United Nations-Summit Sports Working Group

This working group will draft and foster adoption of The Game Plan – a sport-specific version of the United Nations Secretary General’s Action Plan Against Hate Speech. The goal is to have all sports of the world participating in Game Plan anti-hate strategies by YE 2026.

Education

This working group has two workstreams:

Higher Education

Composed of leaders of the interdisciplinary field of “Hate Studies,” this working group is focused on increasing “Hate Studies” teaching and research in graduate and undergraduate programs globally, with the goal of generating new scholarship and usable theories about how hate works, and what to do about it.

K-12 Education

Building on the experience of high school students at the 2022 Summit, this working group is developing a toolkit of educational approaches that can be deployed in the K-12 setting, and exploring ways in which the Summit itself can be a significant component of the educational process.

The Directory

This working group is compiling a comprehensive directory of all providers who work in the “anti-hate field,” indexed by specialty and geography, and available through a mobile app.

Voices of Survivors of Modern Day Hate

This group will capture the stories of the victims of modern day hate, using the expertise of documentarians and museums that are providing insights about how best to capture, convey and preserve those stories. A virtual reality “metaverse” experience is anticipated to be a part of the ultimate work product, with the goal of creating a multi-media exhibit that will be housed in Pittsburgh when it is completed.

Community Education through Film

This Pittsburgh-based pilot project will use Patrice O’Neil’s film Repairing The World to trigger facilitated conversations at various community institutions that would be expected to exist in other cities (e.g., YMCA, community foundation, Jewish community center, Boys & Girls clubs). The goal is to create a blueprint that other communities could replicate to foster community education and communication through deployment of this film and its portrayal of the Pittsburgh community’s response to hate-fueled violence.

Judicial Process

This working group is composed of judges, lawyers, parties and other participants in the judicial process, will be addressing solutions that improve the operation of rule of law in cases involving hate-fueled identity-based violence.

Judicial Toolkit

Pro se defendants have employed tactics to both weaponize and neutralize the judicial process. This toolkit will identify how these issues have manifested in past cases, and present the tools and techniques available to address these challenges.

Judicial Process From A Survivor Perspective

Survivors of identity-based violence (including family members) will analyze their experience within the judicial system and provide concrete recommendations for policies and practices that would improve the trial experience of victims and their families.

First Amendment

One of the Keynotes at the Inaugural Summit addressed the conceptual issue of whether current First Amendment legal frameworks still hold true in the age of social media. This working group will examine whether there should be a new paradigm for traditional legal precepts.

Communication Across the Divide

This working group will look at effective ways to communicate with individuals who are either in violent hate groups or at high risk of recruitment into violent hate groups. Many communication efforts are directed to the general community, but few are focused on those most at risk of recruitment to violence or actively involved in violent groups or movements. This working group will explore how to identify and effectively communicate with “at risk” individuals, and how to measure the impact of that communication.

Survivors in Action

Composed of family members of victims of hate-fueled violence, this working group will be developing a framework to more effectively marshal the uniquely powerful and knowledgeable lived experience of survivors of hate-fueled violence, whether in fashioning and executing response strategies, prevention, policy, or peer support, including during the criminal prosecution of perpetrators.

Youth Red Flags

This working group is creating a resource for lay people, including parents and other family members, educators, fellow students and co-workers, to identify the red flags associated with a descent into violent extremism among young people. The resource will also identify common causes for the development of those behaviors and provide practical strategies across systems (e.g. schools, counseling and mental health facilities) to address those behaviors and their root causes.

Activating the Financial Sector

This working group will develop strategies to align the academic tracking of violent extremists with financial institutions which already are equipped to monitor and interdict funding of terrorism and other money laundering activity. At present, global financial institutions monitor financial flows for terrorism finance, but they are often looking for a needle in the haystack. Reciprocally, academic researchers and NGOs are looking at specific hate groups in real time (the needles) but they don’t have the systems to monitor the global flows of money (the haystack). By aligning these disparate groups, this working group will develop a framework to better prevent the financing of violent hate-fueled violence. This group will also examine the growing use of cryptocurrency in the financing of violent hate.

Toolkit for Law Enforcement

Building on the Summit’s law enforcement track, this working group will develop a centralized repository containing a comprehensive suite of resources that police departments can deploy to better prevent and respond to hate-driven violence, including written materials, live trainings, and virtual learning tools.

Upstanders in Action

An increasing number of communities are becoming aware of a rise in identity-based hate within their communities and want to take steps to counter it. But where and how do they begin? This working group will look at the initial steps that community groups can take to address manifestations of hate and intimidation at the community level.

