The Power of Cities II.

The officials and leaders were trained in preventing and countering racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism, and countering online hate messaging in cooperation with the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism, Strong Cities Network (SCN) and other local partners from the respective countries. In this way, the project strengthened the capacities of the officials and leaders in the 7 countries. In each country we aimed at recruiting a triangle of civil and civic actors (national/local government officials and community leaders) with a potential to cooperate on local preventive initiatives. 

We executed the following activities that were part of the project:

• Eight online seminars (starting March 2022) with experts in prevention of violent extremism such as Daryl Davis, Clifford James Phillips, Shannon Foley Martinez and others. The aim of these online seminars was not only to raise participant´s expertise on the issues of prevention of violent extremism, but also create a strong network of actors that can support and inspire each other in their respective countries

• Civic Actors in War and Peace - international conference in Bratislava, November 9-10, 2022 with international guests dedicated to countering and preventing violent extremism and online hate messaging with the aim of not only to disseminate the knowledge and expertise of this project, but to expose it to a wider audience of experts

• Micro-grant for realization and implementation of specific activities, measures and regulations, or a campaign (approximately 7,500$ each, 30.000$ in total) awarded to program participants. The locally created networks of civil and civic actors submitted proposals focused on prevention of violent extremism in their local area

• Practical consultations with experts from international network “Strong Cities Network”, who presented concrete tools, and experiences with implementation of prevention of violent extremism

• Possibility to join the Strong Cities Network, and a network of proactive people in the sphere of prevention of violent extremism in cities in 7 countries. 

• Access to an online monitoring tool for detection and prevention of online hate in your language (EOOH). 

Related events

• International Conference 

  Civic Actors in War and Peace

  November 9 –10, 2022 

  Bratislava, Slovakia