Department of Homeland Security (DHS) FY2021 Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grantee Evaluation

Abstract

The Science and Technology Directorate at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security funded RTI International to evaluate a Fiscal Year 2021 Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) grant provided to the Middlebury Institute’s Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism (CTEC). Evaluators conducted a process evaluation of CTEC’s grant focused on the design, development, and testing of a game-based intervention in order to identify project accomplishments, challenges, and recommendations for future grantees. A summary of findings is in Table ES-A.
CTEC began by conducting research on existing literature regarding online recruitment to radicalization in gaming spaces. CTEC, in partnership with the iThrive Games Foundation (hereafter “iThrive”), then held co-design sessions
with adolescents to learn about their perspectives on this issue and used these sessions to identify the foundational elements of the game they would develop. CTEC and iThrive continued to consult with adolescents throughout the game development process by holding individual playtesting sessions. Ultimately, CTEC developed an initial version of its single-player, dialogue-based game, which sought to illustrate to players how they might encounter the radicalization of a friend through online chat spaces. CTEC piloted its game among the student population of one high school, with 13 adolescents participating and 9 completing the pre- and post-game surveys. Because of this limited number of completed surveys, evaluators were unable to analyze their results for outcomes.
CTEC experienced delays in game development due to adaptations it made to its game format, which limited the time it had to test the game among a greater number of adolescents. Additionally, CTEC faced challenges in successfully recruiting high schools and after-school organizations to participate in game testing.