dist[ex] – Development of a Network for Disengagement and Exit Work is a cooperation network founded in 2025 that is dedicated to strengthening and connecting distancing and exit work throughout Germany. BAG Ausstieg zum Einstieg e. V., Grüner Vogel e. V., Interdisciplinary Centre for the Prevention of Radicalisation and Promotion of Democracy e. V. (IZRD), Legato/Vereinigung Pestalozzi gGmbH and Violence Prevention Network gGmbH are working closely together with the aim of building a network together with civil society organisations, projects and experts in the field of disengagement and deradicalisation from all over Germany. This network promotes professional development and exchange in the field of work, expands cooperation with relevant interfaces in the regulatory structures and acts as a civil society lobby group. Violence Prevention Network gGmbH is coordinating the cooperation network.
With a term of eight years, dist[ex] focuses on sustainability, structural anchoring and nationwide effectiveness.
Background
In our counselling work, we experience social conflicts in concentrated form. The increasing polarisation and radicalisation of society are leading to an increased prevalence of extremist currents. Although they differ in their expression, these currents share common characteristics: they represent ideas of inequality, reject state institutions, democratic values and classical media, and show a fundamentally anti-pluralistic attitude. They are often associated with a willingness to use violence or justify violence as a means of political enforcement. This results in isolated milieus with closed world views, in which established mechanisms of conflict resolution are rejected and pluralistic decision-making is prevented.
Against this social background, a wide range of challenges arise for exit and distancing work. As a nationwide infrastructure, dist[ex] addresses these challenges and pressing questions:
- How can cooperation at the various specialist interfaces – such as child and youth care, health services, security authorities, as well as science, research and politics – be improved and expanded? We discuss this central challenge for practitioners in the dist[ex] network and develop concrete solutions.
- In Germany, a highly specialised and qualified prevention landscape has developed over the past few decades that is unique internationally. The dist[ex] network is committed to further developing this landscape both in terms of specific phenomena and across the board, to interconnecting stakeholders and to creating sustainable synergies for practitioners.
- Social developments and the associated need for advice have given rise to different approaches when working with target groups. Some approaches focus on individuals who are being radicalised or have already been radicalised, while others concentrate on their environment and family. While some concepts rely on voluntariness, others aim to reach individuals who are not (yet) motivated to seek advice. In order to do justice to dynamic social developments, these approaches must be able to learn from each other.
dist[ex] is continuously working on these and other social and professional challenges. We develop competencies, concepts and structures to meet these challenges even better and to further qualify counselling practice. The focus here is on interconnecting disengagement and exit projects with each other and with other relevant actors and target groups.
Our goal is to create a network by 2028 that structurally integrates all central stakeholders and serves as a platform for innovation and exchange. We focus on further developing practical methods and sustainably promoting interdisciplinary cooperation.
IZRD Within the dist[ex] Network
As a network partner of dist[ex], the IZRD contributes its expertise in both cross-phenomenon and phenomenon-specific prevention of extremism – particularly with a focus on systemic and gestalt-therapy-based work with individuals and their social environments in disengagement and exit processes. With our focus areas including conspiracy narratives and worldview issues, religiously motivated extremism, and anti-democratic ideologies – as well as their intersection with child protection – we will make important contributions to structural development, networking, knowledge transfer, quality development and policy advocacy in the field of disengagement and exit work.
Planned Measures Include:
Impulses & Transfer
In 2025, we will conduct target group-specific structural analyses to identify needs and gaps in the field, with the aim of adapting and developing relevant services and building sustainable networking structures. From the outset, we aim to actively involve practitioners in disengagement and exit work in the conceptual and content-related work of the dist[ex] network.
Based on this, IZRD will develop topic-specific working groups for professionals in the field, in order to implement nationwide exchange and co-create professional contributions starting in 2026. Furthermore, IZRD is driving forward networking with relevant actors in child and youth services and the healthcare sector, and will organise expert discussions to improve long-term cooperation.
Within the framework of dist[ex], IZRD will continue coordinating the Federal Network on Conspiracy Narratives, currently comprising 20 professional organisations/projects. These meetings address quality development, strategies for improved outreach, current topics and challenges, and promote exchange and solidarity within the network.
In addition, IZRD actively participates in international networking and professional exchange. For example, our methodological handbook on counselling in the field of religiously motivated extremism will be translated into English to introduce practitioners in other countries to a central part of German counselling practice and methodology – enabling them to benefit from and integrate this knowledge into their own work. IZRD also contributes to the professional publications of the network.
Quality Development
In 2025, IZRD will prepare one of four planned “Safety First” concept workshops, to be implemented with professionals in the field from 2026 onwards. The workshop led by IZRD aims to develop a foundational concept for child and youth protection within the context of disengagement and exit work. IZRD will draw on its experience and expertise at the intersection of radicalisation, extremism and child protection (e.g. the WelEx project, a training course for Berlin primary school professionals) and will support cross-phenomenon counselling practice in gaining legal and practical confidence on child protection issues. A particular focus will be placed on the online sphere.
Professional Policy Advocacy
IZRD uses its various communication channels (including its website, newsletter and social media) to regularly share insights into the development and activities of dist[ex]. Additionally, it presents dist[ex] at conferences and professional fairs (e.g. German Prevention Congress and the German Child and Youth Welfare Congress).
Through policy briefings, joint statements, and regular formats for exchange, IZRD contributes to professional dialogue with policymakers, academia and the media.
Through these measures, IZRD actively shapes the future of disengagement and exit work in Germany.
For questions regarding the project, please contact: distex@izrd.de
The dist[ex] cooperation network is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (Bundesministerium für Bildung, Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend) as part of the federal programme “Living Democracy!” („Demokratie leben!").
Project term until:
31.12.2032
