Youth Innovation Labs

The Youth Civil Activism Network (YouthCAN) is designed to upscale and optimise grassroots efforts to combat violent extremism of all forms. It connects a wide array of youth activists from around the world, including artists, tech entrepreneurs, civil society leaders, youth workers, filmmakers, cartoonists, students and innovators. The network was
launched to enable an ongoing and international exchange of practices and know-how, and to foster collaboration and co-creation between its members. Through the network, young people’s needs and views are also represented to policy makers.
YouthCAN is a global network. First launched to Europe at the Youth Against Violent Extremism conference in Oslo, June 2015. The network has since expanded with Commonwealth YouthCAN launched in Malta, November 2015. The network currently has over 550 members from 85 countries. YouthCAN is managed by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). ISD specialises in creating unique networks and partnerships to innovate and hypercharge countering violent extremism (CVE) efforts both online and offline.
As a think tank, all of ISD’s research is action-oriented and leads to the development of project pilots, which in turn have rigorous methods and evaluation processes to assess what is working and what might be re-tailored or shifted.
Counter-narrative development and strategic communication projects are at the heart of ISD’s efforts. Over time, ISD has built networks of ‘credible messengers’ and partnered with private sector organisations to ensure that the support is given to target and scale effective counter-narrative projects sustainably, and sensitively. ISD, with support from
leading social media companies such as Google, Twitter, and Facebook, is also leading a data-driven approach. By turning analysis into action, and ‘learning by doing’, ISD are at the forefront of a new approach to countering extremism.

Please download to review the Toolkit. You may leave your responses in comment section.