Extreme Dialogue

Educational resources to build resilience to radicalisation

Extreme Dialogue aims to build resilience to radicalisation among young people through a series of open-access educational resources and highly engaging short films that foster critical thinking and digital literacy skills. Extreme Dialogue encourages safe, constructive discussions around extremism and radicalisation in educational or community settings in the UK, Canada, Germany and Hungary.

Creating a safe space for discussing controversial issues

A series of short documentary films tell the personal stories of Canadians and Europeans profoundly affected by violent extremism; a former member of the extreme far-right in Canada, a mother from Calgary whose son was killed fighting for ISIS in Syria, a youth worker and former refugee from Somalia, a former member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) whose father was killed by the IRA, a former member of the now banned UK Islamist group al-Muhajiroun, a Syrian refugee now living in Berlin, and a member of a Roma community in Hungary targeted by far-right demonstrations.

The films are accompanied by a set of educational resources that can be used with young people in classrooms or community settings, and are intended to build resilience to extremism by creating a safe space for debating controversial issues and enhancing critical thinking. These resources include Prezi presentations and practitioners’ resource packs and are available via the “Educational Resources” pages (in English, German and Hungarian, with the Canadian resources also available in French).

Extreme Dialogue also provides training and delivery guidance around the use of the films and resources with young people, in order to give teachers and other youth practitioners the confidence needed to enable debates about contentious subjects.

Funded by Public Safety Canada via the Kanishka Project, and co-funded by the Prevention of and Fight against Crime Programme of the European Union, Extreme Dialogue has brought together partners the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, film-makers Duckrabbit, and the educational charity Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Extreme Dialogue’s expansion into Europe is supported by project partners West London Initiative in the UK, cultures interactive (CI) in Germany and Political Capital in Hungary. Outreach and communication in Germany is supported by CI partner ContRa e.V.  and by the JFF – Institut für Medienpädagogik in Forschung und Praxis in Munich.

Duration

2014-2016

Funding

Prevention of and Fight against Crime Programme of the European Union (Internal Security funds)
Public Safety Canada via the Kanishka Project