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Newsletter 4 – October 2011

Promoting Awareness for Communication and Training in the field of Domestic Violence

PACT has been funded by the European Commission to promote awareness for communication and training targeting professionals and institutions that actively work in the support chain for women and children survivors of violence. PACT promotes collaboration among stakeholders, offers training and builds a European network of expertise in the field of violence against women and children.

As announced in our August newsletter, we are currently planning our final conference which will take place on December 2nd, 2011, in Kaunas, Lithuania. After the successful event in Lisbon, where representatives of seven national pilots met for a two-day workshop, we hope that this final conference will meet as much interest.

Fortunately this final event is not the end to a successful partnership and team work: four partners have started a new project called E-MARIA (European Manual on Risk Assessment) dealing above all with developing and testing a manual on risk assessment both for professional and victims of domestic violence. In this context we are keen on gathering additional data from professionals working in the field of domestic violence. For this purpose we have developed a questionnaire that is accessible here:

E-MARIA-survey

Your contribution will be highly appreciated!

Final Conference
Lithuanian conference poster

PACT has successfully developed and tested innovative learning modules in the field of domestic violence. The central objective of the PACT training is on the one hand to deepen knowledge about domestic violence among professionals and on the other hand to promote a closer cooperation and networking of all relevant stakeholders at a European level by exchanging knowledge and practice with view to different intervention models. The structure of the training is based on a modular concept, meaning that the section and units of the course can be used independently and consists of face-to-face seminars being complemented by online modules.

During the final conference participants will be given the opportunity to get an overview of the training course methodology and contents. The seven training modules will be briefly presented and the PACT partners will report on highlights from the national pilots as well as on the challenges on the one hand and on the benefits on the other hand.

Conference guests will also be able to visit the e-learning platform and make a tour themselves through the seven modules with support provided by the PACT team.

Besides project related discussions and presentations other relevant aspects will be addressed such as the consequences of new legal regulations in Lithuania related to domestic violence.

Furthermore, the PACT team invited a guest speaker form the Netherlands, Eltjo Lenting, police officer in Amersfoort to give a keynote on how the restraining order is handled in the Netherlands. Here a special role has been assigned to the mayor, who is responsible for the decision as to whether someone receives a temporary restraining order and must leave their home. The keynote will also provide information on how the risk for involved professionals is assessed.

Since risk assessment is an issue of paramount importance, we will also consider the victims’ perspective. Our Portuguese project partner AMCV will bring about how the risk is assessed for the women involved in a violent partnership.

The conference aims at bringing together stakeholders from different sectors such as adult education, domestic violence and policy making; representatives from women’s NGOs, police, social and healthcare organisations as well as interested persons from all over Europe are warmly invited to join.

Conference Programme
Homepage e-learning platform

09:30    Registration

10:00    Welcome speeches:

  • Representative of the President of Lithuania (to be confirmed)
  • Dalia Kuodyte, Committee of Human Rights, Lithuania
  • Ausrine Burneikiene, Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson, Lithuania
  • Anne E. Derse, U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania (to be confirmed)

10:30    Actions towards diminishing domestic violence in Lithuania. Advisor of the Ministry of  Social Security and Labour of Lithuania. 

10:50    Outcomes of the European project “Promoting Awareness for Communication and Training in the field of Domestic Violence”. Sabine Wiemann, BUPNET, Germany.

11:10    Presentation of the e-learning platform “Promoting Awareness Cooperation Training”. Sabine Wiemann, BUPNET, Germany.

11:30    Training modules and feedbacks from national pilots

  • Module 1: General introduction
  • Module 2: Legal regulation
  • Module 3: Women’s needs

12:00    Lunch

13:00    Training modules and feedbacks from national pilots

  • Module 4: Approaches to changing perpetrators’ behaviour.
  • Module 5: Role of Professionals.
  • Module 6: Networking.
  • Module 7: Prevention actions.

EXPERIENCE EXCHANGE SESSION

Practical approach and challenges – Overview of Lithuanian situation (Kaunas Women’s Society– to be confirmed)

Handling the restraining order in the Netherlands and risk assessment for professionals. Eltjo Lenting, Police Amersfoort, Netherlands.

