Abstract
The Peer to Peer (P2P): Challenging Extremism initiative, which counters violent extremism through youth engagement, is a partnership between an interagency government team and EdVenture Partners, a private organization that manages experiential learning initiatives using a peer-to-peer approach. The initiative tasks university students across the globe to counter extremism among their peers and in their communities, by creating and implementing, over the course of a school term, a social or digital initiative, product, or tool designed to empower their peers and counter hate. At the time of writing, more than two thousand students from more than ninety-five universities in more than thirty countries have been involved in the initiative, which is specifically designed to capitalize on public-private partnerships.
The importance of educating and organizing youth against violent extremism cannot be understated. Most recruits to violent extremist groups are in their twenties, with some even younger (Soufan Group 2015). It is, therefore, important to reach and influence vulnerable youth before they are radicalized. One strategy currently under way, from EdVenture Partners (EVP), leverages the college education market to do just this.
EVP is a private organization dedicated to developing innovative industry-education partnership programs using a peer-to-peer approach. EVP organizes, manages, and facilitates collegiate programs that run as part of a class or student organization. EVP first connects the students with a program partner, a public or private organization or trade association, that is looking to reach the college market. For example, a vehicle manufacturer may want to market its latest vehicle to college students. EVP would then have student teams perform research, design a campaign, and implement this campaign to market the latest vehicle to their peers. Student teams are given a budget and can use this money for their campaigns. The participating students decide what tactics, strategies, and creative direction will work best to both accomplish their set objectives and impact their peers. At the end of the term, students prove the effectiveness of their chosen tactics and approaches to EVP and their program partner. The program is learn-by-doing and, therefore, provides real-world experience.
In fall 2014, EVP was hired by the U.S. government to begin an effort to engage college students in the fight against extremism. Because previous countering violent extremism (CVE) campaigns had been designed by government insiders, the EVP approach was novel, directly activating youth to combat hate and extremism among their peers. EVP had previously worked with the U.S. Department of State, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on similar collaborations. EVP worked with the White House National Security Council, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of State, and the National Counterterrorism Center to bring the first iteration of Peer to Peer (P2P): Challenging Extremism to life. The program launched in January 2015 at twenty-three universities worldwide. Facebook joined as a technology partner in fall 2015 to provide additional resources and support to participating university teams.
P2P was one of many exchange programs engaged in the fight against extremism. As Evan Ryan, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, put it, “We are always looking for innovative ways to engage new audiences, and the hundreds of brilliant university students participating in P2P are helping us achieve that goal” (Ryan 2016). This article describes the design, development, and implementation of the P2P: Challenging Extremism initiative and provides recommendations on how this initiative can inspire and inform additional CVE youth strategies.
Strategy and Design
EVP uses a peer-to-peer approach, because it believes that individuals are in the best position to reach and motivate their fellow peers to bring about social change. EVP has been using this peer-to-peer method for more than 25 years with successful results, including peer-to-peer programs with Honda in which university students promoted Honda vehicles to their peers. As Tom Peyton, the assistant vice president at American Honda Motor Corporation, Inc., put it, “There is no better way to learn how to talk to students than from students. They study your company … and tell you this is working for you, or this isn’t working and how to change it.” 1
In any EVP program, students, enrolled in a relevant course or as part of an academic organization at a college or university, become the program partner’s on-campus marketing agency. Program partners may be any organization looking to reach and impact the college marketplace. Program partners have included, for example, the American Honda Motor Corporation, American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, the FBI, the CIA, and Chevrolet. Over the course of an academic term, these nascent student-agencies design, develop, execute, and analyze an integrated marketing and communications campaign on behalf of the program partner. EVP provides students and faculty members with resources and an in-depth project brief that provides parameters and guidelines for their work throughout the term. Each team is required to complete the same objectives and meet the same program milestones. Participating teams submit an overview of their campaign and implementation successes at the end of the term, and top teams win scholarship awards and recognition. The number of colleges and universities competing each term varies by program. Typically, only one team participates per college or university, but this varies.
