So we can keep our newsletter short and good to read for you, we compile further information on interesting content here.

Challenges and needs for addressing violence against older women

The MARVOW 2.0 partners have concluded a series of roundtables and international impact assessment, with the goal of identifying the state of the art for coordinated multi-agency response to violence against older women. The activities focused specifically on the topics of case management, data processing, risk assessment, femicide & suicide, and work with older perpetrators of violence.

Professionals who participated in the roundtables reported that the main forms of violence encountered by older women were neglect, emotional and financial abuse, as well as phenomena of abandonment/neglect by their families. They also shed light on the isolation older women encounter, as well as the shame they feel surrounding reporting abuse. Throughout 2024, the MARVOW 2.0 team will conduct capacity-building activities for professionals based on the needs and challenges highlighted.

Police responses to domestic violence - development of Chatbot and serious game

Our ISEDA partners are currently developing a chatbot and data platform for domestic violence information and reporting. In the first phase, the chatbot is being tested by partners and will then be improved and finalised for public use. Simultaneously, the project is developing a serious game to train police officers on responding to domestic violence. The game is based on a collection of real-life cases and will be available in Catalan, Bulgarian and Greek.

Analysis of police practices related to intimate partner violence

In December 2023, TACTICS partners wrapped up the analysis of targeted regions to understand the current IPV-related police practice, including the state of multi-agency collaboration and the overall operating environment. The regions included in this analysis were Estonia, France, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain and Romania. This analysis will form the basis of further project activities, including capacity building or multi-agency cooperation between police, victim and perpetrator services. 

Harnessing the power of communities to help prevent and stop domestic violence

The StoP partners are continuing to work on creating the StoP digital toolbox - a hub for resources on harnessing the power of communities to help prevent and stop domestic violence- which will be available at the end of 2024. 

We talk more in-depth about the StoP model and our work to implement it in the Czech Republic, Belgium, France, and Romania in the 2023 WAVE Fempower magazine. Take a look here.

On 21 May 2024, we invite you to join a webinar led by StoP creator Prof. Dr. Sabine Stövesand to learn more about StoP neighbourhood groups in Germany and Austria, creating grass-roots community initiatives and empowering bystanders to intervene in situations of domestic violence. Look out for details in our events emails.

Multi-agency Response to Violence Against Older Women

Violence against older women is a gender-specific and significant social problem worldwide and in Europe, requiring a coordinated multi-agency response. The MARVOW 2.0 team presented a workshop, “Violence Against Older Women: A Multi-agency Response to the Institutional Violence”, at the WAVE annual conference earlier this month. The workshop, delivered by the Coordinator team AÖF with the contribution of our research and development manager Berta Vall, offered a deep dive into the response to combat violence against older women on an institutional level through the learnings of the MARVOW and MARVOW 2.0 projects. Berta Vall also discussed the upcoming work on risk assessment for perpetrators of violence against elderly women that WWP is developing.

Working with men from migrant populations in practice

Ensuring that perpetrator work is inclusive and supports men from diverse backgrounds is a vital priority of the MOVE project. Earlier this month, the MOVE team delivered a workshop at the WWP annual conference on “Responding to effective and sustainable culturally sensitive work with migrant male perpetrators of Intimate Partner Violence”. Last week, WWP also conducted a day-long online training on “Working with perpetrators from migrant populations in practice” led by Kostas Tassopoulos and Juho Vehniäinen from Lyömäton Linja.

We are proud that the past two years of work on the MOVE project have culminated in developing guidance for multi-agency collaboration for the work with perpetrators with migrant backgrounds, which will be published in December. As the work undertaken by the MOVE consortium has been highly impactful and much-needed, MOVE partners met in Florence earlier this week to discuss the possibility of a follow-up to the project based on lessons learnt within such a complex topic. 

Measuring the impact of perpetrator programmes as a chance for positive change

Through the ISEDA project, WWP EN promotes the effective and safe implementation of perpetrator programmes. At the end of September, ISEDA project partners met in Barcelona to work on the project's primary outcomes: a chatbot for victims/survivors of DV and a digital serious game to train police officers on DV and improve their interaction with victims/survivors.

The WWP team provided training to specialised services to enhance their understanding of the IMPACT toolkit to measure the outcomes of their work. The team is also working on adapting the Impact toolkit for family violence situations, focusing on young perpetrators.

In the next few months, the ISEDA European Community of Practice will be set up to share knowledge, resources and best practices on preventing and investigating DV and provide structured feedback on ISEDA solutions to the consortium.

