PrEval – Evaluation Designs for Prevention Measures (2020–2022)

The PrEval project (Eva­luation Designs for Pre­vention Measures – Multi-method Approaches to Impact Assess­ment and Quality Manage­ment in Extremism Pre­vention and the Inter­faces to Vio­lence Pre­vention and Political Edu­cation) was a research and transfer project to survey eva­luation needs and ca­pacities in extremism pre­vention in Germany. PrEval aimed to develop multi-method eva­luation designs, including the interfaces with crime pre­vention and civic edu­cation. A key benefit of the project was the involve­ment of various pre­vention actors – from adminis­tration, academia and pro­fessional practice – who arrived at a common under­standing of the problem through dialogue. Parts of the project work were extensive mea­sures to transfer the findings into practice.

PrEval addressed a broad range of pheno­mena, in­cluding political and religious extremism, addressing mea­sures from civic education, primary, secondary and tertiary pre­vention, and inter­faces with crime pre­vention. PrEval used analysis, monitoring and mapping formats and developed multi-method evaluation designs based on selected pilot studies.

The project was funded by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community (BMI) with a duration from March 2020 to June 2022 with funds from the “National Prevention Program against Islamist Extremism” (NPP).

Topics

PrEval’s work pro­gram was divided into three pillars, all of which followed the dia­logic self-­conception of the network and were thus im­plemented jointly by researchers and pro­fessional practi­tioners.

• Moni­toring of eva­luation needs and mapping of eva­luation capacities in Germany, as well as a survey and assessment of eva­luation structures in other countries
• De­velopment, testing and pre­paration of multi-method eva­luation designs
• The trans­fer of findings into numerous know­ledge transfer formats (see publications and events)

The Research Network (2020–2022)

“PrEval – Eva­luation Designs for Pre­vention Measures” was carried out by a net­work of relevant research institutes and a practitioner orga­nization from the field, but was conceived as a broad network, which was reflected in the in­volvement of other relevant actors in analysis and know­ledge transfer formats.

Partners of the project were:

• Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF; coordination)
• DIPF Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education
• Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi)
• Institut für interdisziplinäre Konflikt- und Gewaltforschung an der Universität Bielefeld (IKG)
• Violence Prevention Network (VPN)

In addition, other network and cooperation partners were involved. Net­work partners included the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA), the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb), the German Youth Institute (DJI) and the Nationales Zentrum für Kriminalprävention (NZK).

Cooperation partners were Dr. Matthias Quent (IDZ) and ufuq.de e.V..