Building Resilience of Youth and Communities against Violent Extremism and Radicalization (BRYC)

Background: With the pilot project Women Against Violence and Extremism (WAVE) implemented from June 2018 to June 2019, the Iraq Foundation (IF) successfully built the capacities of 56 women leaders in their local communities in ISIS-liberated areas: the provinces of Nenawa (East Mosul and Hamdaniya), Anbar (Ramadi) and Salaheddin ( Tikrit) to prevent against violent extremism and radicalization. Through coaching, PVE education, feedback meetings, and interventions, women leaders (WL) helped their communities to develop awareness of and resilience to VE. Women professionals who had participated in the leadership training are now using their knowledge and skills in their work environment, such as classrooms, medical clinics, and in the media. The new project, implemented over a two-year period from May 1-2020 to April 30, 2022, will take into account recommendations the WAVE project and the IME report, specifically the expansion of activities to additional locations and communities and the increase of beneficiaries. Therefore, the new project will expand to 7 locations, adding Baghdad province to the three provinces in WAVE, and considerably increase the number of beneficiaries. The past success with professionals will be carried over, with specific PVE training for women and men professionals and community leaders who have public influence. There will be additional focus on engaging men as agents of change in outreach to communities and PVE interventions. Our lessons learned from the WAVE project indicate that most interventions involved vulnerable youth; therefore, in addition to addressing communities as a whole, the new project will place additional emphasis on PVE education for school-aged children and encourage critical thinking about VE issues, and it will train older youth to act as mentors. Joint PVE-themed projects between older youth and school-aged youth will aim to foster collaboration, self-awareness, and increased confidence and belonging. Project Goal: The overarching goal of this project is to enable youth and community-members to build resilience against violent extremism and radicalization as a prerequisite to peaceful and stable communities. The Iraq Foundation along with its three local partners are implementing the project in four Iraqi governorates: Baghdad, Al-Anbar, Salahuddin, and Ninawa