With funding from the National Institute of Justice, START affiliates at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) evaluated the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s (MPAC) Safe Spaces program and found that the program as implemented was not successful, but some aspects showed potential and offered lessons that could help guide other programs and policies.
In addition to a full NIJ report and forthcoming scholarly article, the researchers worked with START employees at the University of Maryland to produce three new research briefs which address:
- How can a public health framework be applied to preventing violent extremism?
- What should program designers consider to successfully develop and implement a public health approach to preventing violent extremism?
- What does a community-based organization need to successfully implement a public health approach to preventing violent extremism?
This project was conducted by Stevan Weine, Chloe Polutnik Smith, William Braniff, Max Erdemandi and Liberty Day under Award Number NIJ 2015-ZA-BX-0003.