Stopping Supremacist Recruitment of Youth Implications for Youth Suicide Prevention

Workshop Description:

The threat of violence is core to white nationalist and male supremacist fascist ideologies. These groups use manipulative tactics online and in-person to recruit youth into their ranks, which can lead to youth involvement in online or in person violence. These groups prey on youth isolation, exacerbate hopelessness, and directly encourage acts of suicide and murder-suicide framed as rebellion against perceived conspiracies. In this workshop, scholar-educators build on their paper from the Journal of Youth Development titled “Youth Practitioners Can Counter Fascism: What We Know and What We Need.” We will discuss how to recognize warning signs of fascist recruitment that may put a young person at risk for suicide. We will also discuss how to recognize warning signs of suicidality that may put a young person at risk for fascist recruitment. We will propose strategies to counter manipulative fascist tactics and reduce suicide risk through bringing youth into social justice movements that foster social belonging, hope, and purpose through collective action to change the world.



Objectives:

1. Describe the ways in which supremacist groups use manipulative tactics to recruit youth
2. Explain how supremacist messages explicitly and implicitly exacerbate youth suicide risk
3. Describe how youth suicidality further exacerbates vulnerability to supremacist recruitment
4. Identify strategies for youth suicide prevention programs to intervene in supremacist recruitment of youth
5. Select practical next steps to integrate stopping supremacist recruitment into youth suicide prevention programs