Daphne project: 2002-066

Daphne Programme – Year 2002

Final Report

Project Nr.: 02/066/WY

Title: “HER.STORY”

Start Date:01-01-2003End Date:31-12-2003

Co-ordinating Organisation’s name: INSTITUTO DE DESENVOLVIMENTO SOCIAL

Contact person:Project Leader

Name: Dr. Arménio José Candeias Antão Pereira

Address: Praça Francisco Sá Carneiro, 3-C

Postal code: 1000 - 159

City:Lisbon

Country:Portugal

Tel. N°.: +351 21 8406392

Fax Nr.: +351 21 8464029

E-mail:

Partner Organisations’ names and countries:

GERMANY: CARLOTTA – Beratung für Frauen e.V.

SPAIN: AFFAMER – Asociación de Familias y Mujeres del Medio Rural

SPAIN: FEMUR – Federación Nacional de la Mujer Rural

1. Aims of the project

Violenceis a violation of human rights, that may present itself in any ways, such as physical and psychic. Violence, both within the family and the society, is in Portugal, as in other countries, a very serious problem.

Domestic violence is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon, that crosses social classes, ages and regions and has had on its side attitudes of passivity from the victims and from society itself.

“HerStory” project has aimed two levels of intervention, in a broadsense it approaches the problem of domestic violence victims, and in a restricted sense, it focuses more specifically on rural areas.

Bearing in mind a conceptual vision of the problem and analysing the definition of violence against women and youngsters, we verify that even though violence doesn’t restrict itself to domestic spaces, there being also cases when it occurs in the street or in the workplace, most of it occurs at home. In Portugal, home, is the privilege space for the occurrence of violence cases, where offenders are the husband, the father or other direct family members. It is verified that violence is mainly physical and psychological when it happens in the home.

This phenomenon, which for a long time remained silenced within the families, in growing more and more visibility. However, violence in rural environment has been remaining a taboo, where there is still a big social pressure that has encouraged women to remain at home. Overcoming clearly the social value of maintaining the family and image to the dignity and safeguard of each one’s rights. In this context informal or conformists solutions have been searched, but existing a strong reluctance in carrying these kind of conflicts into the public discussion.

“Her.Story” project had as main goals the study of domestic violence and dissemination of information on the problem of violence done on women and youngsters in rural environments. It was intended to do an analysis of domestic violence phenomenon in different rural areas (Portugal, Spain and Germany), where women and youngsters are effectively affected by a great isolation, economic and social problems, such as unemployment, poverty and shortage of support services. Therefore, we proceeded to an analysis of domestic violence in rural context, integrating values and effectivecultural norms, endowing of conscience the community for the existence of the problem and the urgent need to plan and to implement measures of preventive and intervenient character.

Even though this phenomenon isn’t extensive to all homes and locations, it is still a problem that touches many people and, in some way, we are all responsible and accomplices of this social flagellum. So, it is necessary that all people imply and commit themselves in the quest for answers and organizations of support, thus developing an active and conscientious citizenship. This was the message that we wanted to transit throughout all “Her.Story” project.

The project, ever since the beginning, aimed a group of beneficiaries particularly vulnerable to the domestic violence phenomenon: women and youngsters inhabitants of rural areas, namely the region of Bragança and Castilla y Léon near the border, where the project was implemented.

  • Young males and females, ages between 14 and 24, with domestic violence experiences or knowledge of cases that need support.
  • Women, aged between 25 and 50, which suffer from domestic violence and need backup.

However, “Her.Story” project, through its goals and actions, embraces also another group of indirect beneficiaries, which intend to acquire new knowledge, competences and share of experiences, such as:

  • Professionals of the area, social investigators, lawyers, social technicians, doctors, nurses, teachers and police officers.
  • Local authorities.
  • General population, members of the community.

To these two groups of beneficiaries (direct and indirect) was made available a set of support measures, that aimed for the endowing of sensitivity, information, orientation for local entities, trying to easy the access to services and institutional circuits

In this context,the project designeda set of goals that where intended to be reached with the development of the activities. So, we tried to know the amplitude and characteristics of domestic violence in rural means, to identify the resources that they have to act and intervene, to make available information on the theme and institutions, to direct specific cases, to alert the community to the existence of the problem and the need to intervene.

The results that were proposed where, nearly all, reached, and are divided in intervention areas:

  • To produce information on domestic violence in rural communities.
  • To disseminate information on violence in rural environment, promoting a conscience and change of attitude.
  • To reinforce the initiative on youngster, to capacitate them for a social active participation, developing a cycle of interactive activities and reflection.
  • Tofomentthe best comprehension of domestic violence phenomenon next to professionals, through training actions.
  • To share knowledge, work methods, good practices and experiences.