This experiential learning design has been shown to be an effective and impactful teaching method (Kolb 1984). From the students’ standpoint, consulting-based programs within an experiential learning environment provide benefits such as developing leadership skills and using data and information more effectively to make strategic decisions (D’Angelo, Macaleer, and Meier 2015). The peer-to-peer approach is designed to offer a mutually beneficial relationship to all stakeholders involved in the program.
Program Process
Each term, P2P: Challenging Extremism participants follow the program process outlined below:
Setup
For the P2P initiative, EVP and the U.S. government interagency team set the objectives and developed the project brief that all teams from each participating university used as their guide throughout the term. The project brief provided background information on extremism and the U.S. government interagency team and stated the program objectives and target audience. It also defined measures of success and outlined program and submission requirements.
The students brought together through this initiative were challenged to consider not only how they might counter current extremist messaging and violent extremists’ use of digital technologies, but also how to empower positive alternative narratives, models, and pathways that advocate for cultural and religious freedoms, economic production, opportunity through the power of innovation, and living in a civil society, for example.
The program objectives were to design, pilot, implement, and measure the success of a social or digital initiative, product, or tool that motivates or empowers students to become involved in CVE among uncommitted populations, a silent majority, civic-minded individuals, or at-risk youth. Uncommitted populations have formed no opinion about the violent extremist narrative and therefore have not been involved in preventing or promoting it. The silent majority are those who oppose violent extremism but currently are not active in raising public awareness about it or broader prevention efforts. Civic-minded individuals are interested in the public good but not necessarily focused on preventing radicalization and/or engaging in grassroots CVE efforts. At-risk youth are those who are exposed to the violent extremist narrative and vulnerable to radicalization.
Students created initiatives, products, and tools to counter violent extremism in these populations by building communities of interest or networks focused on living shared values that counter violent extremism through action. Broadly, the program encouraged students to come up with various campaigns tailored to their communities and that would resonate with their peers. The program is intended to foster creativity and includes a wide spectrum of strategies and ideas for countering extremism.
School confirmations
EVP works to secure participating faculty from around the world, as determined by the U.S. Department of State and Facebook. Targeted countries vary each collegiate term (see Figure 10 for all P2P participants). Faculty members are contacted via personal phone calls and emails to explain the program, the requirements, and extend them an invitation to participate. Faculty members are required to sign an agreement to participate and to ensure their team will work toward the required objectives and deliverables and use funds appropriately. At the end of the term, if all deliverables and requirements are met, each university receives a $500 donation for their participation.
Launch
A representative from EVP is assigned to each team to guide the faculty and his or her students throughout the program. At the start of the term, the EVP representative provides the project brief and access to an online password-protected project workspace for each team. This workspace houses project resources and allows for communication among teammates and with their EVP representative.
To launch the program each term, a kick-off call is held with all teams, the U.S. government interagency team, Facebook, and EVP. Teams may ask questions and get clarification on the challenge during this call.
Implementation
Participating students begin by doing primary and secondary research on extremism and their target market to formulate their plans on how to effectively reach and impact their campus and community.
Student teams then design their campaign plan. Students must submit a creative brief, which outlines their strategy, tactics, and rationale to counter extremism, for approval by their EVP representative. EVP reviews each brief and works with the teams to answer any outstanding questions. Once the creative brief is approved, EVP provides each team $2,000 (USD equivalent) and $400 in Facebook ad credits to implement their proposed plans.
Students implement their social and digital initiatives, products, and tools on their campus, in their community, and across their country to get measurable results. Teams measure the effectiveness of their campaigns and initiatives using a variety of data and postcampaign research.
