ARMOUR – A Radical Model of Resilience for young minds
ARMOUR is a project funded by the European Union’s Internal Security Fund — Police (Grant Agreement no. 823683), under the ISFP-2017-AG-RAD call with a total budget of EUR €739,848.83. The project aims to: (i) address societal polarisation via strengthening the resilience of individuals, communities and vulnerable groups (such as children and youth), and (ii) to promote interaction and cooperation between different local actors from public sectors that specialise in working with vulnerable groups in preventing extremism through development of cooperation models such as law enforcement, social services, etc. Specifically, the project has the following objectives:
- Increase and leverage the awareness and knowledge of first-line practitioners regarding radicalisation and polarisation among children and youth. ARMOUR will prepare a repository of best practices which will be used in the design of experimental labs through a mix of academic know-how, previous experience of partners, examples of best practices collected, expert interviews and focus groups.
- Increase the skills of first-line practitioners and members of vulnerable communities in addressing radicalisation and polarisation among children and youth.
- Strengthen cooperation and exchange of expertise among practitioners working with children and youth. Through its different engagement activities, such as the focus groups, the experimental labs and the TTT programme, ARMOUR will create a framework which will enable first-line practitioners from across seven European countries to interact and exchange expertise.
- Raising awareness on polarization and promoting moderate narratives and voices to the silent mainstream majority. To achieve this goal ARMOUR will design and organize a social media campaign promoting credible alternatives and positive narratives aimed at building capacity in both individuals and communities for the creation of viable solutions, alternative non-violent forms for the expression of grievances, and thus effect positive change within society.