In the momentof the approval of “Her.Story” project, the European Commission, through Daphne Program, made some advices, namely restricting the project to one year lasting, cut down accompaniment and prevention activities in violence cases (creation on a Victim Support Unit and Self-Help groups). The total budget of the project also suffered a cut.

We did all changes that were suggested, trying not to misinterpret the spirit of the project and balancing the remaining activities with the budget that had been proposed to us. However, the rectified version of this project incisedmostly in investigation and training areas (professionals ad young people) and less in accompaniment and prevention areas in violence cases.

2. Implementation of the project

The duration of“Her.Story” project was of 12 months, the partnership was established strategically in three European countries: Portugal (IDS), Spain (FEMUR e AFAMMER) and Germany (CARLOTTA e.V.), its effective implementation was made in areas of Bragança and Castilla y Léon near the border. Its structure was defined by a division of activities in three intervention categories: Investigation, Training and Complementary Actions. Thus allowing the development of an integrated programme of support and investigation, based on a model of pro-active intervention, that promoted the effective participation of the community.

After an initial phase of definition of methodologies to adopt, it was possible to establish a good work rhythm that culminates in the data treatment and production of support to endowing of sensitivity. The partnership incised, throughout the project, in the dissemination of the goals, products and reached results, having, for such, been established a set of complementary activities that were implemented by all the partners.

The reached results responded clearly to the set goals and were considered by all organizations involved as being positive. We consider that the project, globally, had success and developed important activities, in rural areas with privation, of structures of support. These actions contributed to the perception of domestic violence reality, promoting at mid and long term, a change of attitudes in local community.

The implementation of the project had several phases and levels of acting, emergingsome obstacles that were always overcome having in mind the goals of the project. Thus, all activities previously set were reached, however some of them had to be more limited than their original conception. This reality was due mainly to several conjectural situations, namely: ambitious activities, short duration of the project, burocracy, deficient articulation between organizations of the region and need to establish strong social and institutional relations.

The activities developed by “Her.Story” project were:

  • Study and research of causes, amplitude ad characteristics of domestic violence in rural environments. Gathering and treatment of data (both quantitative and qualitative), questionnaires and interviews to victims and professionals.

At this level, an important amount of data was possible to get, as well as personal and institutional contacts. However, in Portugal, it was verified that both in community as some local institutions showed in a first contact little availability and sensitivity towards this subject. It was also visible that, even though there was good will and perception of needs, institutions had disorganized and split data through several departments, there existing a strong burocracy and instituted procedures that had to be followed by.

  • Development of a regional data base and a Regional Net of Support.

The project made possible to establish important institutional protocols, treatment of collected data, creation of regional Data Base, definition of Web Page structure.

However, and even though all this work has been done, its immediate online availability wasn’t possible. The volume of information, the amplitude of the region and the short duration of the project didn’t allow it. Nevertheless, we believe that it will be possible until the end of 2004 summer to place this informative service on the Internet.

  • Implementation of information and professionals training actions, educational and young people’s endowing of sensitivity campaign in schools on the subject of domestic violence.

These educational and young people’s endowing of sensitivity actions went very well. Student level, a good acceptance and opening of youngster towards this theme, but a lack of knowledge and ability of perception of violence’s reality in its several ways of showing and social consequences of this phenomenon was quite visible.

  • Work conjunct actions.Participation in Seminars and debate Journeys of analysis of the problem of domestic violence in rural environment.
  • Development of complementary actions of evaluation and learning of new work methods.

In the ambitof this project, some readjustments were made in the activities to be made, namely the production of one more dissemination and sensitiveness in Spain. In the initial structure of the project only one had been planned, to be made in Portugal, but according to suggestion of AFAMER partner, arguing that it would be equally important to make one other event in Castilla y Léon’s region, that would communicate not only the project, but also the theme of rural violence against women and young people, thus in December 2003, the Journeys ”Sensitisation against Domestic Violence ” happened in Ciudad Real.

In the beginning, a number of questionnaires and interviews were made, that was later concluded not to be enough to do a representative study. Due to this necessity, a higher number of interviews and questionnaires in Spain and Portugal, overcoming largely what had initially been planned. Unpredicted opinion interviews were also made, there verifying that would be important to obtain precise data on the perception on the violence phenomenon from the local community itself.

All theseactivities were made in a determined period of time, chronologically existed some defacements, namely in what concerns the creation of an online Regional Support Service, having been concluded that the eleven months initially predicted were clearly not enough.

Training sessions started not on the fourth month of the project, but on the third month (March 2003), this situation of anticipation was due to the need of programming and organizing in a detailed way the sessions (the first course had its star in May 2003), but there was also the need to make a pause during the months of July and August due to summer vacations, that resulted in the displacement of local populations to coastareas.

