Daphne project: 2000-066
Final report, New Start
Battered women and their children - Local collaboration between agencies, organizations, popular movements and companies in the community
1. AIMS OF THE PROJECT
The New Start project set out to solve two problems. One was that of how to extend local collaboration between agencies, organisations, popular movements and companies in the community. The other was how to boost knowledge, throughout society, about battered women and their children. Other aims were to refine knowledge, ways of working and methods, and to draw up material for staff at women’s shelters in two Swedish provincial towns, Nyköping and Eskilstuna.
The purpose of the project inputs was to strengthen and support women in their progress towards an independent and secure life.
The project has created a local work model that is applied broadly and in several ways. Local networks have, for example, been formed to pave the way for extensive local collaboration. Through conferences, it has been possible to disseminate information and knowledge to various representatives of agencies and organisations in the two towns.
Another focus of the project has been on training and developing the skills of staff at the women’s shelters. The aim is to equip them for their role as the hub of local efforts, and also to strengthen and train them for working at a deeper level - talking to abused women and their children, assessing the risks they face and offering them guidance.
The project was originally planned to last three years, but approved by the European Commission for one year only. This was the year that, in the application to the Daphne programme, was called the “planning phase”. The aims of this phase were:
- to bring about cross-sectorial, local collaboration in the two towns of Nyköping and Eskilstuna for the purpose of drawing up local plans for the future
- to provide training, through a conference, for politicians, other decision-makers and people in senior positions in the community
- to prepare staff at women’s shelters by means of courses in seminar form and supervision, to increase their knowledge of the target group and to enhance the scope of discussion as a form of work, both to provide in-depth knowledge and in practical terms
- to create material, a safety checklist and an information leaflet as tools for the shelter staff in their future work with women
- to boost public awareness of the issue through newspaper articles
- to devise a means of collaborating with an international partner in Spain
The beneficiaries of the project, i.e. those who are ultimately favoured by the project inputs, are battered women and their children.
All the recommendations proposed by the Commission in its letter of confirmation have been implemented, as have some extra inputs for which the need has emerged in the course of the project period. Examples of these are an additional conference; a survey carried out by our Spanish partner; and a presentation leaflet with the emblem of New Start. All these extra inputs have been implemented and produced respectively.
Summing up, the project can report that plans have proceeded entirely as expected, except that formation of the local working groups has taken longer than we were originally able to foresee. The process has taken time, but its completion and start have been feasible during the project period. Jointly with our Spanish partner, we had not provided in the project budget for the requirement of interpretation at the meetings and translation of information material and correspondence. Following budget adjustments in consultation with the Commission, this shortcoming has now been remedied.
2. ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED IN THE PROJECT
Organisation
When the New Start project started, a project group and a partner group were formed.
The project group has comprised Annika Ernst, the project manager; Elisebeht Markström, chairman, and Marianne Carlsson, director, of the MIRA women’s shelter; Maj Lundkvist, chairman of the MOA women’s shelter; and Ann-Marie Carlsson, office clerk at the Swedish Association of Women’s Shelters (SKR).
Elisebeht Markström - who, besides the above-mentioned appointment, is also chairman of the Swedish Association of Women’s Shelters and a member of the Swedish Riksdag (Parliament) - has performed two roles in the project: coordinator and project-group member.
The project group has met regularly, i.e. at least once a month, in either Nyköping or Eskilstuna to draw up guidelines for the work, coordinate inputs, etc.
A network comprising the project’s Swedish partners was formed without delay. Three meetings in this network were held during the year. On these occasions, the partners received a progress report and were thus able to spread knowledge of the inputs among their respective associates.
The project group was also regularly in touch with all the partners individually.
Presentation leaflet
Initially, a presentation leaflet was produced. This introduced the objectives and intentions of the project, described the Daphne programme and presented the project group.
This leaflet has made an effective contribution to disseminating knowledge about the project.
The need for a presentation leaflet was not foreseen at the project-planning stage. In addition, an emblem was created for the project (this, too, had not been planned) to afford a distinctive profile and make it easier to increase public awareness of the project. The emblem has been used in all our external contacts.
