‘Partnering in Practice: Preventing Social Polarization’ & ‘Mind the Gap! Youth and Practitioners Summit’

TSAS EVENT

This conference will be comprised of two interrelated sections – the first section, Prevention in Practice, will resemble a more traditional academic conference. The second section, Mind the Gap!, will bring together practitioners from diverse sectors and youth leaders to engage in an interactive two-day exercise to facilitate connections and knowledge sharing between them. The activities are designed to create bridges by building trust between practitioners and youth as well as reflect on how our realities influence our personal trajectories by shaping our social identities.

‘Partnering in Practice: National & International Approaches to Preventing/Countering Violent Extremism’
– Nov 30 to Dec 1, 2018
Edmonton, Alberta

The conference will bring together leading scholars, practitioners and policymakers engaged with violent extremism. The primary goal of this conference is exchanging theoretical understandings from multiple disciplines and good practices related to the prevention of violent extremism across different disciplinary and geographic contexts.

A unique feature of the conference will be its ability to combine perspectives from academia, law enforcement, community groups and non-government agencies. Furthermore, the examination of globalized and localized approaches to violent extremism, and other similar forms of crime and risk prevention, will draw out good practices from different national contexts and areas of policy. Recognizing the noted preference for multi-sectoral approaches to prevention of violent extremism among policy makers, and the unique impacts of violent extremism in particular localities – this approach will help to further scholarly and practitioner knowledge.

Confirmed Panelists and Speakers Include:
Dr. Bart Shchuurman, University of Leiden
Dr. Cécile Rousseau, MD, McGill University
Mr. Phil Gurski, Borealis Threat & Risk Consulting
Ms. Jessica Davis, Insight Threat Intelligence
Dr. Ghayda Hassan, Université du Québec à Montréal
Imam Navaid Aziz, Islamic Information Society of Calgary
Ms. Franziska Praxl, Global Center on Cooperative Security
Dr. Lorne Dawson, University of Waterloo
Dr. David Eisenman MD, University of California Los Angeles
Dr. Amarnath Amarsingam, University of Waterloo and Institute for Strategic Dialogue
Dr. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Valens Global LLC
Dr. Joana Cook, Kings College London
Mr. Fabian Wichmann, EXIT Germany
Dr. Ryan Scrivens, Project SOMEONE
Dr. Yannick Veilleux-Lepage, Georgia State University
Dr. Heather Lawford, Bishop’s University
Dr. Alisa Miler, Refugee Trauma and Resilience Center at Boston Children’s Hospital
Dr. Tanya Narozhna, University of Winnipeg
The Social Identity Formation Group
Dr. Bruce White, Organization for Intercultural Dialogue

Mind the Gap! Youth and Practitioners Summit
– Dec 2 and Dec 3, 2018
Edmonton, Alberta

Youth are heavily targeted by all forms of extremism and hate speech. Many have profound and at times life changing experiences of discrimination and exclusion and have, in this sense, a deep, existential knowledge of the dynamics of hate and extremism. Opening up the dialogue between youth and practitioners offers precious opportunities to:

1) think about common issues and explore ideas;
2) build capacities by improving personal and professional development (e.g., update knowledge in the field, learn new techniques and new tools);
3) improve collaboration between existing partners within practice environments (e.g., break down professional, geographical and organizational barrier; address the personal and institutional resistance against change);
4) improve developments in the practice (e.g. implement new processes; develop projects in a co-construction approach);

This Summit aligns, in at least five ways, with the best practice recommendations of several overarching studies and prevention policies. These stipulate that the best practices to prevention of violent radicalisation include programs that:

1) are those developed by youth for youth;
2) are grassroots in nature and from community and civil society rather than top-down from governments who might not be perceived as legitimate actors;
3) are integrated in a broader civic engagement frame and not solely focused on violent radicalization;
4) proceed in highly flexible, diverse and entrepreneurial manner because there is no one trajectory or profile to radicalization; and
5) are supported in terms of expertise, financially and technically by “non-partisan” sectors such as funding agencies and academic based organisations.

Conference Registration and details here.

For other information please contact David Jones @ dave@preventviolence.ca

**Please note that lunch is included in the price of the ticket**

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