Measures of success include, for example:
Number of people who access the web portal of the initiative, product, or tool;
Number of people who “favorite” the web portal or digital platform or otherwise indicate their support for it;
Number of people who join the initiative, participate in its activities, and/or download/use a product or tool. Teams should also measure the quality of involvement (participation in a single event vs. volunteering for ongoing activities, support for marketing a product or tool vs. simply downloading it once, and so on);
Number of students on the team’s university campus who are aware of the initiative, product, or tool;
Number of social media references to the initiative, product, or tool;
Number of students who create their own initiatives to counter violent extremism as a result of their exposure to the team’s initiative, product, or tool;
Number of organizational partners and/or sponsors for the initiative, product, or tool;
The degree to which the project is self-sustaining. Examples of potential measures include financial base for continued operation; number of individuals or organizations that have agreed to continue the initiative, product, or tool; number of independent “spin-off” initiatives and their reach; and products or tools that members of the target audience have created and plan to continue using (this is not an exhaustive list of potential measures);
The degree to which the project inspired others to take action to counter violent extremism and moving from simply informing others about violent extremism to inspiring others to “do something,” as measured through qualitative research and testimonials.
During the implementation phase, an EVP representative is available to answer questions, provide support, and keep teams on track with deadlines, reminders, and clarifications.
Submissions and judging
Teams prepare a comprehensive submission detailing all of their efforts. The submission must be electronically delivered to EVP by the end of each term. EVP sorts and organizes all submissions to prepare them for judging. EVP asks nonparticipating academic faculty to act as the judges for the competition. Each submission is judged using a scorecard designed to match the task, objectives, and deliverables of the initiative.
After the first round of judging, EVP tallies the votes to determine top contenders. EVP then distributes the top submissions to the U.S. Department of State, interagency team, and Facebook for final decisions.
Awards
Awards are used to recognize top teams for their work and impact throughout the term. This includes recognition of the participating faculty and school, as well as the individual students who make up the team. Awards encourage competition among teams to work toward a goal and produce an impact. Awards also include national and/or international travel opportunities for students.
Three top overall teams are invited by the U.S. Department of State and interagency team to travel to Washington, D.C., to present their campaigns to an audience of public and private sector officials. Facebook also recognizes an additional top three teams as part of the Facebook Global Digital Challenge. These teams are chosen based on their strategic use and successful integration of Facebook into their campaigns and tactics.
EVP announces top teams, organizes travel and logistics for participating students, and attends rehearsals for each team before the presentations. At both the U.S. Department of State and Facebook presentations, the presenting teams are placed into final ranking based on their campaign successes. Scholarship awards are given for first, second, and third place in the amounts of $5,000, $3,000, and $1,000, respectively.
Starting with the second iteration of the program, honorable mention teams were also invited to Washington, D.C., for a youth marketplace of ideas about countering and preventing extremism. At the youth marketplace, the teams showcased their campaigns and successes. The marketplace allowed government officials and private-sector attendees to see a broad spectrum of strategies, campaigns, and creative tactics for countering hate and extremism across the globe.
Top international teams are invited to participate in an international visitor leadership program (IVLP) with the U.S. Department of State after the competition. These top students and faculty members travel to different cities across the United States to continue the discussion about countering extremism and their campaigns.
Conclusion
At the end of each term, campaign assets, resources, and results from all participating teams are transferred via EVP to the U.S. Department of State, interagency team, and Facebook as actionable ideas that may be used in the effort to combat global extremism. Teams are also encouraged to continue implementing their campaigns (unfunded or with funds from outside sources) after the conclusion of their participation in P2P.
Execution
Pilot program
The pilot program was implemented over the course of the spring 2015 academic term, from January 2015 through June 2015. The pilot included twenty-three university participants and more than six hundred students from ten countries. Teams used a variety of tactics and approaches to empower their communities and peers to reject extremism. Below is a snapshot of the campaigns from the top three teams.
