We are excited to announce that two and a half years after the launch of the SPEY (Sport for the Prevention of Extremism in Youth project), we are publishing the Trainer’s Manual and Toolkit SPEY. These are two tools that will allow other organizations to replicate the project and implement sports activities and transversal skills to encourage critical thinking among the youth they work with and avoid possible radicalization processes.
The final result of the project has shown the effectiveness of the activities of the manual that has been created, tested and evaluated, in reference to the establishment of positive networks. This manual will be a very useful tool for professionals in the social and sports sector in order to know what radicalization is and to have tools to avoid it.
The activities of the manual work on respecting the rules and others, teamwork, tolerance, diversity, hospitality and empathy, among others, to create a sense of belonging and reduce this risk of radicalization.
In this sense, in these materials the professionals will find the socio-sports program validated by the SPEY researchers, with activities with an important educational approach and where the promotion of appropriate values is very important. In addition, the toolkit also includes a series of activities, both individual and group, that encourage reflection on gender inequalities and the perception of masculinity, with the aim of rethinking gender stereotypes.
These good practice manuals also include a section on how to involve sports clubs and how to do these activities with their youth groups.
SPEY, a project to prevent the radicalization of youth
The SPEY project, led by UFEC and co-funded by the European Commission, combines the practice of sport and the learning of transversal skills with the aim of minimizing the risk factors involved in the process of radicalization in youth.
Given that youth at risk of exclusion are a vulnerable group and may become permeable to certain hate speech and extremist ideologies, SPEY seeks to improve the integration channels and support network of this community, giving them new resources and more constructive and positive tools, so that they can choose new vital opportunities.
Led by renowned academics, SPEY also wants to provide the project with tools capable of measuring the effectiveness of programs aimed at preventing extremism through sport. SPEY has the support of 7 countries and 10 ‘partners’, including the Swedish Sports Confederation, the Union of Federations of Latvia, the International Council of Sport and Physical Education of Germany, the City Council of Gondomar in Portugal, the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sport, the French think tank Sport and Citizenship, SNAFU and the University of Córdoba.