communities have trusted interactions.
Promoting the views of moderate voices by engaging with the silent majority and integrating them into the experimental lab.
Developing and promoting concrete tools targeting vulnerable groups: the experimental lab combined with the best practices identified in the project and the online campaign are concrete tools which key actors can use when working with vulnerable youth.
This project is funded by the European Union’s Internal Security Fund — Police under Grant Agreement No. 823683.