The Director of the Coordination Center for Countering Violent Extremism, Mrs. Lejdi Dervishi participated in the roundtable discussion on “Challenges and Opportunities of Local Public Security Councils” organized by the Institute for Democracy and Mediation within the program “Sustainable community reintegration of Albanian citizens returned from Syria”, which is being implemented in the municipalities of: Tirana, Kavaja, Cërrik, Librazhd, Pogradec, Mat, Shkodër, and Kukës with the financial support of the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), coordinated and monitored by the CVE Center.

During the roundtable discussions where were shared the experiences by different municipalities within the challenges and opportunities of the Local Public Safety Councils, Mrs. Dervishi stressed that the GCERF is financially supporting the civil society organizations to empower Local Public Safety Councils to become a solid referral mechanism to address issues related to countering all forms of violent extremism.

Mrs. Dervishi focused on concrete figures related to the construction of KVSPs, noting that currently there are 57 out of 61 in total. She stressed that in the municipalities of Tirana, Kavaja, Cërrik, Librazhd, Pogradec, Mat, Shkodër and Kukës, KVSPs have been established and that they need support on psycho-social issues and concrete interventions to help people at risk of radicalization. for socio-economic or ideological reasons.

During his speech, the Director of the Center also stressed that the main focus of the CVE Center is on local government and education, while drafting the new National Strategy for the Prevention of Violent Extremism where the Local Public Safety Council is the main referral mechanism. for this Strategy, in order to address and solve these problems at the local level.