International toolbox for community engagement against domestic violence

Through the StoP project, we are developing an international StoP toolbox for community engagement against domestic violence and preparing the groundwork for implementing the StoP model in further countries. 

All project partners recently met in Hamburg to discuss current developments and next steps and share their concerns, reflections and best practices regarding future replication in further countries. HAW presented the final results of the desk research and interviews with StoP practitioners from Germany and Austria to develop the structure and content of the StoP toolbox. 

The first module in a series of training sessions for implementation partners is also starting. It will focus on introducing the StoP model and community engagement, including workshops with current StoP community organisers. 

Analysis of police practises for intimate partner violence

The TACTICS team is currently carrying out in-depth analysis of intimate partner violence related police practices and the state of multi-agency collaboration in the involved regions. The WWP team is conducting interviews with members about their collaboration with local police. For the Capacity building for multi-agency cooperation between police, victim and perpetrator services, the WWP team is preparing scripts to improve interactions with perpetrators.

Raising youngsters’ awareness on #Consent

Through the CONSENT project, we are developing an awareness-raising campaign to enable young people to think critically about gender roles, stereotypes, consent and the implications of pornography on healthy intimate relationships. The campaign will run in all project countries and at the EU level via WWP media, with territorial activities in Italy and Spain in February 2024. As a precursor to the campaign, the CAM team will deliver an online workshop on 26th November within the national festival, L´eredità delle Donne, which is an important annual appointment in Italy focused on empowerment of women and girls. Registrations will open on 3rd November. A European event for potential multipliers will be launched soon…

Systemic approaches addressing violence against women

As the ASAP 2.0 project draws to a close, theteam presented the findings and outcomes at the “Coordinating Comprehensive Responses to Gender-Based Violence” in Sardinia, Italy on 16 October.

To mark the project's official end, we proudly announce its final conference, “Systemic Approaches Addressing Violence against Women”. The one-day conference will be held online on 19 April 2024, featuring presentations on the ASAP 2.0 protocol for coordinated response to violence against women, including risk assessment, recidivism assessment, child protection and digital violence. The event will also showcase other models for multi-agency cooperation   to establish effective inter-institutional collaboration developed within the CHANGE, TACTICS and MARVOW 2.0 projects.

Engaging fathers to ensure the safety and wellbeing of women and children

Through the Fathers Rock experience, partners in three different countries focused on preventing gender-based violence by engaging men who are (becoming) fathers through collaboration with key services. Almost three hundred professionals from Italy, Spain and Austria have been involved in the project activities thus far, participating in roundtables and capacity-building activities. As the project is in its final stages, the team is working on a multiagency model focusing on the accountability of services and the empowerment of their teams to support victims, address perpetrators and collaborate for an effective response to intimate partner violence. The model will be published publicly in January 2024. 

Territorial collaboration to address gender-based violence 

The CHANGE project underscores the importance of robust inter-institutional territorial collaboration in our ongoing commitment to address gender-based violence. This comprehensive 360° approach ensures the engagement of all key local stakeholders. As a testament to its effectiveness, over 300 frontline workers have been trained through ENGAGE, and approximately 2,600 students will be involved in educational activities. Furthermore, CHANGE is forging significant synergies with other initiatives: professionals in perpetrator programmes are now adopting the ASAP 2.0 model for collaboration with women's support services and utilising the CONSENT methodology in school activities.

StoP

Work on creating an international Digital StoP Toolbox has begun to design a modular and targeted set of instruments and materials for practitioners and communities to end domestic violence. Development of the toolbox is a collaborative process, with the StoP multidisciplinary consortium contributing to ensure that the tools are applicable across different national contexts and integrated with comprehensive resources. 

Our StoP partners are conducting interviews with local stakeholders in their countries to gauge interest and identify the potential for implementing StoP in their local communities. We will bring more news on the evolution of the Digital Toolbox in the upcoming months. 

Change

Change is a highly practical, concrete, and territorially-rooted project, fostering robust and contextualised relationships among key actors. With an ambitious goal to combat gender-based violence comprehensively, the project encompasses actions focused on raising awareness, education, prevention, and treatment quality, along with establishing new programs for an extensive response. It envisions active engagement, capacity building, and collaboration with all relevant stakeholders, forging strong synergies among them. 

Currently, the project team is providing training to perpetrator programme professionals on utilising the IMPACT toolkit to measure the results of their work and on the ASAP protocol to promote effective multi-agency collaboration, as well as on the ENGAGE roadmap for frontline professionals to enable them identifying and address GBV.

MARVOW 2.0

As Europe ages, problems that affect older persons are becoming more relevant, while structures that protect older survivors of abuse are severely underdeveloped. This is why we feel important to carry on the work done during the MARVOW project through our new project MARVOW 2.0.