Missouri State University (Springfield, Missouri, United States)
Sixteen students formed the team from Missouri State University (MSU). Their campaign, One95, signifies that countering extremism “starts with just one person, one community, and one hundred ninety-five countries, all with one goal: to end violent extremism” (see Figure 1). Campaign highlights included documentary videos, community initiatives, and a tweet-a-thon. The MSU campaign also reached out to a younger audience (Generation Z: 11- to 20-year-olds), providing downloadable lesson packets to educators with worksheets, posters, trivia games and more to use when educating their students on extremism. The campaign included a virtual international exchange between Allen Village School in Kansas City, Missouri, and The American Nicaraguan School in Managua, Nicaragua. In all, the campaign garnered more than 174,000 social media impressions and reached seventy-five countries. 2
One95 Team Members, Missouri State University
Curtin University (Perth, Australia)
The team from Curtin University was an honors-level social media class comprising fifteen undergraduates. The focus of this team’s campaign was the creation of a mobile application called 52Jumaa, which translates to 52 Fridays (see Figure 2). This interactive application provided personalized experiences and challenges to users, while encouraging positive behavior among Muslim youth. The user would select goals she or he would like to achieve, such as “being more helpful to others.” The application then provided challenges that corresponded with the behavior, such as “feed a homeless person.” If the user completed the challenge, she or he would get a reward in the application from one to three stars. A puzzle was completed after twelve stars. Users were encouraged to collect stars and complete puzzles. The application is downloadable for free and adaptable to different cultural and religious backgrounds. 3
The Mobile Application, 52Jumaa
Mount Royal University (Calgary, Alberta, Canada)
The Mount Royal team consisted of seventy-five students from three different marketing classes. The theme of their campaign was, We Are Not Them, abbreviated as WANT. The WANT movement was based on five pillars—community, connection, peace, understanding, and insight—and it was designed to show that violent extremists are a misrepresentation of the Islamic religion and the Muslim culture. The WANT movement consisted of a week-long promotion on campus with different outreach and educational tactics (see Figure 3). Tactics included a portrait project that sought to create a dialog between Muslim and non-Muslim peers by displaying black-and-white photographs of university students with sound clips that described the students and dispelled myths and misconceptions.
Creative Piece Designed by the Team at Mount Royal University
The team reported that their campaign reached more than 246,700 audience members, with $10,450 worth of earned media and an average of 5 minutes of engagement from those who interacted with their campaign. 4
Second iteration
The second iteration ran over the fall 2015 academic term, from August 2015 through February 2016. This installment saw an increase in participants with forty-five universities and more than nine hundred students from seventeen countries. The total campus population reach of all participating schools was more than 800,000. The second iteration saw even more variety in campaign tactics. Below are snapshots from the top three U.S. Department of State teams as well as the Facebook Global Digital Challenge winners.
Lahore University of Management Sciences (Lahore, Pakistan)
A team of six students from the course “Introduction to Western Political Philosophy” at Lahore University of Management Sciences designed the “FATE - From Apathy to Empathy” campaign. This campaign addressed the desensitization and apathy toward extremism that students saw in their society. To address these issues, the team approached them from multiple angles, including awareness, education, tourism, female empowerment, and activism. To increase awareness, the team created the #IChallengeExtremism campaign that asked for students to write personalized messages on cards to protest extremism (see Figure 4). The educational arm of their campaign included distribution of pamphlets at Rehmat Ali Boys High School to inspire the students there to stand up to the apathy of extremism. The tourism angle included partnering with a local tour company to lead a tour through Lahore, going to different religious communities to inspire peaceful coexistence. The idea was to share the religious diversity of Lahore with tourists to counter extremism and promote the revival of tourism. The team reported that their campaign received more than 448,000 Facebook impressions, more than one thousand Twitter impressions, 338 website clicks, and 194 Instagram followers. 5
Participant in the #IChallengeExtremism Campaign
United States Military Academy (West Point, New York, United States)
