A consortium of researchers dedicated to improving the understanding of the human causes and consequences of terrorism

Training courses aim to build community resiliency across the country

START has recently launched online and in-person training courses aimed to bolster community resilience by educating community members about violent extremism and how to counter it. The new courses, all FEMA certified, are based on multidisciplinary, empirical research that examines terrorism and countering violent extremism.  

Coalition-Building for Countering Violent Extremism and Community Resilience,” (FEMA Course Number: MGT 459) is a two-day, in-person training that offers an opportunity for participants to develop a community-oriented plan for building partnerships and coalitions to address violent extremism and promote community resilience. It is built on the notion that prevention and intervention efforts to address violent extremism can best be undertaken through a community partnership approach that makes use of existing local capacities to handle and prevent violence.

Under the guidance of course instructors, community stakeholders will work together to design a plan for a multi-member CVE coalition that will assist in the implementation of CVE efforts at a local level.

Integrating Mental Health and Education Approaches into CVE,” (FEMA Course Number: AWR-363-W) is a 2.75-hour self-paced course that provides instruction on how educators and mental health professionals can collaboratively address the multidimensional needs of individuals and communities contending with violent extremism.  

Upon completing the training, participants will be able to identify tiers of involvement for mental health and education professionals in community-based efforts to counter violent extremism and identify existing practices and lessons-learned from the fields of mental health and education that may have implications for CVE.

Community-led Action in Response to Violent Extremism,” (FEMA Course Number: AWR-355-W) is a 4-hour self-paced online course that examines radicalization to violence and a spectrum of community-led efforts to foster resilience to violent extremism and radicalization to violence.

Through this course, participants explore research about violent extremism in the United States and a social science theory of radicalization to violence, and they are introduced to a variety of community-based CVE efforts.

The development and delivery of those three courses is funded by the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Training and Education Division.

These community-focused courses are a part of START’s larger portfolio of training courses, which includes courses on cyber threat mitigation, CBRN threats, and using the Global Terrorism Database, among others.  

For more information, visit START’s Training Course Catalog here.