Support Youth to build Peace in Nigeria

On Tuesday, January 17, 2017, New Era Educational and Charitable Support Foundation brought together 25 Civil Society Organizations, NGOs and FBOs to the TREASURES INN & Suites, Rayfield Road, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria, to brainstorm and explore strategies for preventing Violent Extremism and Radicalization in Northern Nigeria. This is part of a 6-month Project on Strengthening Citizens Against Radicalization Through Leadership and Re-integration Training in Northern Nigeria- (Project SCARLIT), with funding from the Global Center on Cooperative Security. Participants explored and shared experiences and lessons on Return, Rehabilitation and De-Radicalization (RRD) processes.

Typically during conflicts the response from security and humanitarian entities is either emergency assistance which is immediate, or development aid which takes a significantly longer time to realize. Too often services that are needed that lie in between the two response options do not exist. Programming bridges are needed to sustain and promote the empowerment of the individual and community as they move from emergency crisis to long-term sustainability. This is the space that Project SCARLIT fills. This training designed for local CSO staff, inclusive of community-based organizations (CBOs) and local faith-based organizations (FBOs) builds the capacity in the space between emergency and development. 

The capacity-building training is designed to provide local service providers with tools to assess trauma (not as a clinician, but as a community worker supporting individual and community assets) along with strategies designed to build individual and community resiliency.  Local CSOs are critical to long-term development, and this project seeks to provide them with additional tools for addressing trauma to support reintegration and rehabilitation.

The training provides an overview of global best practices informed by local context in prevention against radicalization and violent extremism (PVE), rehabilitation, and reintegration, to inform the planning of local programming to be implemented by the CSOs as they work with high-risk youth, including IDPs. The leadership and reintegration training addresses the adjustment challenges experienced by refugees and youth returning from life in captivity. The training and toolkit is grounded in sound research and best practices by experts in the field of P/CVE and refugee mental health.  The project supports CSOs in their efforts at reintegrating traumatized young people.