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Guide

  • Dismantling White Supremacy

Assessments & Impact

It isn’t enough to widely distribute resources like the Parents & Caregivers Guide and the Building Networks Guide. They must also be shown to work — to improve the ability of parents, caregivers, coaches, mentors, school counselors and mental health practitioners to spot and intervene in cases of potential radicalization. The Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab and the Southern Poverty Law Center are committed to evidence-based, iterative work that measurably reduces the risks associated with radicalization to violent extremism. At every stage of intervention, it is crucial that both positive outcomes and potential “backfire” effects be assessed.

The longitudinal study of the Parents & Caregivers Guide (2025) tracked the use, application and staying power of the information in the guide across a 12-month period. These findings elaborate on those in the previous impact study of the Parents & Caregivers Guide (2021), which quantitatively measures the guide’s effect on parents and caregivers, their knowledge of extremism and radicalization, and their self-reported willingness to intervene on behalf of a young person at risk for radicalization. Similarly, the impact study of the Building Networks Guide (2023) assesses the awareness, knowledge and understanding of extremism gained by readers, as well as their capacity, capability, willingness and confidence to intervene in radicalization. The focus groups report (2021) qualitatively assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the Parents & Caregivers Guide based on the expertise of educators, mental health professionals, coaches and other youth group leaders.

Together, these four assessments point to the same conclusion: the Parents & Caregivers Guide and the Building Networks Guide are highly effective tools for raising awareness, building confidence and offering strategies for intervention against extremism and radicalization. However, there is much work left to be done. While these guides offer a foundation on which this work can build, more targeted and specific techniques for intervening are badly needed. PERIL and the SPLC’s ongoing work is directed toward that end.

Longitudinal Study – Parents & Caregivers Guide (2025)

Impact Study – Building Networks Guide (2023)

Impact Study – Parents & Caregivers Guide (2021)

Focus Group Report – (2021)

Illustration by Claudia Whitaker.

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