A team of fifteen in a Combatting Terrorism course at West Point took the approach of building a community to subtly discourage at-risk youth from joining ISIS (see Figure 5). The team wanted to take a different approach than some other campaigns, which outright dissuaded Westerners from joining the Islamic State. The team members believed at-risk youth perceived these campaigns as biased. Instead, the team set out to create a credible online community where at-risk youth could learn, explore, and discuss relevant topics and issues, such as Islamophobia, the meaning of the word jihad, and extremism in religious communities. The team used social media to funnel participants to their main campaign platform, their website. The team reported 3,786 page views of their site. 6
Team Members Strategizing at the United States Military Academy
Università della Svizzera italiana (Lugano, Switzerland)
The team from Università della Svizzera italiana was made up of twelve students in an E Government course. This team wanted to raise awareness about extremists’ historical destruction of monuments and sculptures, such as the destruction of archeological sites at Nimrud, Palmyra, and Hatra, and did so by creating the Faces4Heritage campaign (see Figure 6). The campaign included a Facebook tool that allowed users to combine half of their face with an image of one of four historical statues that were destroyed by extremists at the Nimrud Palace, Nineveh site, or Palmyra site. Their campaign results included 5,846 page views of their website with visitors from more than one hundred countries. Their Facebook page garnered more than twenty-six hundred likes, and the team reported 1,132,355 Facebook impressions at the time of submission. 7
Faces4Heritage Campaign Logo
From the Facebook global digital challenge
Turku School of Economics (Turku, Finland)
More than fifty students in a Brand Management course made up the team from Turku School of Economics. This team’s approach was to target the increased number of asylum seekers in Finland after learning that these type of refugees are often not provided ample information about their country of refuge. The team’s strategy consisted of both online and offline tactics (see Figure 7). Their online strategy included a website and social media; they also created a mobile application, “About Turku,” designed to teach users about Finnish society. Their offline events included a football game played among Finns, asylum seekers, and refugees as well as a restaurant day where asylum seekers could share their cultures through food. The team reported 12,700 page views of their website, 650,000 social media impressions, and more than 1,300,000 impressions from print media. 8
A Creative Piece Designed by the Team at the Turku School of Economics
Gulf University for Science and Technology (Kuwait City, Kuwait)
A team of twenty-five students from Writing for Public Relations and Advertising courses at Gulf University for Science and Technology created the Raise Your Words campaign (see Figure 8). This campaign was designed to empower the silent majority and encourage open discussions and communications about hate and extremism. The campaign focused on positivity as a narrative. Tactics included seminars on terrorism, a social media contest for sharing quotes about peace and tolerance, a campus event, and social media outreach. The team reported more than 530,000 Facebook impressions, more than thirty-four thousand video views, and 276 participants in their social media contest. 9
A Creative Piece from the Raise Your Words Campaign
University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Little Rock, Arkansas, United States)
The University of Arkansas, Little Rock, team consisted of sixteen students in an Integrated Marketing Communications course. The team’s campaign, #7Strong, was designed in hopes of uniting the 7 billion people across seven continents. Campaign participants were encouraged to unite against extremism with the #RaiseAFlag campaign, which asked people to flag inappropriate social media content that promoted violent extremism (see Figure 9). The team reported that their campaign reached more than 164,000 on Facebook, had video views of more than seven thousand, and forty-five countries were reached by their campaign. 10
Creative material used to promote the #RaiseAFlag campaign
Third iteration: Spring 2016
The third iteration of P2P: Countering Extremism consisted of fifty-three teams (thirty-three international and twenty domestic) participating, with more than nine hundred students. The final competition and awards for top teams was held at the end of June 2016. The U.S. Department of State awarded first place to Rochester Institute of Technology (United States), second place to Vesalius College (Belgium), and third place to Khazar University (Azerbaijan). Facebook also recognized four top teams: first place was a tie between Laal-u-Anar Foundation (Afghanistan) and Utrecht University (the Netherlands), second place went to College of Europe (Belgium), and third place to Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (Spain).