During the MARVOW project, we developed resources to strengthen multi-agency collaboration to protect older women who experience violence. You can view our online workshop “Never too late: protecting older women from DV, holding older men to account” for insights into keeping perpetrators accountable, focusing on working within intersections between ageing and IPV.

We are also working to enhance our knowledge of correct terminology to avoid stereotypical communication when talking about ageing and older people. You can view the guidelines from AGE Platform Europe here. 

ISEDA

As part of its work in the ISEDA project, WWP EN promotes and supports the effective and safe implementation of perpetrator programmes. 

Currently, partners are working together to define concrete procedures and questionnaires that will be implemented in the interview simulator scenarios for police to learn how to interact effectively nd safely with perpetrators and victims. 

In September, we will be training specialised services involved in the project to enhance their understanding of the IMPACT toolkit, equipping them to measure the outcomes of their work.

ASAP 2.0

The ASAP 2.0 team is working on various implementation activities in Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria to move closer towards greater collaboration between perpetrator programs and victim support services. 

In the upcoming months, we will present recommendations for a coordinated response to practically increase women's safety and support behavioural change in perpetrators. 

Tactics

Due to the complexity of domestic violence, collaboration between the police and other essential services is vital. Our new project, Tactics, will build the capacities of police and other frontline workers, including those from perpetrator programmes, to provide an improved response to domestic violence cases. After the kick-off meeting on 8 May, we will officially begin working on the project.

Fathers Rock

The Fathers Rock team has developed educational modules for fathers' groups which will act as spaces for reflection on masculinity, fatherhood and dealing with conflicting and challenging situations. Learn more about the fathers' groups in Austria and Italy and how to participate.

Simultaneously, project partners are conducting a capacity-building programme for perinatal and early childhood services to support them in engaging fathers and addressing gender-based violence. The programme is underway in Spain, Italy and Austria. 

Consent

A key aspect of the Consent project is to improve the knowledge of teachers and parents on online abuse and youngsters' access to pornography, and their capability to detect and tackle these issues. The project team is implementing a training programme for parents and teachers to raise awareness of the risks facing youth and how adults can support and safeguard them.

Change

Change project partners trained 295 frontline professionals in Italy using the Engage training roadmap. The team has also trained 18 perpetrator programme professionals to use the IMPACT toolkit. These activities will contribute towards improved response to gender-based violence in Italy's Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto regions. Visit the project website (in Italian) for more details.

Asap 2.0

As the ASAP 2.0 project enters its second year, the team focuses on enhancing the capabilities of perpetrator programmes, victim support services and other stakeholders.

Towards the end of this year, the ASAP 2.0 team will finish finetuning the ASAP 2.0 protocol and deliver national recommendations for perpetrator work in multiagency cooperation. These recommendations outline how to conduct impactful work with perpetrators in ordinary and extraordinary circumstances. Stay tuned for our newsletter for more information on the publication.

ISEDA

At the upcoming event "Practitioners capacity building on multiagency cooperation and monitoring and evaluation of perpetrator work" in September, WWP EN will train ISEDA project partners. Meanwhile, the ISEDA consortium is busy planning the establishment of the ISEDA European Community of Practice (CoP). The European CoP will engage domestic violence practitioners in developing ISEDA solutions and ensure their expansion at a European scale. The CoP will also include Civil Society Organisations and policymakers interested in adopting ISEDA results to their contexts.

Fathers Rock 

A central goal of the Fathers Rock project is building the capacities of frontline professionals in perinatal and early childhood services. The project team recently developed a capacity-building programme for these frontline professionals using insights from qualitative interviews and focus groups. Our partners in Spain, Italy and Austria will implement this programme in the upcoming months. Based on feedback from participants, the final capacity-building programme will be available by September 2023. 

To encourage engaged fatherhood among (becoming) fathers, we have prepared cards for fathers, highlighting the benefits of engaged fatherhood and encouraging them to seek support for their challenges. These cards contain links for reading tips and contacts useful for men on their parenthood journey and improving their relationship with their partner. View them here: Being there (birth), caring (birth), being there (growth), caring (growth).

We also prepared leaflets for men struggling with their (new) role as fathers. These leaflets show them the available services and support, highlighting that it is essential to use specialised services to overcome their challenges. View the leaflet template for men's motivation to seek help.

Frontline services will use the cards and leaflets to reach out to fathers using their services and struggling in silence.

