In this article, the authors discuss the evaluation of three programs: the World Organization for Resource Development and Education’s Countering Violent Extremism program; the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s Safe Spaces Initiative; and the Peer-to-Peer Challenging Extremism Initiative.
The authors of this paper have the goal of helping to address long-standing challenges and informing future, locally led and community-based program design and evaluation practices. The paper reports on a National Institute of Justice (NIJ)-supported evaluation, which included the examination of three programs, and contributes to society’s understanding of the effectiveness of policies, programs, and initiatives to prevent and counter violent extremism. The authors discuss each program: the World Organization for Resource Development and Education (WORDE) Countering Violent Extremism Program, the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s Safe Spaces Initiative, and the Peer-to-Peer Challenging Extremism Initiative; for each program, the authors present their key findings, followed by recommended practices for evaluation.