The Evolve Program

Help is within your reach

Evolve is a specialized, inter-disciplinary intervention program aimed at providing direct support to individuals involved in hate or extremism, their affected family or friends, as well as victims of hate incidents.

About the Evolve Program

Our confidential, voluntary and free program provides customized support to individuals and families who:

1) are looking to disengage from extremist and hate-motivated groups or;

2) have been victimized by a hate crime or incident
We work independent from goverment and law enforcement.
We provide counselling, mentorship and social services to individuals and their families who want to make positive changes in their lives. Our goal is to create lasting and meaningful change for individuals and families we serve while promoting safer communities.
Based in Edmonton, we have the capacity to provide in-person services anywhere in Alberta and work remotely with participants from across Canada.
Three Pillars of the Evolve Program
Personalized

Our program provides support and services to fit you and your family’s needs.

Confidential

Our team of professionals are dedicated to protecting your privacy and the privacy of your family.

Free

Our program and services are provided free-of-cost.

When to Seek Support

No one behavior, or even collection of behaviors, necessarily means that someone is on a path to engaging in violence. Especially in youth, many of these signs may simply be indicators that someone is exploring new ideas and building their own sense of identity. However, there are common behavioral markers that emerge in individuals who do travel down the path towards involvement in hate and extremism.  Introducing additional support into someone’s life can help them make positive changes.

Contact Us

Please reach out to us if you or someone you know:

Wanting to bring about change in society, even change that seems far-fetched, is not itself something to be concerned by. However, when someone starts to believe that violence is the only way to do this, it may be time to seek some support for the individual. 

Peer pressure, manipulation and group influence are strong forces, but sometimes their effects or presence can be hard to spot. If you start to sense that someone in your life is expressing views that do not seem like their own or is being negatively influenced by people who advocate for hate and/or violence, please get in contact with us. We can offer support to both you and the person you’re worried about.  

Questioning and challenging ideas and norms can often just be a part of strengthening our belief system and our normal intellectual curiosity. Believing in conspiracy theories is not necessarily harmful. However, there may be cause for concern these conspiracy theories lead a person to blame a specific group for ‘controlling’ the world or suggest that the government is ‘out to get them’.  

Concern about the future is natural and healthy, and sometimes the challenges the world faces feel overwhelming. However, a fixation on believing the world is about to end or society is nearing collapse can cause a person to do things they normally would not. This line of thinking is especially concerning if the person starts to believe they need to take some type of action to bring about social collapse or re-birth by using violence

Life has many challenges and hardships, and sometimes people want to blame their, or the world's, problems on a specific group of people they believe are responsible. While feelings of rejection or being left behind by society are not in themselves suggestive that someone is in need of support, expressing a desire to harm or attack a specific group of people, because of their perceived influence or power, is cause for concern.

Hate symbols and media are extremely diverse and not always easy to identify. However, if someone starts displaying or wearing a symbol that you’re unfamiliar with and that you think may be associated with a hateful ideology, please reach out to us. These types of symbols may also appear on an individual’s computer or social media accounts. We can help you understand the symbol, what it means, and whether it warrants a conversation with the person.  

As people grow and change, so too do their interests; what someone used to enjoy a lot may no longer fit their preferences or goals. However, if you notice someone isolating and disengaging suddenly from important relationships and activities that used to bring them a great deal of enjoyment, that may be a reason to ask further questions. If the person stopped participating in activities or hanging around with friends for largely ideological reasons, think about reaching out to Evolve.