The leaflet was translated into English and distributed, for example, to international delegates at the EU foreign ministers’ summit held in Eskilstuna in May 2001. It was also used in conjunction with visits from members of another Daphne project in Eskilstuna.
Through the local press and a local radio station, the project was also publicised at an early stage by means of interviews with the chairman and director of each of the two shelters.
Four seminar days, including supervision of staff at the two shelters, were held. The first seminar, which took two days, was about “Talking Methods”. This was headed by Yvonne Wohlin, a journalist and psychosynthesis therapist. The content of the seminar included both theory and practice. Its purpose was to develop staff knowledge with respect to talking methods as a working tool. The supervision included practising and analysing fictitious conversations.
A one-day seminar was held by Magnus Lindgren, a crime-victim researcher at the Department of Psychology at StockholmUniversity and lecturer at the NationalPoliceCollege in Stockholm. The purpose of this seminar was to survey crime victims’ reactions and behaviour in general, but also what is specific to battered women. In the course of their two days’ supervision, the staff were able to work through their own reactions and any frustrations they experienced in their encounters with the women and children.
On the fourth seminar day, the shelter staff worked with the project group to devise a safety checklist containing questions about the woman’s and children’s safety, to be able more easily to assess the risk of violence and threats to women and children during their stay at the shelter.
The list was drawn up in such a way that it can also be used as a template to guide staff’s discussions with battered women, since this is a matter many people are uncertain about. The primary purpose of this was to facilitate the use of the list at other women’s shelters in SKR. The outcome of the nationwide assessment can be communicated to other authorities, such as the police, social services and health services.
The safety checklist has been translated into Spanish and English.
The director of the MIRA women’s shelter has also attended a two-day course on “Starting a self-help group”, the purpose being to start self-help groups for abused women in cooperation with the Nyköping municipal social services. This was not planned at the beginning of the project, but since an increased need for self-help groups has been perceived by both the municipality of Nyköping and MIRA, it was essential to get the work started promptly.
Conferences
A two-day conference was planned in the project, and implemented according to plan. An additional one-day conference was arranged in the project since a need arose to address the members of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (Landsorganisationen, LO) and the Confederation of Professional Employees (Tjänstemännens Centralorganisation, TCO), in particular.
The two-day conference was originally planned for July or August, but the project group deemed that time of year unsuitable. First, one of the main speakers - Professor Sven Åke Christiansson of StockholmUniversity, a specialist in memory research - would have been unable to attend. Second, numerous local conferences were due to be held before the participants’ summer holidays. The decision was therefore taken to distribute the programme and invitation before the summer and to hold the actual conference after it, on 27 and 28 September.
The two-day conference, “Why Doesn’t She Leave?” A Conference about Men’s Violence against Women, was held on 27–28 September in Eskilstuna. The conference dealt with themes relating to all parties in families characterised by abuse problems: women, men and children. The lecturers represented current Swedish research, the work of treatment, and women victims.
The invitation to the conference was issued throughout the county of Södermanland, but specifically to senior public-agency employees, politicians, media, organisations, popular movements and companies in Eskilstuna and Nyköping.
Representatives from the project partners were present at the conference, which was attended by 75 people altogether. Besides representatives from the women’s shelters, there were social workers, representatives of primary-care services, the police, magistrates, the employment service, the Church of Sweden, etc.
Since trade-union attendance at the two-day conference was limited owing to the clash with another conference, the project promptly held an additional conference in Eskilstuna, in cooperation with LO and TCO. This conference, entitled “Not just a slap on the face”, was addressed specifically to trade-union spokesmen and representatives. The municipality of Eskilstuna’s “Violence Against Women” (Kvinnofrid) project was the co-arranger.
Forty people attended this one-day conference. The content focused on facts about violence against women and women’s self-perceived reactions. Personal testimonies were given by women and adolescents.
Both these conferences were reported in the press, and Eskilstuna-Kuriren and Folket wrote articles. The first conference,”Why Doesn’t She Leave?”, was also covered by the local radio station, Radio Södermanland.
Local networks
To improve the prospects of more detailed knowledge and greater readiness in the community to respond to battered women and their children, New Start has created local networks. The aim is that network members should support one another, share their experience and coordinate strategies. Networks are cross-sectorial and comprise a mix of people from public agencies, organisations, popular movements and companies.
