How youth work can play a pivotal role in combating radicalisation

Several high-profile terror attacks in England in recent months have led to questions about the effectiveness of current efforts to prevent violent radicalisation are working.

Following the terror attack in Manchester in May that left 22 people dead, Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood said during a televised debate ahead of the general election that the UK is "less safe" as a result of there being fewer youth workers engaging young people.

Meanwhile, one of the country's top lawyers, Nazir Afzal, himself a Muslim, called on the government to utilise youth organisations and involve young people in creating an effective strategy to prevent radicalisation and tackle terrorism.

Prevent strategy

How should this be done and what role can youth work services play?

The government's Prevent strategy, which was introduced after the 2005 London bombings to identify and work with those at risk of radicalisation, uses a range of measures to challenge extremism.

These include, at the acute end, supporting people through the early intervention Channel process, which can result in them being mentored, encouraged into diversionary activities such as sport, or signposted to mainstream services such as education, training or employment.

Prevent also works with and supports community groups, faith groups and social enterprise projects that provide services and support to vulnerable people. This includes providing funding to help them with their work.

The government has announced that a commission for countering extremism is to be established, which it says will "play a key role in supporting communities and the public sector to identify and confront extremism wherever it exists".

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has pledged to replace Prevent, saying that while it has had some success, it is "too top down".

According to Nazir Afzal, the government's Prevent strategy is flawed because it is "poorly communicated, and poorly understood". He says young Muslims are not engaged in the right way, and sees a greater role for youth work.

"Poor community engagement with Prevent has led to issues around community buy-in," he says. "There are very loud voices that talk about it being part of surveillance society, and is spying on children."

Afzal says Prevent, when delivered by grassroots organisations, is actually doing good work - giving one example of the Tim Parry Jonathan Ball Foundation for Peace - but feels that the Home Office is not talking up the work it does in a positive light because it is concerned about publicising the details of young people it has helped.

"Prevent is simply safeguarding - no more, no less," he says.

"If you have a child being groomed online and you have suspicions, based on their behaviour, that they may be at risk, you wouldn't think twice about referring that individual for some support or mentoring.

"However, the moment someone becomes concerned about access to online propaganda, people are less keen on signposting to support. When Prevent does work well, it is simply providing mentoring or theological support."

He adds: "The government probably has 1,000 good news stories of people who have been worked with and have been protected - yet they don't share those. The government has to work more on transparency and communication."

Afzal also wants more support for Muslim organisations that are already working with young people and families in the community.

"Grassroots organisations are providing the most effective work, particularly Muslim women's groups, to which families don't seem to have an aversion," he says.

"They are the ones protecting us, but they do not have the time, inclination or capacity to fill in a business case [to receive government funding].

"Part of the work I am doing is to make it easier for them to get funding."

Listen to young people

He also wants young Muslims to have more say on the issue.

"Young Muslims have phenomenal ideas about how this can be tackled.

"They are pretty keen on doing peer-to-peer stuff, but nobody is asking them, nobody is funding it and nobody is supporting it.

"My plea to the government is to listen to our young people and get them into the room."

One of the issues is that youth groups appear not to be involved with the government programme.

Muhbeen Hussain, founder of British Muslim Youth, says the majority of young British Muslims his organisation works with want nothing to do with the Prevent strategy, as they are concerned it is too focused on linking Islam with extremism.

As a result, Hussain says he is reluctant to apply for money from the initiative because young Muslim people are unlikely to engage with anything connected to Prevent.

Afzal says there is a need for greater support for Muslim youth groups, as well as a preparedness among traditional youth organisations to reach out more to minorities.

Impact of austerity

Jaswant Boora, a consultant at The Social Care Training Hub who has written a book about youth work and radicalisation, says youth work has a clear role to play, but fears that government austerity has not made this easy.

"Extremists are recruiting 24/7," he says. "They are operating at hours and times that mean we cannot meet the demand of resource, manpower and finances.

"We need to be a bit more flexible - and be available Friday or Saturday evenings. If we are more flexible, we can minimise some of the risks young people face in their local communities - but it is difficult because of the cuts."

"The problem we have is that it is something that can happen anywhere, anytime, any place.

"A child can be radicalised from the age of three, four or five. We have a very big problem on our hands. Cuts don't make it any easier. Centre-based youth work was good a number of years ago - they could come and express themselves."

In relation to working with young Muslims, Afzal says, the community could have a greater role to play. "Muslim philanthropy is worth billions, but a lot of it goes on building infrastructure in Pakistan, Bangladesh or India rather than supporting young people here," he says.

"I want them to consider redirecting their own funds to groups doing such valuable work in their own communities."

Boora agrees. "We need to find private institutions delivering quality work," he says. "People who set up something on the basis of wanting to make real change."

Tackling marginalisation

Manfred Zentner - a member of an expert group that composed a "practical toolbox" for youth workers to help prevent marginalisation and violent radicalisation on behalf of the European Union - is convinced that youth work can make a difference if given a chance.

He argues that it is not radicalisation per se that needs to be addressed, as radical change can be beneficial for society. Rather, it is the drivers for a young person to become involved with violent ideology, such as a lack of sense of belonging, that must be effectively replaced for lasting change to be achieved, something he believes youth work can do.

"Youth work provides space and time for young people to find their space in society," he says.

"There would be no development in the democratic way of living if you don't accept radical forms of change. Many things that we would consider normal now, such as women's voting rights, have been brought about by radical change."

He says that preventing violent radicalisation is very closely connected to combating marginalisation. So it is important for youth workers to look closely at why young people are marginalised.

"Radicalisation can give a sense of belonging to young people. We have got to find what is behind that - what young people are searching for," he says.

"One approach might be sports or political activism that can be provided by youth work, working with the young person to find out why they feel insecure, why they feel unhappy in society - the normal approaches of youth work can offer alternatives that are accepted in our society.

"It is important to confront the ideology, but you can only confront it if you understand what they are getting out of it. It could be a form of self-assurance, a promise of work. We have to know something about what is behind it, then we can confront it."

PREVENT STRATEGY: WHAT IS IT AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

Prevent is one of four elements of Contest, the government's counter-terrorism strategy.

It covers all forms of terrorism and extremism, and some aspects of non-violent extremism.

The Home Office works with local authorities, a wide range of government departments, community organisations and the police to deliver the Prevent strategy.

It uses a range of measures to challenge extremism including:

• Supporting people who are at risk of being drawn into terrorist or extremist activity through the Channel process
• Working with and supporting community groups and social enterprise projects who provide services to vulnerable people
• Working with faith groups and institutions to assist them in providing support and guidance to people who may be vulnerable
• Supporting local schools and local industry through engagement, advice and training.
  
  

ADVICE FOR YOUTH WORKERS

Youth workers should:

• Be the mediators and facilitators when discussing difficult topics or topics they are not familiar with
• Discuss questions of meaning with young people in a safe environment
• Dare to discuss taboo topics
• Know the trends, dare to confront them and tune into young people's reality
• Enable young people to understand human rights and democratic values in practice
• Be aware of their values and implicit identity
• Assess their own ability for self-reflection, critical thinking and emotional resilience
• Encourage intercultural and inter-faith discussions that underscore common values
• Make best use of existing training opportunities on processes of violent radicalisation
• Provide positive narratives to counter extremist ideologies
• Inform young people of public anti-discriminatory networks

Source: The Contribution of Youth Work to Preventing Marginalisation and Violent Radicalisation