Risk assessment for survivors. AMCV, Petra Viegas, Sandra Paulos, Portugal.

15:30    Open discussions. Visiting the e-learning platform (in EN and LT), networking and informal talks.

16:00 Closing remarks.

16:15 End of the conference.

You can register for the conference at the PACT project office info@pact-eu.org.

PACT Consortium

BUPNET GmbH, Göttingen, Germany
Sabine Wiemann, Ines Polzin
www.bupnet.de

AMCV, Lisbon, Portugal
Sandra Paulos, Petra Viegas
www.amcv.org.pt

Social Innovation Fund, Kaunas, Lithuania
Liudmila Mecajeva, Diana Basinskaite
www.lpf.lt

Orizzonte, Città della Pieve, Italy
Margarete Berg
www.orizzonte.info

Opportunities Aid Foundation, St. Julians, Malta
Antoine Gambin, Christina Demicheli
www.oafmalta.org

Centre for Continuing Education, Sopot, Poland
Urszula Hadrych, Sylwia Knot
www.cku.sopot.pl

die Berater, Vienna, Austria
Franz Moticka
www.dieberater.com

Newsletter 3 – August 2011

Promoting Awareness for Communication and Training in the field of Domestic Violence

PACT is funded by the European Commission to promote awareness for communication and training targeting professionals and institutions that actively work in the support chain for women and children survivors of violence. PACT promotes collaboration among stakeholders, offers training and builds a European network of expertise in the field of violence against women and children.
In our December newsletter we announced the start of the national pilots including the Lisbon workshop.

PACT pilots at national level

The training kit has been piloted from March 2011 onwards. Each partner has organised the pilots individually. The overall duration of the course is approx. 70 hours of which about 50 hours are provided in e-learning, i.e. approx. 15 hours per month. The organisation of face-to-face workshops has been with the PACT project partners who adjusted the time table to the specific requirements of their participants. An integral part of the national pilots was the international workshop in Lisbon.

Workshop in Lisbon

The highlight of the piloting phase was certainly the two-day workshop, which took place in Lisbon on June 16th and 17th, 2011.
We were a group of 40 people consisting of two to three participants of national pilots, the PACT partners and some guest speakers from the field. The focus of the workshop was on risk assessment for survivors and for professionals, exchange of good practice as well as on new approaches from the field.

The group met on the eve of the official workshop start and had a wonderful Portuguese dinner together in the heart of Lisbon. The variety of food and above all of deserts was tempting and promised a good start.

Speed dating – who is who

The workshop started with a first activating networking exercise to get to know to each other. This kind of speed dating required a good choreography and was quite challenging – people formed couples and stood in two rows in front of each other. Each couple had one minute, 30 seconds each partner, to present their professional background, particular interest and the colour they felt that very day to each other. After one minute (sharp!) the first in one row went to the end and the whole row moved forward to change couples. The noise of 20 couples talking simultaneously was tremendous but helped a lot to overcome language barriers.

After this noisy and funny start the floor was given to best practice examples. One example given by the Dutch colleague, police officer in Amersfoort, highlighted how the restraining order is handled in the Netherlands. Here a special role has been assigned to the mayor, who is responsible for the decision as to whether someone receives a temporary restraining order and must leave their home. It is also the mayor who can withdraw the temporary restraining order and the partner or family member may return home. In practice the mayor will usually let the police (Assistant Public Prosecutor) arrange it. Thus it is still the police (as it is the case in other European countries) who arranges the procedures, but it is the underlying principle that domestic violence is put on a political level which is the interesting aspect about it. The topic was also picked up in one of the workshops on risk assessment, where the specific requirements were discussed.

Gastronomic highlights

The second example of best practice was given by our German colleague from the Ministry of Justice, Lower Saxony, explained the Action Plan in Lower Saxony to promote cooperation and networking among various stakeholders in the field of domestic violence. It was made clear that successful cooperation can only function when all partners know about other professions in the field and are aware about opportunities and limits of cooperation of each profession. Education and further training play an important role to implement issues related to victims’ protection in all professions. Moreover, the Action Plan identifies special steps and procedures to deal with high-risk cases and implements a kind of case management.

