The topic of prevention of violent extremism has increasingly been brought to the attention of local governments worldwide. While federal and national level agencies normally lead in thwarting planned plots by homegrown violent extremists of all types, the role of local governments in early prevention is paramount as they know their own communities, challenges, and public safety issues best. Since countering violent extremism (CVE) requires multi-sector “whole-of-community” engagement that increases resilience to recruitment to violence, local governments wishing to launch programming in this area must identify the unique resources and partners available in their communities. There is not a “one-size-fits-all” formula. Governments must be inclusive in their approach to ensure they are addressing the various forms that violent extremism can take, considering the input and viewpoints of a variety of citizens and organizations that can contribute, and avoid counter-productive actions or communications that can alienate or stigmatize. Sound challenging? It Is!

These and other issues related to local government engagement in countering violent extremism will be discussed at the 102nd ICMA Annual Conference Educational Session on “Community Efforts in Countering Violent Extremism”. On Tuesday September 27 from 3:30-4:40 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom 2501C, a distinguished panel of local government professionals will discuss how they made the decision to launch CVE engagement initiatives, who they turned to as partners, what some of the challenges were and what they learned along the way, and what advice they would give to other local government colleagues considering launching CVE programming.

Serving on the panel will be:

• Michel Kok, Senior Security Advisor for the City of Utrecht, the Netherlands
• Joumana Silyan-Saba, Mayor’s Office of Public Safety of the City of Los Angeles
• Sheriff Richard Stanek, Hennepin County, Minnesota
• Lt. Micheal Ward, Montgomery County Police Department, Maryland

The panel will be moderated by Vera Orloff, Project Leader for the ICMA’s new Department of State funded CVE project in the Balkans and Senior Consultant on CVE issues.

Come participate in this brand new Educational Session to hear what these local governments are doing to contribute to the global movement to counter violent extremism and to ask everything you ever wanted to know about community efforts in countering violent extremism.

For more information about the 102nd ICMA Annual Conference in Kansas City visit the conference page and download the conference app.