Who we are

• We have worked with over 1,800 individual cases of radicalised persons with an Islamist extremist and right-wing extremist background within prisons – and many more outside prison – to change violent behaviour and extremist mind-sets.
• Violence Prevention Network pioneers solutions for multi-stakeholder partnerships to prevent and counter violent extremism by supporting and training public authorities, prison and probation services, police and security actors and civil society practitioners to facilitate effective prevention work.
• Our unique case management process facilitates targeted cooperation between security and non-security stakeholders on a daily basis based on joint needs and risk assessments, security protocols, and effective communication and decision-making for tailored interventions.

Director

Jonathan leads our international department, driving strategy, business, and product development. He is a subject matter expert in P/CVE, having led teams in this domain for over a decade, delivering terrorism prevention interventions in the public, private, and non-profit sectors.

Deputy Director

Rositsa supports the development, design and implementation of our international projects and consultancies, including as part of our engagement in the EC Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN). Rositsa supports the RAN PRISONS Working Group as well as RAN in the Western Balkans. Having worked with civil society, the private sector and academia, Rositsa has over 13 years of research, police advise and project management experience in the field of security, criminal justice and home affairs. Her thematic focusses include the prison-exit continuum, far-right extremism and strengthening civil society’s role in P/CVE.

Mid-level Expert Position

Hawa brings in over a decade experience in human security research, peacebuilding programming and strategic communication. She worked for the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and consulted for various agencies such as UN Women, UNDP, Kenya National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), Building Resilience to Civil Society (BRICS), Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the Global Network of Religions for Children (GNRC), Life and Peace institute (LPI) and the International Peace Support Training Centre (IPSTC). She has also held teaching responsibilities at the University of Bremen, Jacobs University and the University of Nairobi and was a visiting scholar at the Department of African and Afro-American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her latest assignment was research on processes of joining al-Shabaab in Somalia by Kenyan individuals.

Project Manager

Niv Zonis is supporting the work of the EU Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN). He supports the RAN PRISONS Working Group, focusing on issues such as P/CVE training for prison staff, multi-agency cooperation and exit work. He has ten years of experience in teaching and training and is a topical expert for Holocaust research.

Financial Project Manager

Chris works in Financial Management and Acquisition, where he contributes to the mobilisation of project funding and the preparation of proposals, based on his former experience working with international and civil society organisations. He manages cooperations with agencies at the European and international level and develops project concepts in the field of P/CVE.

P/CVE Consultant

Arwa Ben Ahmed is a P/CVE and legal Advisor for the International Department. Arwa`s background as an Attorney at Law and professional experience in working in diplomatic missions and international institutions enabled her to acquire a multidisciplinary expertise in public policy and project management of Counterterrorism and Extremism programmes, criminal justice reform, prisons and probation and collaboration with civil society.

Project Manager

Elena supports the EC Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN). Her areas of expertise include research and project management in the field of security and crime prevention, with a specific focus on the management of violent extremist offenders in the prison settings and on preventing violent radicalization through community engagement. Over the past 10 years, she worked with different international organisations, including UNICRI, UNCTED, and ICCT-The Hague.

Trainee

Jana supports the international team in assisting them in their daily tasks. Having previously studied Radicalism, Terrorism and Radicalism, she has an interest in issues focusing on P/CVE and Women and Radicalisation, de-radicalisation, and re-integration.

Trainee

David Tschöp is working for Violence Prevention Network since 2022 as a student assistant in both International and Research department. He studies Social Sciences in Master at Humboldt University in Berlin with a focus on Radicalization and Extremism, the formation of extremist attitudes (islamist, right-wing, populist) and statistics. He has working experience in the fields of International Politics (Federal Foreign Office) as well as by working for the German Centre for Integration and Migration Research.