Ultimately, the project will improve and facilitate the implementation of exit programs across the criminal justice system, namely in prison and probation settings. Hence, this project responds to one of the European Union's security concerns: the problem of radicalization leading to violent extremism. The objectives of WayOut Project is:

• To provide a detailed account of the current state of the art in deradicalisation research and other relevant disciplines related to desistance and rehabilitation;

• To develop a common framework to systematically evaluate exit programs;

• To create an integrated program based on approaches with proven effectiveness;

• To develop a training course on exit strategies to practitioners;

• To raise awareness among law enforcement officials about the benefits of implementing such programs.

European Conference on preventing polarisation & violent radicalisation: how to strengthen resilience

Six European projects on the prevention of polarisation and radicalisation, among which WayOut, are jointly organising an online conference on 26-29 April 2021.

More information about the event: 

You can already pre-register here.

At a later stage you will receive a separate invitation including the final registration form for the event.

WayOut Final Conference

The WayOut project (“Integrated Exit Program for Prison and Probation”), led by the University of Toulouse-Jean Jaurès holds its final conference the 15th and 16th February 2021 with a series of two online webinars on the project's main results and recommendations, concluding more than two years of intensive work (from November 2019 to February 2021). The conference was originally scheduled to take place in Paris, but the event was canceled because of the lockdown measures imposed throughout Europe in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Link to register

Link to join the event (Monday 15th) via Zoom

Link to join the event (Tuesday 16th) via Zoom

For further information:   Agenda Final Conference WayOut

Online course certification

The course on integrated exit programs based on learned lessons and what works will take place in two editions: the first one, the 27th and 29th January 2021; and, the second one: the 1st, 3rd and 5th February 2021.

This event foresees the participation of approximately 25 professionals from the diferent participating WayOut countries (France, Germany, Portugal, and The Netherlands) and other EU and third countries.

The training event is addressed to:

• Prison staff: Governors, prison officers, psychologists, educators, social workers.

• Probation staff: Directors, probation officers, psychologists, social workers.

• Community organizations (working closely with prison and probation services). Professionals from NGOs / CSOs, non-profit organizations, voluntary associations working with convicted persons or ex-offenders.

For further information: 

Course training program certification

The role of gender in exit programs

The 3rd November 2020, Violence Prevention Network (VPN) organises from Germany a European online discussion on gender-relevant aspects of exit work. Participation of International speakers is expected: Karen Winther, Dr. Joana Cook, Myassa Kraitt, Fabian Wichmann and Katherine Brown. The language of the meeting is English. 

The event is streamed live on https://www.facebook.com/ViolencePreventionNetworkDeutschland

For further information:   WayOut-Event-Program_The-Role-of-Gender-in-Exit-Programs.pdf

• An improved and facilitated implementation of exit programmes that are based on approaches with proven effectiveness;
• An increased awareness and understanding by the criminal justice professionals (judiciary, prisons, probation, and community organisations) about exit programmes;
• An improved knowledge about the efficacy of exit programmes and of ‘what works’;
• A more capable prison staff to deal with inmates at risk of radicalisation or who are already radicalised;
• Prisons and probation systems will implement the necessary and appropriate tools to analyse existing networks, collect information and develop communication processes between different organisations (i.e., community, prison, probation, police, intelligence services);
• A better understanding of what works in the field of exit strategies at the European level;
• The lessons learned from the project will feed into the European debate and inform policymakers, obtaining the confidence of judges, prosecutors and all those responsible for adopting these strategies, as well as the community at large.
  
  

> WP1. MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATION OF THE ACTION
   (develop management methodology, project meetings and manage administrative criteria) - 27 months – UT2J – France

> WP2. STATE OF ART ANALYSIS
   (research and mapping on existing exit strategies - 5 months – UBI – Portugal

> WP3. EVALUATION FRAMEWORK OF EXIT PROGRAMMES
   (scientific peer review on similar and existing exit programmes and develop an evaluation framework) - 9 months - UBI – Portugal

> WP4. INTEGRATED EP
   (proposal of methods, way of working, preconditions based on learned lessons and what works) - 3 months - Avans-Ev – Netherlands

> WP5. TRAINING COURSE ON ES AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DEVELOPED PROGRAM
   (develop, pilot and fine tune of blearning and train the trainer courses) - 5 months - IPS – Portugal

> WP6. STAKEHOLDERS AWARENESS CAMPAIGN
   (organise national roundtables) - 10 months - VPN – Germany

> WP7. PROMISING PRACTICE REPOSITORY
   (develop an online platform to disseminate promising practices) - 5 months - IPS – Portugal

> WP8. DISSEMINATION AND MAINSTREAMING
   (develop strategy & plan, project website, disseminate exit strategies good practices, run exit programmes certification courses for prison, probation, and NGOs staff, final public conference) - 27 months - UT2J – France