Health Systems

Composed of experts in medicine, psychology and social work, among other fields. This working group is focused on three deliverables:

Professional Continuing Education

This group is creating a series of professional continuing education trainings on the treatment of patients involved in or at risk of engaging in violent extremism, with the additional initiative of working with national professional organizations and state accrediting bodies to include this topic in the list of mandatory annual continuing education topics.

Peer Mentors

This group is developing a “peer mentor” model for individuals previously involved in violent activities who are now engaged in working with those seeking to avoid or exit those groups. This model will focus on ensuring both appropriate treatment practices and also the well-being of the peer mentors themselves.

Certification

This group is developing a pathway for professional certification(s) in behavioral threat assessment for targeted violence.

Innovations in State Prevention

Early intervention is crucial in preventing acts of violence and reaching people considering violence before they pose a threat to themselves or others. To reach people as early as possible, it is critical we need to meet them where they are – which is primarily online. This panel reflects on the innovative work conducted through the New York State Online Violence Prevention Model and how states can support a multi-disciplinary violence prevention model to safeguard communities.

System of Systems

In Europe, a government-funded, multilateral, interdisciplinary organization called the Radicalization Awareness Network (RAN) coordinates work to counter violent extremism. This working group is examining ways in which the US and Canada, both of which have practitioner networks, could learn from the RAN network and the reverse, and how the RAN, the United States and Canada could work more effectively and efficiently together.

Video Games

This working group, composed of academics, technologists, artists, communications experts, behavioral scientists, and more, is analyzing how extremist groups are using video games and e-sports for recruitment; the steps that commercial gaming companies are taking to curtail improper use of their communities; and how these avenues could become a vehicle for positive messaging to the hardest-to-reach constituencies.

Community Preparedness and Tech

This working group brings together private tech- enabled organizations to assess how those private networks can better coordinate with both commercial platforms and government systems to further awareness and prevention.

Models of Social Connectedness and Reintegration

Increasing evidence suggests that lack of social connectedness is a factor that can make someone vulnerable to recruitment into violent extremism. At the other end of the spectrum, research is increasingly demonstrating that those disassociating from extremist groups can do so more effectively with the benefit of programs and practices that foster social connectedness in their communities. This working group will develop a resource guide for best practices to promote social connectedness in communities both before and after individuals experience violent extremism.

Funder Collaborative

Through this working group leading private philanthropists interested in the anti-hate space will develop a framework for how philanthropies can best support worthy efforts to counter hate-fueled violence, including the development of specified metrics of success that funders could consider. This working group is also examining how social impact investors can drive the creation of state funded models.

Map the Manifesto

A number of events of mass violence involve some version of a “manifesto” which is copied in one form or another by all of the perpetrators. This working group will address whether this manifesto provides an entry point for the prevention of violence.

Metrics of Success

Particularly in the prevention area, there are few effective measures of successful implementation. This working group will assess existing techniques for measuring the efficacy of various types of measures, and will build models that allow meaningful evaluation and comparison of diverse approaches.

Tech Collaboration

This working group composed of tech companies and NGOs is collaboratively working on strategies to identify and remove harmful content from online platforms.

Hate and Bias Response-Community Collaboration

Using Pittsburgh as a pilot, this working group is developing a model to create an organized system of “anti-hate first responders” at the local level.

Protecting the Protectors

Researchers, investigators, clinicians and social workers working on the front lines with high risk individuals play a vital role in uncovering insights, analyzing patterns, and developing strategies to mitigate the threat of terrorism. However, this important work often exposes these professionals to unique challenges that can impact both their safety and mental well-being. Comprised of a diverse range of experts, including academic researchers, psychologists, security professionals, and mental health specialists, the working group focus on two deliverables:

Best practices manual

This group will prepare a best practices manual for creating a supportive environment that fosters mental well-being and offers resources and resilience-building mechanisms tailored to the unique needs of P/CVE practitioners.

Operational security toolkit

This group will develop an operational security toolkit and guide developed specifically for professionals working in the P/CVE space, to help ensure their safety while preserving the integrity of their work.

Facilitating Access To Data

In the fight against terrorism and violent extremism, access to comprehensive and timely data is paramount for researchers to gain insights, analyze trends, and develop effective strategies. However, the collection, availability and accessibility of such data can create barriers that hinder the progress of research, analysis, and prevention efforts. Comprised of a diverse coalition of experts, including researchers, data scientists, policy analysts, industry, and representatives from relevant organizations, this working group will focus on three deliverables.

Dataset Inventory

This group will create a comprehensive inventory of existing terrorism and violent extremism-related datasets, including both publicly available and restricted-access data sources.

Data-sharing Best Practices

This group will develop a set of guidelines and best practices for the responsible sharing of terrorism and violent extremism-related datasets, including the importance of privacy, ethics, and security while facilitating data-sharing among relevant stakeholders.

Research Agenda

This group will create a listing that prioritizes the key research questions that would move the field forward.