A third example dealt with the successful recovery of a victim of domestic violence, who was invited to present her story to the audience. After long years of violence she succeeded in breaking the cycle of violence and in rebuilding her life. Thanks to a specific programme implemented by the Portuguese partner institution AMCV, she gained new self-esteem and is today in a position to talk about what happened to her.

In various workshops the topic of risk assessment was thoroughly discussed from different angles. A highly interesting approach from the Netherlands met big interest – a new concept in women’s shelters: the ‘Oranje Huis’ (Orange House). What is new about it is that the issue of domestic violence is no longer hidden in an undisclosed location. An ‘Oranje Huis’ is visible and recognisable and offers all services under one roof: advice, coordination, support and shelter. It provides direct help for all family members. Nevertheless, safety is their first priority, and thus the shelters are professionally protected and a risk assessment is carried out upon arrival of any client who seeks shelter. Orange refers to the target group, i.e. people who are in between green (no danger) and red (in life threatening danger).

Eager discussions in working groups (sometimes supported by a dictionary)
Feedback from the pilots
Collecting “personal benefits”

One aim of the workshop was also to gather feedback from the pilot phase. Workshop participants were invited to reflect together the experiences they made in their national pilots and to give their recommendations for improving the PACT training.
Comments and feedback concerning the following aspects were collected on wall papers and discussed: personal benefits, potential target groups, recommendations, (de-)motivating factors.
The PACT team is happy with the generally positive results and appreciates on the other hand the recommendations that are currently being processed.
All participants acknowledged the wealth of information that is delivered in the training course and appreciated above all the opportunity for e-learning. Since they all have limited time for training, they were glad to be able to work flexibly on the platform. The recommendations were mainly related to technical aspects of the e-learning platform. As far as the de-motivating factors are concerned, people felt sometimes lost in the numerous e-learning units and would appreciate a clearer structure. Motivating for all participants was above all the European dimension of the course and the chance to learn about different approaches in other European countries and to exchange with European colleagues.
If you want to learn more about the PACT training and get an account for our e-learning platform (available in EN, DE, IT, LT, PL, PT), please get in touch with the PACT project office: info@pact-eu.org.

The feedback on the Lisbon workshop itself was very positive: Participants generally expressed that they received new insights and information thanks to the participation in the PACT workshops. All of them appreciated the extent to which they gained new perspectives and fresh impetus for their work as well as new ideas for transfer like researching local resources or establishing a local network. The workshop clearly underpinned the need for collaboration in the field of domestic violence and confirmed that there is a general interest in exchanging knowledge and experience with colleagues from other countries and professions.

We did not only work… Impressions from the social events
Final Conference

After the successful event in Lisbon, we are now planning our final conference, which will take place on December 2nd, 2011, in Kaunas, Lithuania. The conference aims at bringing together stakeholders from different sectors such as adult education, domestic violence and policy making; furthermore representatives from women’s NGOs, police, social and healthcare organisations are invited as well as interested persons from all over Europe.
Beside project related discussions and presentations other relevant aspects will be addressed such as networking and collaboration, consequences of new legal regulation (Lithuania) related to domestic violence etc. The conference programme will be sent out in our next newsletter in autumn.
You can register already now for the conference at the PACT project office info@pact-eu.org.

