Countering Extremism and Promoting Peaceful Action

The S4 team has spent over a decade helping our grassroots partners build alternatives to violent political action. We believe that a robust, non-violent, civil society provides a critical counterweight to the forces that often lead to radicalization and violence. Our methods focus on building and promoting effective civic action and offering engaged citizens options other than the pull of violent extremism. These actions, and the messaging around them, offer engaged citizens options other than the pull of violent extremism. Though our methods are grounded in years of experience and are driven by best practices, we believe that ground truths must drive the details. Therefore, we work with our partners to understand the constraints and opportunities in their environments and together build programs that account for these realities. The result is a civil resistance and anti-extremism model that centers on a resilient, effective, and non-violent civil society and provides a viable alternative to forces of radicalization, while still providing space for non-violent expression of grievances.