Advisors in the field of Islamist extremism often work with clients who can suffer from psychological stress and disorders. The EVOLUO project offers training, peer case advise and case-related support to help them deal with this professionally in their day-to-day work. In this way, we provide practitioners with knowledge and skills that they can apply directly in their work.
EVOLUO also supports networking and cooperation between advisors and the health and medical professions. The aim is to further develop cooperation between the professions. This is also reflected in the name of the project: “Evoluo” is Esperanto and means “further development”.
Background
Social and psychological dynamics interact during radicalisation. Interactions between the inner psychological world and the outer social world influence both processes of turning towards and distancing from radicalisation. It is therefore important to have a sound and differentiated understanding of the mental health of clients in order to adopt a holistic perspective in case work.
Advise centres in the field of Islamist extremism already work with a wide range of expertise and methods. At the same time, many professionals would like to gain more knowledge about mental stress and disorders, their effects on advising and confidence in dealing with them. These are the results of several surveys, a needs analysis and the first EVOLUO programme in 2023.
Against this background, EVOLUO consists of two pillars and is also scientifically supported by the Forschungsstelle Deradikalisierung (FORA) of the Beratungsnetzwerk Grenzgänger.
