Safe Zone

ended

Safe Zone adopts a multi-level approach to increasing local capacity for the prevention of radicalization and violent extremism amongst adolescents. Implemented in four EU Member States (Italy, Germany, Portugal, Slovenia) with 7 partner organizations, Safe Zone aims to develop a comprehensive e-learning toolkit and training methodology for coaches and youth workers within youth sports to increase their capacity for general prevention and establish an early warning reporting system with clear protocols and follow-up procedures in cooperation with local law enforcement and other agencies. Safe Zone aims to build capacity, promote knowledge, and support multi-agency cooperation at the local level in addition to national and transnational exchange and cooperation in matters of radicalization prevention. Activities include: mapping and assessment, e-learning curriculum and toolkit development, training and follow-up with coaches/educators, local multi-agency meetings, meetings with sport club managers, and transnational exchange. Short-term, Safe Zone will directly involve local sport clubs (coaches, educators, managers), law enforcement and other local actors in addition to representatives of national/stated organizations and institutions in sports and law enforcement as well as the youth with whom the coaches work (indirect beneficiaries). Mid-term beneficiaries include an increase in the number of local communities and youth sport clubs involved in addition to reaching out to families and members of the general public. Long-term beneficiaries also include young people involved in sports, their families, and the general community, which benefits from more resilient youth and less extremism. Safe Zone will lead to the production of an e-learning toolkit and methodology for youth coaches, EU Guidelines, a Prevention Through Sports Booklet for practitioners, and a series of national and thematic reports and working papers for researchers, policymakers and practitioner