CoHESION

The project develops and enhances citizenship curricula at both primary and secondary level and delivers school based support for families concerned about radicalization. These curricula are fully inclusive, designed to benefit every student who receives them, to build social inclusion and the awareness of it amongst these pupils and, in doing so, to work against radicalization. The curricula do not single out ethnic, religious, gender or minority groups; instead they work on enhancing cohesion. Teachers will be trained to stimulate awareness amongst pupils, from a very early age, of the importance of inclusion and participation in an omnicultural society. Parents will be given information on radical groups, brought into contact with other parents who share similar concerns and supported in an inclusive, open way specifically designed to reduce stigma and taboo, enhance social bonding and to promote positive contact between schools and parents. The objective of this element will be to create self-sustaining networks for knowledge exchange and inter group support and, ultimately, to prevent radicalization by fostering strong family ties, weighing heavily against the radical message. Young people who may otherwise have been vulnerable to radical narratives will hereby be re-amalgamated into society.