MOVE 

Project partners developed the MOVE project to ensure that frontline professionals and perpetrator programmes adequately address gender-based violence in all contexts. To support this goal, the team has prepared a training package that enables professionals to work inclusively and transformatively with persons with migrant backgrounds. This training will allow programmes and services to improve the experiences of men with a migrant background seeking support from them.

Partners will pilot the training package in Italy, Spain, Greece, Germany, France and Belgium until March. Based on feedback from the pilot training, the final training package will be available later in 2023.

ASAP 2.0

The ASAP 2.0 team has drafted an upgraded version of the ASAP protocol. It now includes

• cyberviolence and covid-related issues,
• ensuring child protection, as well as 
• a model for a multi-agency collaboration agreement. 

Our partners in Italy, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Greece are now halfway through the piloting phase, testing the new protocol with male perpetrators and female survivors of violence.

ISEDA

As the ISEDA project is in its initial stage, the project consortium is establishing the ethics requirements with which all activities must comply. These requirements are essential to ensuring safety when working with persons at risk. The ISEDA team has also been working on a research methodology to conduct a needs assessment. This assessment will include the training needs of law enforcement agents on gender-based violence and victims' needs regarding contacting or disclosing violence to law enforcement agencies and being referred to victims' services.

In February, the ISEDA team will have an in-person meeting to plan the implementation of the IMPACT toolkit and guidance on multi-agency cooperation for 2023.

Change

We are pleased to start 2023 with the new CHANGE project, which will support men and boys in challenging and fighting gender-based violence. The CHANGE team will conduct awareness-raising activities in schools and within the general public and train frontline professionals and operators wishing to work in perpetrator programmes.

The CHANGE kick-off meeting in December 2022 was an excellent opportunity to get to know the project partners and start focusing on project goals.

More coming soon…

In 2023, we are pleased to be looking forward to three new projects. Stay tuned for more information on upcoming projects!

MiC

On 19 May, project partners held the final conference of the Men in Care (MiC) project in Berlin. More than 60 participants from different European countries had the opportunity to see first-hand the conclusions of the project and the progress we made in recent years. We were able to share experiences of companies and organisations that are advancing men's work-life balance and greater involvement in care work.

We would like to thank the Men In Care project partners, the EU Commission and MiC officer Irma Borde who joined us, the speakers at the conference, and all participants who contributed and made the conference an insightful and engaging event.

Fathers Rock

As a starting point for the Fathers Rock project, our partners are conducting needs assessments, including focus groups with professionals in the field of perinatal care, early childhood care or early childhood education, professionals working with perpetrators and victims, and (becoming) fathers and mothers. These focus groups will generate valuable information and insights for the project's further development.

CONSENT

Our CONSENT partner Blanquerna presented the CONSENT project in the symposium "Comprehensive sexuality education: A global learning and sharing symposium on health, well-being, values, and equity", which took place 1-3 June. The symposium brought together 500 young participants to promote dialogue on education for health, well-being and positive values on sexuality.

STOPP

We are conducting a Capacity building programme for perpetrator programmes in Western Balkans within the STOPP project. More than 100 professionals from the Western Balkan region have strengthened their skills in conducting survivor-safety-oriented perpetrator work. Five training days on cooperation between perpetrator programmes and survivor support services, risk assessment and management, and cyber violence, as well as the webinar on guidelines for standards in perpetrator work, have already been conducted. Find out more about the programme and register for the upcoming webinar on "Perpetrator work in Covid-19, learnings from online service provision" that will take place on 28 April 2022.

The STOPP project is implemented within the framework of the UN Women programme "Ending violence against women in the Western Balkans and Turkey: Implementing Norms, Changing Minds", funded by the European Union.

Fathers Rock

Earlier this year, we launched the Fathers Rock project, which focuses on preventing gender-based violence by men who are (becoming) fathers through collaboration with key services. The project aims to improve men's social and emotional capacity and their skills in dealing with parenting and to enhance the skills of services to involve and support men in parenting to minimise the risk of violence and increase accountability. 

CONSENT

We have begun working on the CONSENT project, which will tackle the premature hypersexualisation of youngsters and promote healthy gender roles and consensual behaviour among peers. Through the tools developed by the partners, parents, carers, teachers, and educators will learn about kids' easy access to sexually explicit material. Informed about the negative impacts of pornography and with an increased capability to detect and tackle online abuse, they will be able to support the safe and healthy development of the children in their care. 

MOVE

The MOVE project aims to end men's violence against women and girls, including honour-related violence and oppression while acknowledging that men and boys have an essential role in violence prevention. The MOVE project focuses on increasing the readiness and skills of frontline professionals and specialised perpetrator programme staff to effectively identify, refer, and work with male perpetrators of gender-based violence with a migration background. The project will use an anti-racist, inclusive, and culturally sensitive approach while considering the Covid 19 pandemic.

