Community Engagement 

Integrating community perspectives to prevent the recruitment and use of children

In conflict-affected areas, the Dallaire Institute facilitates collaboration between communities and security sector actors to co-develop strategies to prevent the recruitment and use of children. We work with local partners to develop and implement gender-responsive, community-based capacity-building programs that reflect context-specific drivers of recruitment and use. The Dallaire Institute does this by creating platforms that build trust between communities and the security sector actors charged with their protection. Our community engagement programs strengthen linkages between communities and security actors that promote community-informed security sector responses.   

The recruitment and use of children in armed violence has devastating effects for children and their communities. The Dallaire Institute believes that strategies to prevent children’s recruitment and use must be community-based and context-specific. Collaboration between communities and security actors is key to developing effective prevention strategies and to increasing the accountability and responsiveness of security actors to the community. By prioritizing the needs of children and championing their roles as key agents of change and advocates of peace, we can further strengthen a global peace and security agenda. The Dallaire Institute’s research on community perspectives is central to how we understand and analyze how community engagement helps shape prevention strategies. We work with local partners to create platforms that build trust between communities and the security sector actors charged with their protection.

Read our Children, Peace and Security: A Policy Checklist on Building the Agenda Together