Conflict Matters: Shannon Foley Martinez is a social worker who helps young people to get out of extremist groups. She has herself belonged to them when she was young. Her personal story is very touching, since she doesn´t fit into the steeotype of a teenager who lived in a disfunctional family and thus was attracted to hate groups. As a white girl from middle class, she found hate as a cure to insecurity in her life. „I hated myself and so I wanted to hurt myself and others. I was looking for the worst group possible, since I thought only there I can belong.“
In discussion with Zuza Fialová she talks about why young people find hate groups so attractive and, most interestingly, what helps them to change their lives. It´s a fascinating talk for parents, teachers, and youth workers. Shannon´s experience is unique and her conclusions are far from ordinary.
If you like to read more about the work Shannon is doing, you find some materials on the site of our Dialogue Academy. A very touching interview with her is here. If you look for something in Slovak, here is her interview for Aktuality.
Podcast moderator: Zuza Fialová
Director: Ľubica Stanek
Editing and production: Marek Vaňous
This podcast series is supported by The Rights Equality and Citizenship Programme of the European Union funded project European Observatory of Online Hate
