[Helping young people build resilience against manipulative
extremist narratives and conspiracy theories requires all adults in a
young person’s trusted network to be equipped with the skills and
knowledge to intervene. ]
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WHOLE-OF-COMMUNITY RESILIENCE  
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Lydia Bates
August 7, 2023
Learning for Justice
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_ Helping young people build resilience against manipulative
extremist narratives and conspiracy theories requires all adults in a
young person’s trusted network to be equipped with the skills and
knowledge to intervene. _

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“Equity across the continuum of education is essential for the
pursuit and the expansion of democracy,” writes
[[link removed]] Jalaya
Liles Dunn, director of Learning for Justice. Achieving such equity
necessitates building resilience against ideologies and narratives
that individuals disseminate to divide, oppress and harm others. It
requires dismantling white supremacy.

A key strategy for building this resilience across generations is
offering communities tools to both identify insidious extremist
narratives and strengthen their own care networks. In November 2022,
the SPLC, and our partners at American University’s Polarization and
Extremism Research and Innovation Lab, or PERIL
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Addressing Harm: A Community Guide to Online Youth Radicalization
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intended to help communities put this two-sided strategy into
practice.

As part of a growing suite of resources to help maintain community
health and cohesion in the face of divisive beliefs and rhetoric, this
guide expands on our first publication, _Building Resilience &
Confronting Risk: A Parents & Caregivers Guide to Online
Radicalization
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Both resources inform adults about the drivers of young people’s
susceptibility to extremist radicalization and detail warning signs to
watch for in young people who might be exposed to manipulative
disinformation. However, while the _Parents & Caregivers
Guide_ focuses primarily on the adults caring for young people within
the home, the _Building Networks_ guide seeks to equip all adults in
a young person’s care network with tools and resources.

“Every trusted adult in a young person’s life has their own role
to play in building resilience against manipulation by extremists,”
says PERIL Associate Director, Brian Hughes, Ph.D. “Whether
you’re a teacher, a counselor, coach, clergy, whomever—there’s
something unique that you bring to the table, which will help you
reach that youth.”

The _Building Networks_ guide delves into those unique roles with
specific guidance trusted adults can use to make inroads with young
people. Coaches, for example, can harness team sports’ camaraderie
and emotional undulations to hold conversations about respect, healthy
relationships and harmful gender stereotypes such as hypermasculinity.
Similarly, religious leaders within the community are well positioned
to inspire ongoing community projects fostering inclusion and
resilience in the wake of national tragedies and local controversies.

In addition to focusing on the community level and investing in
noncarceral approaches, the _Building Networks_ guide also seeks to
center the needs of those targeted or harmed by hateful language and
actions. While radicalization depends on the free will of the young
person imbibing that content, individuals who hold targeted and
marginalized identities are not afforded the choice of whether to
experience these harms. Trusted adults in young people’s lives must
show up, engage and advocate. Sometimes supporting a young person
targeted by hate-fueled words and actions means simply listening and
recording. Other times it means promoting inclusive policies and
actively creating spaces where young people feel safe, respected and
cared for.

The SPLC and PERIL also agree that transparency is crucial in
responsibly developing preventative resources. To test the efficacy of
the _Building Networks_ guide, PERIL conducted an impact study
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who interact with and care for young people in some capacity. This
process consisted of pretesting participants’ base knowledge of
radicalization as well as their capacity and willingness to intervene
on behalf of a vulnerable young person. Then, after participants read
the guide, a post-test with the same questions was administered to
determine “subjects’ aggregate change in awareness and knowledge
about radicalization as well as capacity, capability, confidence and
willingness to intervene.” Through this methodology, our study found
the guide to be highly effective at bolstering community resilience to
extremist manipulation.

More specifically, in just over 12 minutes spent reading the guide,
85% of participants reported understanding how young people become
radicalized online either “mostly” or “a great deal.” Further,
study participants’ post-test scores reflected a 35% increase in
overall understanding of extremism-related topics and pathways to
radicalization. After reading the _Building Networks_ guide, “74%
of participants who were previously unsure or not aware became aware
of filter bubbles,” 45.39% became aware of scientific racism, 65.17%
became aware of moral disengagement, and 57.23% of impact study
participants became aware of the “great replacement” conspiracy
theory.

Knowledge about pathways to radicalization and warning signs of
susceptibility to harmful beliefs are foundational to helping young
people stay safe as they navigate an increasingly online world. When
trusted adults are equipped with information about conspiracies like
the “great replacement”
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scientific racism, they can help young people better understand the
insidious tendrils that manipulate people into believing harmful and
bigoted ideas.

However, such knowledge is largely ineffective if adults do not act on
that knowledge. With study participants reporting a 29% increase in
overall capacity to address extremism, the _Building Networks_ guide
has been demonstrated to empower informed caregivers and trusted
adults to act on behalf of young people. Survey respondents reported
high levels of confidence after reading the guide, with 77% feeling
“‘mostly’ or ‘a great deal’ prepared to talk with youth
about online extremism” and 76% feeling “mostly” or
“greatly” prepared to intervene if they suspect that a young
person in their life has encountered extremist values.

Across demographics, geography and caregiver roles, the impact study
emphasized the collective nature that effectively challenging
extremist radicalization necessitates. Older study participants
reported a higher willingness to discuss extremism-related topics with
youth, those living in a rural area were found to be significantly
more capable of engaging young people on topics related to extremism
than respondents in large cities, and women scored higher on post-test
knowledge accuracy than men.

“Mental health providers and youth mentors also did exceptionally
well in the impact study,” says Hughes, PERIL’s associate
director. After reading the guide, this group of trusted adults
reported a significant increase in their capacity, capability,
confidence and willingness to address extremism with young people.
“If we are going to build an effective, noncarceral approach to
preventing extremism,” says Hughes, “people in the therapeutic
professions and youth mentors especially have to be equipped with all
the knowledge and resources we can provide.”

With these impact study results, we know that effectively challenging
hate, extremism, mis- and disinformation is within our grasp if only
we reinforce our whole-of-community strengths. The _Building
Networks_ guide, “as it seeks to empower all trusted adults in a
young person’s life,” says Hughes, “recognizes and elevates the
need for diverse perspectives” as a foundational component of the
movement towards a just, equitable and inclusive society.

_Lydia Bates
[[link removed]] is the
program manager of Partnerships in the Southern Poverty Law Center’s
Intelligence Project._

 

* Education
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* extremism
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* teaching resilience
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