Violent extremism presents serious threat to the security of the societies and the democratic values they are based on. In the last decade, Europe has faced numerous challenges – terrorist attacks, rise of the support to extreme ideologies, youth radicalization, frequent manifestations of hate speech and intolerance. Young people and marginalized youth in particular are the main target of the propaganda of the extreme ideologies. Continuous action aiming at building resistance to the extremist narratives is needed. We believe that better results will be achieved if youth associations play active role in these processes. For all these reasons, we have initiated project that intends to contribute at building resistance to extremist narratives through critical thinking. By using innovative approaches and tools, the project aims at reaching large number of marginalized youth at higher risk of radicalization and work together with them on deconstructing the extremist narratives. The overall objective of the project was to improve the quality of youth work in preventing violent extremism and youth radicalization. The main goal of the project was to equip a group of youth workers with the knowledge and skills they needed to promote critical thinking and increase media literacy among marginalized youth at higher risk of youth radicalization. To achieve this goal, seven specific objectives were established for the project: - To increase the knowledge and skills of the youth workers in the area of promoting critical thinking and increasing media literacy among marginalized youth; - To provide the youth workers with a comprehensive understanding of the latest research and best practices in the field of preventing youth radicalization; - To equip the youth workers with the tools and strategies they need to develop and implement effective programs for promoting critical thinking and increasing media literacy among marginalized youth; - To support the youth workers in adapting the strategies to their specific context and needs, providing them mentoring, guidance and support; - To evaluate the effectiveness of the training, and to provide feedback to the participants in order to improve their skills; - To increase the awareness of the importance of critical thinking and media literacy among marginalized youth at risk of radicalization among the general public; - To evaluate the long-term impact of the project on the youth workers, and the youth that they worked with and on the reduction of youth at risk of radicalization. By achieving these objectives, the project aimed to empower youth workers to develop and implement effective programs that would promote critical thinking and increase media literacy among marginalized youth at higher risk of youth radicalization, which ultimately aimed to reduce the number of youth at risk of radicalization. The objectives were also designed to ensure that the youth workers were able to apply their new knowledge and skills effectively in their work, and to have a lasting impact on the youth that they worked with. As it could be seen, the project was in close line with the specific objectives of the Erasmus+ programme in the field of youth - it improved the level of competences of young people, including young people with fewer opportunities; it fostered quality improvement in youth work; it enhanced the cooperation among youth associations and cooperation between youth association and other stakeholders; it promoted active citizenship, intercultural dialogue, social inclusion and solidarity. The mobility activities were carefully developed so they could effectively respond to the needs of the youth workers and the youth associations. The project equipped a group of youth workers with advanced and applicable knowledge and skills on how to work together with marginalized youth on deconstructing the extremist narratives. To be more specific, the project improved youth workers' competencies in helping young people understand the roots, causes and consequences of violent radicalization, provided a group of youth workers with practical skills on how to develop and implement innovative critical thinking activities with marginalized youth, provided an opportunity to the youth workers to improve their competences in developing joint activities with other youth associations, learned more on how to establish strategic partnership with other stakeholders in preventing youth radicalization and last but not least increased the awareness among youth workers on the need of continuous transnational cooperation, exchange of knowledge and good practices. Big change starts with small steps - against violent radicalization was a project that advocated for peace, celebrated diversity and promoted European values. A significant number of younger people were becoming more alienated from the societies of our project countries. Depression amongst some of them was exacerbated by a feeling of humiliation fueled by negative media stereotyping about youth radicalism, by institutional discrimination and by rising level of social racism. Fear, anger, isolation, frustration, rootlessness, vulnerability, and despair were all emotions which, when experienced by young people, could contribute to alienation and exclusion. A lack of recognition of their religious identity, marginalization and deprivation, educational under-achievement, higher grade of unemployment and endemic racism had contributed to a sense of frustration and resentment amongst many youth groups; Simultaneously, many young people now faced difficult tasks of “social navigation” in seeking to find their own identity or balance their multiple identities; Recent political events of neo-liberal character, such as in France or brutal oppression of peaceful electoral manifestations in Russia, led some young people to establish an identity “of vicarious humiliation”. Feeling excluded in the country they were living in, they developed strong empathy with radical forces; All these serious and painful issues needed to be thoroughly discussed not only by politicians but within human rights circles first of all. And it was crucial to put human rights activists and migrants, Africans and Europeans on the same page.