Approach
PERIL maintains that the best way to reduce the threat of violent extremism is to employ a community-based, rigorously tested, public health approach. A growing body of evidence about what works to intervene in pathways to violent extremism demonstrates that it is possible to equip the public with tools that shore up their capacity and resilience while simultaneously protecting the right to free speech and reducing the need for security-based responses. These methods focus on primary methods of intervention, with the goal of building resilience against polarization, radicalization, and their correlates on the individual, communal, state, and federal levels. The best of these approaches can be brought under the umbrella of a “public health” strategy to address these issues.
PERIL’s role in the policy world is to partner with and to advise Federal, State, and Local officials in order to empower individuals and communities to intervene and interrupt early radicalization, and to support their efforts to build resilience. This work follows many paths, from producing Policy Statements to serving on State Commissions to holding briefings and training sessions for elected officials and their teams. If you would like to partner with PERIL, please connect with our policy team.
