To help its youth in poor neighborhoods and prevent them from falling into the hands of the armed group of the Islamic State (ISIS), the Belgian municipality of Molenbeek drew its inspiration ... in Quebec. Its social workers are beginning to develop methods that were developed here.
Thirty young Molenbeek of the 17 000 young people that live in this county are currently considered to be at risk of falling victim to radicalization.
As the CBC reported last November, shortly after the terrorist shootings in Paris, Quebec and representatives of the French Community of Belgium have signed a cooperation agreement on the fight against radicalization to enhance the exchange of expertise and best practices and to better equip field workers in Belgium.
Rachid Madrane, Minister of Youth Welfare of Belgium also took advantage of his visit to Quebec last fall to visit the new Centre for the prevention of radicalization in Montreal.
Established in March, the center offers counseling and psychosocial interventions to redirect potentially radicalized individuals towards full rehabilitation.
5 months later, the Quebec-Belgium cooperation progresses
Social workers from Molenbeek, trying defuse this radicalization crisis, returned from their training in Quebec "excited", says Sarah Turine, Deputy Mayor responsible for youth, prevention and social cohesion and intercultural dialogue. "In the community action plan, Quebec is more advanced than Belgium or France," she believes.
"In social work we lead now, we try to learn from what is done in Quebec," said Deputy Mayor who argues that the municipality of Molenbeek has now completely reformed its youth policy. The objective is to put young people at the heart of decisions, give them space to express themselves, so that they are not mere spectators and they have confidence in themselves and in the public institutions.
This was not done in the past, says Sarah Turine. "After the riots in poor neighborhoods of Brussels in the early 1990s, there was an awareness that these youth were abandoned. We then built sports facilities, community centers. "
It was a very occupational policy, which instead used to buy social peace, as if to say: "we give bread and games to young people, thinking that it would take their mind off their problems. "
Other sources of inspiration from Quebec or Canada?
Maybe we will improve the Canadian approaches to counter radicalization, and create other tools to help for our Belgian friends, that country seems to have become a veritable factory of jihadists.