Continued growth: Fall 2016 and beyond
The fourth iteration of the P2P: Challenging Extremism program is taking place over the fall 2016 college term, from August 2016 through January 2017. Facebook has decided to greatly increase the global reach of the program to allow for additional school participants. The goal is to have 50 domestic teams and 125 international teams for the fall 2016 iteration. At the time of writing, there were 50 domestic teams and 119 international teams participating.
Reach and Impact
Key data
The reach of the P2P: Challenging Extremism program can be measured by the number of participants and the number of universities and colleges involved in the initiative. The first three iterations of P2P: Challenging Extremism included more than two thousand student participants at ninety universities in more than thirty countries worldwide (see Figure 10). The fourth iteration of P2P: Challenging Extremism is expected to bring the program totals to more than four thousand students at more than two hundred universities in fifty countries worldwide.
Map of P2P: Challenging Extremism Participating Teams, Including Prospective Fall 2016 Teams
Campaign data
Participating teams are asked to track social media data to measure the online impact and reach of their campaigns. At the time of writing, data were compiled from the first two iterations of P2P: Challenging Extremism. In these first two iterations, the implemented campaigns generated more than 5 million impressions on Facebook, more than 160,000 YouTube views, and gained sixteen thousand Twitter followers (see Table 1). With the program now entering its fourth iteration, the numbers continue to grow.
Aggregate Social Media Highlights as Reported by Teams Participating From First Two P2P: Challenging Extremism Programs
SOURCE: EVP (2016).
Media hits
P2P’s growing popularity has led to numerous media stories about the initiative and the role that college students are playing in CVE efforts alongside the U.S. government.
Top domestic and international media outlets that have featured the P2P: Challenging Extremism program include Wall Street Journal, Time, PBS NewsHour, Yahoo News, Foreign Policy, Daily Pakistan, National Public Radio, Yle (Yleisradio), Re / code, and Al-Arabiya.
Students are encouraged to promote their campaigns and the P2P: Challenging Extremism initiative to their local and national news outlets to produce more press coverage each program term.
Conference participation
The P2P: Challenging Extremism initiative has been featured at many CVE conferences and workshops domestically and abroad as well. Both EVP and participating teams have been invited to speak about the program and promote its efforts in the fight against extremism.
Conferences and workshops featuring P2P include the Sovereign Challenge (Washington, D.C.), Global Youth Summit Against Violent Extremism (New York, NY), Security Day in Belgium (Brussels, Belgium), The Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN) Education Meeting, 2015 International Counter-Terrorism Conference (Prague, Czech Republic) and The Commission on Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) (New York, NY), among others.
Regional events
There are also opportunities within the P2P: Challenging Extremism initiative for regional events and participation.
Los Angeles
As part of the Whitehouse CVE Summit in February 2015, grant money was provided to Los Angeles to develop community partnership programs. The Los Angeles Police Department used a portion of this grant to expand the P2P: Challenging Extremism program and fund additional university participants in the Los Angeles area. There were five additional Los Angeles–based university participants during the fall 2015 term (six Los Angeles–area schools in total).
The ability to fund the program locally allowed the program to make a larger footprint in the Los Angeles area, and at the same time showed the scalability and viability of the program on a regional level.
Colorado
The Office of Attorney General brought the P2P: Challenging Extremism program to its state. Funding was provided for three university participants in the state of Colorado to participate in the spring 2016 term.
At the end of the spring 2016 term, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Colorado gave an $11,000 grant to Community College of Aurora for placing first among the three Colorado university teams.
National Defense University – Near East South Asia Center
The center is using the Challenging Extremism program to increase participation among universities in the region, as well as to provide additional opportunities for recognition of teams among Near East South Asia (NESA). The center provided funding for five universities in the NESA region over the spring 2016 term.