The introduction of another communication event determined that the Bragança Seminar was held in advance(June 2003), setting this one the middle of the project and the Spain Journeys held in December 2003 set the closure of “Her.Story”.

The partnership developed in the ambit of a set of activities, being present throughout all the phases of the project. The established partnership brought a surplus value in several fields, namely: investigation, integrated development of the project, dissemination and evaluation of activities.

The planned activities were implemented, given the complementarity of work and actions that the partners developed among theirselves. In the general ambit, each transnationalpartner tried to gather the most representative that there were in its country on this subject, in an adjusted way to the spirit of the project, but also to the local specifications. However, the project required a specific intervention of each partner, having these ones developed different actions that contributed to its good development.

FEMUR partner had an active role in “Her.Story” project, and assumed almost totally the investigation component in the area near the border of Bragança, namely at contextualization level, characterization of the phenomenon and evaluation of its extension (case study). It made a resource and available services study, cooperated in the making of the opinion questionnaires (young people and women) and exploratory interviews (institutions directors and violence victims). It also promoted, next to local institutions, the goals of the project and participated in dissemination events, namely journeys and local gatherings. It programmed a visit to its office and cooperated in the making of the final report.

AFAMMER, being an organization nationwide and with intervention characteristics at the level of sensitiveness and dissemination of results’ campaigns, its participation in this project was especially in the context of dynamic support in the creation and dissemination of results. It cooperates in the development of sensitiveness materials: pamphlets, brochures e posters. It lead countless contacts with local authorities, planned a visit to the Receiving Centre that it manages, made project dissemination Work Journeys in December 2003, with the goal of endowing of conscience the community for the problem of domestic violence.

CARLOTTA e.V. organization, in virtue of its characteristicsand experience of accompaniment of violence cases against women (social, mental and physical aspects of the problem, it had an important contribute to the knowledge of reality in northern Europe, namely in Germany. This partner sent data and materials that allowed the crossing of common variables in both areas of Europe (case study). Due to its wide work experience, it cooperated in the development of questionnaire structure, interviews and training sessions. It directed next to local organizations the goals and obtained results, and cooperated in the making of the final report.

IDS, as promoter entity and in collaboration with the partners, participated in all activities of the project. Lead a data, materials and available resources collecting in Bragança region. Made a comparative study of the phenomenon in the North and South of Europe, made questionnaires and support interviews, established relations and protocols with local institutions, made training sessions, education and youngsters sensitiveness activities (Workshop and School Forum). Produced sensitiveness materials (pamphlets, brochures e posters) and reports, promoted visits to Partnership Support Centres, carried out the “Violence In and Out Doors” Seminar and participated in dissemination events promoted by other entities. We also evaluated the institutions interest into the problem, as well as its limitations and gaps, thus making in some isolated situations, a directing of cases to local authorities.

All partners showed will in resume “Her.Story” project, and showed their interest either in continuing to deepen this theme or studying other ways of cooperation in other projects of transnational dimension and impact. Having been effectively already established a future cooperation between organizations.

3. Results and impacts of the project

The developed activities, in the ambit of “Her.Story” propitiate the appearing of results in two dimensions, the immediate and palpate and the mid and long term ones. Both contribute significantly, in distinct phases, to the success of the project itself.

These obtained results were the final element of a work process of several months and that involved all partnership, this was essential and proved to be a choice of strategic importance.

Thus, it was visible that a set of results may, in a necessarily simplified way, to be described:

  • Study on the causes of violence in rural environment, available resources, comparative data between the reality of South and North of Europe – Reality of domestic violence in different rural areas in Europe, resemblances and differences, strategic needs and methodologies on intervention. Identification of resources and infra-structures of Bragança and Castilla y Léon’s regions, thus allowing that in the future it may be possible to all interested people the easy access to these informations.
  • Distribution of442opinionquestionnaires on domestic violence/equal opportunities to young people and women, in Portugal and Spain. 412were made in each Spain and 30 in Portugal, between a population with ages between 14/50 years old in the regions of Bragança and Castilla y Léon.
  • 40interviews to professionals that work in this area. 27 were done in Bragança and 13in Castilla y Léon, the interviewed professionals belong to Health Centres, Schools, Regional Social Security Centres, Courts and Police.
  • 100 interviews with woman’s victims of domestic violence, 20 in Portugal and 75 in Spain.
  • Establishment of a net of regional ambit contacts, institution and protocols with private and public organizations. Construction of a regional data base (Spain/Portugal) aiming for the development of an online support service to the community and institutions: Regional Support Network (will soon be available online).
  • Training for professionals in the region of Bragança, namely the actions were attended by psychologists, jurists, health technicians, social technicians, police people and teachers.

Three training sessions organized under the title “Violence and Prevention”, six hours per week (Monday, Wednesday and Thursday) for eight weeks. The training cycle was between Mai/June, September/October and November/December.