ASAP 2.0 

This month, we had the kick-off meeting to begin the ASAP 2.0 project, which aims to increase the effectiveness of treatment programs for perpetrators through the implementation of a systemic approach. ASAP 2.0 will develop and upscale the work done within the project ASAP, by training partners' staff members, through mutual capacity building activities. During the ASP 2.0 project, partners will use the Impact toolkit to create a shared knowledge base to improve and update the effective practices and tools for perpetrator work in multiagency cooperation.

Alive 

WWP EN Executive Director Alessandra Pauncz and Training and Capacity Building manager Sandra visited Albania last week to support the local perpetrator programmes WtW, CLMB, Vlora and Another Vision as part of the ALIVE project. These perpetrator programmes are working to improve their cooperation with survivor support services, risk assessment and management, and partnerships with local communities. 

We were immensely grateful to have the opportunity to meet our partners and have a good time together, allowing us to build better cooperation.

Click here to see pictures from our visit

The effectiveness of work with men who use violence is a much-debated topic. Quality assurance is crucial for responsible and safe perpetrator work. But how can perpetrator programmes make sure that they are offering safe, impactful and innovative interventions?
At WWP EN, our colleague Berta is responsible for everything related to research. She took some time and shared her thoughts on quality assurance in the work with men who use violence. Read her article here

September 2020

• Recordings: International Conference on Men and Equal Opportunities Day 1
• Recording: DRIVE Webinar on perpetrator mental health after COVID-19 lockdown
• Report: Masculinities and COVID-19
• Resources: Perpetrator work during COVID-19
• Toolkit: Incorporating Intersectional Gender Analysis into Research
• Toolkit: Anti-racist Organisational Change
• Website: Perpetratr work in virtual reality
• Article: Identifying femicide locally and globally

June 2020

• Webinar Recording: "How to Help Someone Victimized by Coercive Control" (organised by the Partner Violence & Mental Health Network)
• BISC-MI Archives of Oregon Tri-County Batterer Intervention Provider Network Meetings: Archive of debates from the past 20 years
• Webinar Recording: "Cybermisogyny during Time of COVID 19 and Beyond" (organised by YWCA Canada & LEAF)
• Video: What is Stalkerware? (Coalition Against Stalkerware)
• Article: Conducting research on sensitive and traumatic topics during a pandemic
• Toolkit: Anti-Racism as Violence Prevention (compiled and developed by Futures Without Violence)

Interview with CAM Firenze

Italy was the first European country to go into full lockdown. The team of the Florence-based Centro di Ascolto Uomini Maltrattanti (CAM) sat down and answered some questions about how they dealt with the challenges posed by COVID-19.

Read the interview here

March 2020

• GREVIO: Baseline evaluation report on Serbia
• GREVIO: Baseline evaluation report on the Netherlands
• GREVIO: Baseline evaluation report on Italy
• Call to Action: A Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Strategy for England And Wales
• WWP EN Expert Paper: "Addressing sexualised violence in the work with perpetrators"
• Kaspersky: The State of Stalkerware in 2019

Interview with Heinrich Geldschläger

For the ENGAGE Project, which concluded in December 2019, organisations from Spain, France, Italy and Germany developed a roadmap and training for frontline professionals interacting with male perpetrators of domestic violence.
Heinrich Geldschläger, from the Spanish project coordinator CONEXUS, agreed to sit down with us and share some of the central project outcomes and lessons learned.

Read the interview here

December 2019

Interview with Rus Ervin Funk

In this interview, Rus Ervin Funk shares insights from decades of experience working with men who perpetrate sexualised violence, his view on pornography and thoughts on overcoming one's fears of addressing sexualised violence.

Read the interview here.

September 2019

• ENGAGE Project: Project Roadmap & Training Package
• RESPECT: Respect Toolkit for Work with Male Victims of Domestic Abuse
• EIGE: Toolkit on gender-sensitive communication
• Journal of Gender-Based Violence, 3(2)
• Texas Council on Family Violence: Webinar "Understanding Reproductive Coercion"

June 2019

• WHO: policy guideline on Preventing Violence Against Women
• EIGE: report on Understanding intimate partner violence in the EU: the role of data

March 2018

Interview with Attiya Khan

Attiya Khan is the co-director and protagonist of the documentary "A Better Man".
The documentary portrays her unique way of healing from decades old trauma and engaging with her abusive ex-partner.

Read the full interview here.