The Power of Cities II.

This program aims at training and mentoring national or local government officials and civil society community leaders from 7 countries (Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Austria, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary).

In this project, the officials and leaders are trained in preventing and countering racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism, and countering online hate messaging in cooperation with the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism, Strong Cities Network (SCN) and other local partners from the respective countries. In this way, the project strengthens the capacities of the officials and leaders in the 7 countries. In each country we aim at recruiting a triangle of civil and civic actors (national/local government officials and community leaders) with a potential to cooperate on local preventive initiatives.

The following activities are part of the project:

• Eight online seminars (starting March 2022) with experts in prevention of violent extremism such as Daryl Davis, Clifford James Phillips, Shannon Foley Martinez and others. The aim of these online seminars will be not only to raise participant´s expertise on the issues of prevention of violent extremism, but also create a strong network of actors that can support and inspire each other in their respective countries

• Civic Actors in War and Peace - international conference in Bratislava, November 9-10, 2022 with international guests dedicated to countering and preventing violent extremism and online hate messaging with the aim of not only to disseminate the knowledge and expertise of this project, but to expose it to a wider audience of experts.

• Microgrant for realization and implementation of specific activities, measures and regulations, or a campaign(approximately 7,500$ each, 30.000$ in total) awarded to program participants. We expect the locally created networks of civil and civic actors to submit proposals focused on prevention of violent extremism in their local area

• Practical consultations with experts from international network “Strong Cities Network”, who will present concrete tools, and experiences with implementation of prevention of violent extremism

• Possibility to join the Strong Cities Network, and a network of proactive people in the sphere of prevention of violent extremism in cities in 7 countries.

• Access to an online monitoring tool for detection and prevention of online hate in your language (EOOH).

The project is supported by the U.S. Embassy Bratislava. Partner of the project is Institute for Strategic Dialogue / Strong CIties Network