Stories of LIVE: how to train civil society leaders who work on preventing violent extremism

It’s cold in Birmingham, UK, and we almost regret the decision to film the interview outside. The location is also anything but quiet, buzzing with students. Carys is not distracted as she is used to such environments when working with young people. Her work involves building their capacities to prevent violent extremism and other forms of violence and exploitation.

Teachers

Carys Evans represents a team of lead trainers who have been guiding over 100 graduates of the OSCE’s Leaders against Intolerance and Violent Extremism (LIVE) initiative through the training programme since 2018.

This is not her first experience in this capacity. As a program manager and a researcher on violent extremism, Carys has designed activities for practitioners and organizations and delivered training sessions to support young people in their personal development.

Students

Unlike other initiatives Carys has worked on through her organization - ConnectFutures – the LIVE curricula were designed for youth leaders, women leaders and community leaders who are either already engaged in preventing violent extremism that leads to terrorism (PVERLT) or in other relevant forms of community work.

The task at hand was to help future facilitators in Central Asia and South-Eastern Europe to use the LIVE curricula in order to build the capacity of local leaders. These leaders are active community members, who are trusted, understand local sensitivities and, ultimately, can become agents of positive change in prevention efforts.

When you are doing youth leadership work it’s really important to engage credible mediators and ask yourself who the young people in your community will listen to.

It was important to Carys that during the LIVE training sessions, she was working with practitioners who already understood that security is shaped both at the individual and community levels. They know that there is not only one profile of a person or community vulnerable to radicalization and understand the importance of protecting and promoting human rights in response to violent extremism.

Method

The trainings-of-trainers that Carys and her colleagues delivered were based on immersive learning. LIVE graduates experienced the sessions as participants before mastering their facilitation skills in practice.

We try to always take into account the local context when working on prevention of violence and violent extremism specifically. It is important to consider gender, age, culture and other factors.

Although she originally co-designed the training sessions to be held in person, they had to be moved online due to COVID-19 restrictions. While the online training sessions have gone well, as it was a great opportunity to showcase the tools participants could use themselves, Carys still prefers to conduct training courses in person.

My favourite moment was at a training for future facilitators of women leaders’ course back in Serbia, when we could still work in person. We were all together at a lovely dinner, just talking about the training, our jobs and passions, and simply connecting.

However, Carys has seen how online training sessions can also foster continued positive impact and meaningful connections. With LIVE graduates having started their projects, covering a vast area from Albania to Kazakhstan, she is curious to see how this newly built LIVE community will continue to grow.