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The Euro-Arab Foundation organises the first focus groups of the ARMOUR project

The ARMOUR project aims to address social polarization caused by the rise of extremist ideologies. To this end, it is proposed to create an interdisciplinary learning model that allows both individuals and communities to develop resilience to the ideologies and behaviors specific to violent extremism.

The Euro-Arab Foundation hosted last 4 June, from 9h to 13h30, the first focus group within the actions of ARMOUR (A Radical Model of Resilience for Young Minds), a project led by the Foundation and financed by the Directorate General for the Interior of the European Commission.

The objective of this focus group, the first to be held since the launch of the ARMOUR(link is external) project in January 2019, was to identify the challenges, needs and obstacles faced by professionals working with young people and children in the processes of prevention and de-radicalisation.

For this purpose, this event gathered representatives of the academic world, educators, social workers and specialized professionals who work with minors such as psychologists and members of law enforcement agencies.

The following topics were addressed during the meeting:

  • Religiously Inspired Extremism
  • Right-wing extremism, with a special focus on hatred against migrants and Islamophobia.
  • Left extremism, centred on anarchist ideologies and related to animal rights and environmentalists.

These focus groups are an opportunity for different social actors to participate in the practical review, evaluation and exchange of good practices, as well as to generate recommendations for improvement together with other key practitioners and agencies.

The ARMOUR consortium, led by the Euro-Arab Foundation, plans to organise discussion groups in each of the 8 countries of its member organisations, which are, in addition to Spain: Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands and Romania.  In this way, a broad spectrum of data, perceptions and experiences relevant to the development of the research will be obtained.