In both the Swedish towns, network formation has taken longer than expected. Establishing the networks has therefore had to be postponed in relation to the original time schedule.
However, it was realised early on in the project that the issue was “new” to many of the prospective network members and, moreover, they were also unaccustomed to this form of organisation. The project group therefore rapidly perceived the importance of letting the work of obtaining a solid foundation of support take the necessary time, and grasped that the process cannot be hurried.
Recruiting the “right” people to the networks, in which personal commitment is of the essence, has meant that the women’s shelters have devoted a great deal of time to discussing the matter with individuals. The role of women’s shelters in providing assistance for battered women in the community has played a major part in recruitment of network members.
Conditions for creating local networks differed in the two towns, and the outcomes have therefore been different.
Nyköping
In Nyköping, the MIRA women’s shelter has established local network cooperation as follows. They have followed two main paths. First, they have established a “remote network”, mainly consisting of decision-making representatives from public agencies, officials, politicians, and key employees and representatives of trade unions, associations and companies.
Representatives of the following organisations belong to this network: the police, Nyköpingshem (a housing company), several units at the municipality of Nyköping, the county council child and youth psychiatric unit, primary-care services, church congregations, political bodies and trade unions.
A “district network” has also been formed consisting of senior employees in various local organisations and representatives of voluntary organisations, popular movements and companies. The first district network to be established comprises police officers, social workers, a representative from the local housing company, a district nurse, a lay welfare worker, and a representative of the child and youth psychiatric services. Several network members represent both the occupational group and the trade union to which they belong.
The district networks hold regular and frequent meetings, which are arranged according to need. The idea is that the district networks should develop, increase in number and work in various urban districts and areas. Together, they will form a whole.
In the remote network, whose members meet twice a year, information is provided about the work under way in the district networks, and the development of local efforts is discussed.
One major seminar a year is planned for the networks in the future.
Eskilstuna
Similarly, the MOA women’s shelter has developed forms for local network cooperation in Eskilstuna. Here, regular municipal activities linked to the content of New Start have been in progress for several years. In Eskilstuna, New Start has therefore followed the model of developing and participating in existing networks, supplementing them with new ones that cover several sectors specifically.
One example of regular activities is the “STOPP” collaboration between the social services administration, the police, the division of the office of public prosecutor, and the prison and probation service. This has been under way since 2000. Through New Start the women’s shelters have developed their own cooperation with STOPP. The result has been the formation of a network in which regular and informal meetings are held with the various units in STOPP. A specific network for outreach information has also been formed, and plans include two seminars during the spring of 2002.
In Eskilstuna a “Violence Against Women” (Kvinnofrid) project has been initiated by the municipal management. The women’s shelters have been natural partners in this project. New Start has also strengthened the scope for further collaboration. One result has been the formation of a self-help group for battered women with the women’s shelters as its base.
During the project period, the number of young women with an immigrant background in need of support and help from the women’s shelters has risen markedly. Within the framework of New Start, MOA has therefore formed a network of women with specific knowledge of these matters. The network includes a lawyer and a representative of the municipal integration department.
Cooperation between the women’s shelters and trade-union representatives in LO and TCO has been established. This was initiated in conjunction with the New Start conference in November, and will continue during 2002. This collaboration generates scope for greater cooperation with the business sector as well.
During the year, a cross-sectorial network has also been formed. This comprises counsellors at upper-secondary schools, a hospital counsellor, a lawyer, police officers, social workers, the labour-market administration, and representatives of the Church of Sweden and the integration department. New members are continuously recruited to this network, and discussions are currently being held with sports clubs and study associations. The key purpose of the network is to share experience and provide basic knowledge about battered women and their children.
Safety checklist
A safety checklist has been drawn up. This is designed mainly for work at the women’s shelters, with the women who get in touch or stay there.
The list comprises both basic and penetrating questions, to which the woman is asked to respond. Based on her replies, the risk of violence and the threats to which she and her children are subjected are easier to assess. Besides the specific risk assessment, the list helps staff to make a structured report on the woman’s and children’s situation. Using the list, the shelter staff can also inform other parties in the community, such as the police, healthcare services or social services, about the woman’s and children’s situation.