At the end of the term, all participants in the NESA region, which includes countries in North Africa, the Gulf, Levant, South Asia, and Central Asia, are eligible for the NESA regional awards. These awards recognize the top three teams from the region. This provides additional opportunities for the students to win and for their campaigns to gain recognition. This also allows for regions to focus on the campaigns that are most impactful and meaningful to their area. 11
Scalability and Program Continuation
“The reason I did this was to maybe change some minds, to start something, some sort of revolution to the way people think. It starts small, it starts with us.”
The P2P: Challenging Extremism program will continue to directly involve youth in countering extremism as it continues to grow and increase its global reach, providing more opportunities to counter hate and extremism via digital and social initiatives, products, and tools. It is important to note that the program also allows the U.S. government to support strategies of intervention and prevention at the domestic community level.
Scalability
Continued domestic and international program growth
The initiative started with 23 university participants, increased to 45 during the second iteration, had 53 in the third installment, and aims to include 150 for the upcoming fourth iteration. By continually increasing the number of universities involved, the program can laterally expand its reach. More universities directly correlates to a larger variety of tactics, more student participants, and more campaigns to counter violent extremism and hate globally.
Regional involvement
Regions can get involved with P2P by providing funding to additional university participants in their region, much like Los Angeles did in the fall of 2015. This not only allows for greater impact of the program in a certain area, but it also localizes the program funding, ownership, and support. With this localized approach, regions are able to establish a partnership with the community to counter and prevent extremism.
Regions can also get involved with the P2P program by hosting regional award competitions. Increasing the competition within a certain area allows for more campaigns to gain recognition outside of the global competition. This approach also works as a motivator, allowing for more students and universities to be honored for their work. Regional competitions have the additional benefit of allowing a region to make a campaign unique to their culture and community.
Campaign continuation
P2P: Challenging Extremism is run on a collegiate term schedule. At the end of the term, student teams are encouraged to continue their work; however, there is not currently funding or assistance in place to aid teams in their efforts. Funding for top teams and teams with highly effective and scalable campaigns should be provided so that teams can continue their campaigns after their participation in P2P. Allowing campaigns to run longer, with economic and logistical support, would lead to more effective campaigns that have a greater reach and impact. Continuing successful campaigns would also allow teams to adjust their campaigns based on social and political events in order to stay relevant.
MSU, from the first term of P2P: Challenging Extremism, has continued its campaign. The MSU team won with its campaign, One95. The team developed a comprehensive campaign to encourage cross-cultural collaboration to fight extremism. The target market for the team’s campaign was Generation Z, after its research showed that this younger demographic was being targeted by extremists. Its plan to reach Generation Z included comprehensive education packets including Common Core lesson plans, videos, and trivia games that aimed to educate youth on aspects of extremism and online safety. After the end of the term, the Center Extremism Project (CEP) wanted to continue the One95 brand and education campaign. The team’s original brand and website are still in use today, while CEP continues to modify and evolve the brand and materials.
Conclusion
The school-based CVE initiative, P2P: Challenging Extremism, demonstrates a different approach to countering and preventing violent extremism. P2P’s peer-to-peer strategy allows for university students, who know their demographic best, to reach their peers and affect change organically. Moreover, with EVP and the backing and support of the interagency team at the U.S. government and Facebook, the initiative gains legitimacy.
Footnotes
Notes
Katie Moffett is a content marketing manager for EdVenture Partners (EVP), where she is tasked with developing the firm’s overall content strategy and brand. She has more than 10 years of experience in marketing, including her previous work managing collegiate experiential learning programs with EVP. She now promotes EVP’s P2P: Challenging Extremism initiative.
Tony Sgro is the founder and CEO of EdVenture Partners (EVP). EVP has built industry-education partnerships at more than eight hundred universities internationally to address societal challenges by connecting students, educators, and industry leaders. Sgro has more than 40 years of experience in marketing, advertising, and promotion. Sgro and his team at EVP created and manage the P2P: Challenging Extremism initiative.