NSCSW Lunch & Learn: Prevention of social polarization & extremism

This introductory session offers a critical overview of the Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE) landscape in Canada, inviting participants to examine how history, power, and social context shape the field.

The session revisits key terms such as violence, social polarization, and prevention from a critical perspective, exploring how definitions influence policies, priorities, and frontline practices. Participants will reflect on how dominant narratives can both inform and limit our understanding of prevention, sometimes reproducing exclusion or harm. The session encourages practitioners to locate their own positionality and imagine approaches to prevention grounded in dignity, responsibility, and collective safety, by situating PVE within broader conversations on justice and community well-being.

The Nova Scotia College of Social Workers (NSCSW) is offering this webinar in partnership with the Canadian Practitioner Network for the Prevention of Radicalization and Extremist Violence (CPN-PREV), an evidence-based and practitioner-centered network committed to preventing violent extremism.

Objectives

• Critically analyze how historical context, power dynamics, and social factors shape the definitions and implementation of PVE policies and practices in Canada.
• Identify and evaluate how dominant narratives in the PVE field may inadvertently reproduce exclusion or harm and reflect on their own positionality within these frameworks.
• Develop alternative approaches to violence prevention that center dignity, collective safety, and community well-being, moving beyond traditional security-focused models.

Speakers

Dr. Ghayda Hassan is the director of CPN-PREV, and a clinical psychologist and professor of clinical psychology at UQAM university in Montreal. Her systematic reviews, research and clinical activities are centred around four main areas of clinical cultural psychology:

• social suffering, intercommunity relations, hate, racism and extremist violence;
• intervention in family violence & cultural diversity;
• identity, belonging and mental health of children and adolescents from ethnic/religious minorities; and
• working with vulnerable immigrants and refugees.

Eligibility

NSCSW Members

All active, associate, retired associate, and student members of the Nova Scotia College of Social Workers are welcome and encouraged to attend. Our professional development program is a member service to support safe(r) social work practice in Nova Scotia, funded by annual registration fees.

Community partners

All allied practitioners in Nova Scotia/Mi'kma'ki interested in this topic are eligible to sign up for a partner ticket; just let us know which profession you are apart of when you register.

Foundations

This webinar incorporates principles from the NSCSW Code of Ethics & Standards of Practice (2025):

Value 1: Respecting the dignity and worth of all people

• Guiding Principle 1.1: Social workers respect the inherent dignity and worth of all people.

• Guiding Principle 1.9: Social workers uphold the rights of every person, group, and community to be free from violence or threat of violence.

Value 2: Promoting Social Justice

• Guiding Principle 2.1: Social workers uphold the principles of social justice related to the rights of individuals, families, groups, and communities to receive fair and equitable access to services, resources, and opportunities and to be free of oppression, racism, and discrimination.

• Guiding Principle 2.4: Social workers advocate for the rights of all individuals, families, groups, and communities to be free from oppression, exclusion, racism, and discrimination.

Value 4: Valuing Human Relationships

• Guiding Principle 4.1: Social workers place the well-being and interests of all people at the centre of their relationships.

Value 7: Providing Culturally Responsive Competent Professional Services

• Guiding Principle 7.1: Social workers are committed to the ongoing development of their professional abilities and knowledge, aiming to ensure the delivery of culturally responsive professional services.

Professional development tracking

For members of NSCSW, participating in this event is eligible to fulfill the annual requirement for professional development related to anti-racist and anti-discriminatory practice. Members who have already completed that requirement for the year may instead categorize this session as formal professional development.

Visit nscsw.org/pd for more information about the current professional development requirements for Nova Scotia's social workers.

Questions?

If you have questions about our professional development program content, please contact the College's Professional Development Consultant, Tyler Colbourne, at tyler.colbourne@nscsw.org.