Peer-Led Interventions

A number of organizations in the targeted violence prevention space have included peers as service providers. One such program is Life After Hate, which uses former white supremacists to help persons exit from white supremacy.

Peers or persons with certain types of lived experiences can play important roles in interventions. Persons with lived experience working in or collaborating with intervention programs can be understood to include at least three groups: 

1. Individuals who have engaged in targeted violence and have now disengaged and deradicalized
2. Family members of those who have been radicalized
3. Those directly impacted by or targeted by violence.

The first group is often identified by the term “former.” The involvement of formers in the intervention space is not without some controversy, as will be explained shortly. Formers can have multiple roles, such as leading an intervention program or being part of a multi-disciplinary team along with others such as mental health specialists. 

The Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST) published “A Systematic Review of Post-2017 Research on Disengagement and Deradicalization” in August of 2021. In the review of the literature of the use of formers in intervention programs, the authors noted several potential benefits to engaging formers in interventions including: 

• Enhancing knowledge about exit and disengagement processes from such groups 
• Being seen as credible, familiar, relatable, and less judgemental  
• Providing role models for others that successful exit is possible

Another factor highlighted that involvement in interventions can assist the formers themselves with their own reintegration process. This can happen both in terms of reinforcing identity transformation and in providing a fresh sense of purpose. For example, in the context of Northern Ireland, Joyce and Lynch drew attention to the potential sensitivity involved with ex-prisoners working with at-risk youth, but they nevertheless concluded: 

“…it is clear that in the process of doing peace work, or doing counterterrorism is at the same time the very process that allows ex-prisoners to continually reinforce their identity as peace makers while protecting their violent past as a legitimate part of this process.” (Joyce & Lynch, 2017) 

On the other hand, programs that have used peers have found there are some concerns that need to be managed. It takes time and support for formers to have the capacity and strengths to be service providers. Formers are likely to be exposed to experiences similar to those they lived through, so they need access to supervision and psychotherapy where they can discuss, get support, and work through these issues. Formers may also face a lot of backlash from different communities and in the media, so they must be prepared and supported. Utilizing a tandem team approach, where formers work alongside professionals, has benefits beyond formers working alone.