About The RecoRa Institute

The RecoRa Institute aims to empower street-level workers to build effective solutions to factors that can make individuals vulnerable to what is often called the “radicalisation process”. Our approach and policy perspectives are described more fully under the section 'Our Perspective'.

Our work is designed to build collaborative partnerships at national, regional and local levels. We use training as a tool  to build 'shared narratives' that link street-level workers with policy makers; police and security services with Local Authorities; and formal organisations with communities and street level workers.  We are happy to support organisations design their own specific workforce development strategies and resources; and to facilitate the development of underpinning knowldge and relationships in order to institutionalise safeguarding policy and practice - including developing interventions that deters or defects vulnerable individuals or groups from engaging in violence in the name of ideologies. 

The RecoRa institute is a formal partnership with a European Board responsible for developing the work of the Institute on a pan European level. It currently draws its membership from The U.K.. The Netherlands, and Sweden.. Our 'Articles of Agreement' allow for each country to establish an independent sub-board to manage and shape The RecoRa Institute within their own borders.  We currently have an U.K. in country Board and are working  to introduce in-country boards in the Netherlands and Sweden. Our aspiration is to have in-country boards within each of the EU States.

We believe that individuals are the creative force for systemic change, and therefore we use our graduate forum to build and develop relationships with individual policy makers, front-line staff and community activists from across the EU. Our Associate Members are also helping us to build a network of Cities.

The Graduate site is an active forum where people can exchange ideas and information through a  password protected site.  The graduates can access our course materials, guidance notes on their use, as well as supporting materials -such as videos, research reports etc..  More importantly, graduates can obtain advice and information from one another, and receive restricted news and information concerning new developments in policy and practice related to countering terrorism and other forms of violence underpinned by ideology.

 

The RecoRa Programme:  A designed process for embedding expertise utilising the training programmes and practical tools developed by The RecoRa Institute

 

These practical tools include:

• The use of a tool for recognising radicalisation to support the development of a local shared narrative designed to underpin collaborative partnerships

• The use of new tools for managing outcomes both at the level of action planning and within the design and assessment of specific projects

• A partnership approach to safeguarding individuals

• A specific tool to assist front line staff recognise signs of radicalisation and make professional judgments of when and how to intervene [There are specific tools for specific sectors]

• Tools to assist in the assessment and intervention planning for convicted terrorists and extremist offenders

• Content analysis that enables ideological based violence underpinned by Global Jihadist and right wing extremist narratives, to be integrated into wider violence reduction policies and practice

• Tailor made programmes for specific professionals {e.g, Prison and Probation staff, youth workers, et al} 

• A series of off-the-shelf training manuals for our two day courses

• A team of experienced Fellows who can provide facilitation and support  in the development of policy and practice in this area.

 

Our structure is unique in many ways:

• Our Institute links Governments, Research Institutions and private and community actors together into a co dependent think tank

• We are linked with research organisations yet we focus our attention on the development and delivery of practical tools that can be implemented at a local level

• We are linked with community activists and work to ensure that the perspective of individuals and groups who are in direct contact with and have influence within communities impact on the development of policies

• Our materials and practical approaches have been designed and tested with street level workers, security and police services, and policy makers in government within a number of EU countries

• We support local institutions develop direct interventions aimed at disengaging individuals from the radicalisation process - yet our primary concern is promoting significant practice and re- testing these in order to build the theories of change that can turn significant practice into best practice

• We support the networking of policy makers with community activists and professionals actively engaged in countering terrorism and addressing the impact of ideologicalal violence within communities.

• Finally, we seek not to make profit but to enable all of our materials to be embedded within local organisations in a way that reduces their reliance on external experts. This process of embedding expertise is further enabled by our commitment to provide ongoing support and development following our training to enable our work to become institutionalised

 

In summary, we are a co-dependent think tank that uses training and facilitation as a tool to build collaborative partnerships, underpinned by shared narratives. Our primary focus is empowering street-level workers, but we recognise that policy has a key role in enabling practice.

We focus on violence reduction, primarily global jihadist and radical right wing ideologies, and work to ensure that organisations have the expertise to utilise our materials to address the training and development needs of their staff and communities.

If you would like any further information, please contact us.

 

Becoming a Graduate

The RecoRa Institute builds relationships with organisations through individuals.This reflects our belief that relationships between individuals are key to building collaborative partnerships across organisations. We therefore work to develop graduates who are provided  with in depth training and support to understand and manage the range of training resources developed.

Organisations must have a graduate within their workforce to be eligible for a license to use and adapt  our materials for their organisational needs.  Once licensed organisations become Associate Members  and can train their own staff to deliver our materials

Graduates are provided access to our restricted pages which contains all our training materials, course notes, videos and reports.  They can also seek advice and support from other graduates through the on line forum

The Graduate is also the method we use to inform organisations of changes to our materials, policies and practice, research findings, and new insights to the tactics and methods used by extremist organisations.

If you would like to discuss becoming a Graduate, please contact us.

 

Becoming an Associate Member

Associate Members are organisations who are licensed to utilise our materials and embed them within their organisation.  The license has been designed to ensure that our materials are not used for profit, or provided to a third party who is engaged in making profit from their use. The license also ensures that their is a quality control mechanism in place that is not too onerous or costly on organisations. Our associate members must be either a formal governmental organisation, or a non for profit community based organisation.

The key terms of the license are that organisations:

• Maintain a Graduate of the Institute within their organisation who participates within our graduate forum.
• Agree not to utilise the materials in any event where there is a charge made to individuals or groups to participate within the event; 
• Not to employ or contract a third party  to supply the materials within any event.
• To have a partnership approved policy and protocol for keeping and managing the use of  sensitive materials and resources made available under the terms of the license. These resources may include example of materials used by Al Qaida or affiliated groups, as well as materials that demonstrate the ideologies of radical right wing organisations, including white power groups.
• To acknowledge the intellectual property rights of the RecoRa Institute and any  individual authors of the materials provided.

If you would like to discuss becoming an associate member, plesae contact us