Project Consortium

BUPNET GmbH, Göttingen, Germany
Sabine Wiemann, Ines Polzin
www.bupnet.de

AMCV, Lisbon, Portugal
Sandra Paulos, Petra Viegas
www.amcv.org.pt

Social Innovation Fund, Kaunas, Lithuania
Liudmila Mecajeva, Diana Basinskaite
www.lpf.lt

Orizzonte, Città della Pieve, Italy
Margarete Berg
www.orizzonte.info

Opportunities Aid Foundation, St. Julians, Malta
Antoine Gambin, Christina Demicheli
www.oafmalta.org

Centre for Continuing Education, Sopot, Poland
Urszula Hadrych, Sylwia Knot
www.cku.sopot.pl

die Berater, Vienna, Austria
Elisabeth Frankus
www.dieberater.com

Newsletter 2 – December 2010

Promoting Awareness for Communication and Training in the field of Domestic Violence

PACT is funded by the European Commission to promote awareness for communication and training targeting professionals and institutions that actively work in the support chain for women and children survivors of violence. PACT promotes collaboration among stakeholders, offers training and builds a European network of expertise in the field of violence against women and children.
As outlined in our May newsletter, the partnership conducted comprehensive research activities as well as interviews in order to explore specific needs and wishes in terms of training and networking of local stakeholders working in the field of domestic violence. The transnational synthesis of the results was compiled by the work package leader Orizzonte (Italy) and is available on our website. It has been the basis for the further development of our training kit and materials.

PACT Training Kit

The partnership analysed all results of the needs analysis and clustered raised training topics in seven training modules. The seven modules contain both face-to-face and e-learning units:

As far as the training method is concerned interviewees clearly expressed their preference for e-learning as they could work flexibly in their free time. Generally, only few examples of attractive e-learning are available. Those that were found are mostly offered by American providers and do not respond to the identified needs nor do they reflect the European reality in various aspects, e.g. legal regulations.

PACT Pilots at National Level

The training kit is going to be piloted from March 2011 onwards. The overall duration of the course is approx. 70 hours of which about 50 hours are provided in e-learning, i.e. approx. 15 hours per month. The organisation of face-to-face workshops is with the PACT project partners who will adjust the time table to the specific requirements of their participants. An integral part of the national pilots will be the international workshop in Lisbon.

Closing Workshop in Lisbon

The highlight of the piloting phase is certainly the two-day closing workshop in Lisbon in June 2011 to which two to three participants of national pilots are going to be invited. The focus of the workshop will be on risk assessment for survivors and for professionals, exchange of good practice as well as on new approaches from the field such as different ways of handling the restraining order, “open” shelters or the like. Apart from gathering feedback on the pilot phase, lots of time will be dedicated to networking activities and exchange of expertise. We do believe that a European exchange will have a positive impact on the work of involved local stakeholders of every partner country.

Dissemination Activities

Every European project has the task to realise dissemination activities right from the start of the project and so did PACT. Normally this is not necessarily worth mentioning. In this particular case we are proud to give two examples of what has been done so far in this field.

Posters and postcards

With the upcoming opportunity to present PACT in a big conference in Poland in September, the PACT partnership decided to create postcards and posters that are a bit out of the ordinary. We did not want to reproduce any act of violence to attract people’s attention but we were keen on creating something less obvious. Something that would not be directly linked to the topic of domestic violence at first glance but that would make people reflect. The BUPNET team had the idea to use simple objects of daily life – even objects stereotypically linked to women (like shoes) – and point to the problem that domestic violence is often not visible at first glance.
All in all seven postcards and posters were created, of which one is displayed here. There are all available for download on our website: www.pact-eu.org/index.php?id=downloads

Bilateral exchange in the Netherlands

In answer to our May newsletter the PACT coordinating team was invited to visit representatives of the Dutch police in Amersfoort working in the field of Domestic violence. In September, two representatives of BUPNET went to see the colleagues in Amersfoort. Apart from talking about the PACT project and the potential involvement of the Amersfoort team in the project activities, the BUPNET team learnt interesting aspects about new approaches: Thus, for example, the mayor is responsible for the decision as to whether someone receives a temporary restraining order and must leave their home.

Sometimes there may well be a threat within a household, but there are insufficient legal grounds for the police to arrest someone immediately. In order to stop the threat and arrange help, the police (officially the mayor) can impose a temporary restraining order. This can happen if someone in the home poses a threat at that moment in time to the partner, children or other household members. If violence is strongly suspected, a temporary restraining order can be imposed in order to avoid further escalation. The mayor is responsible for the decision as to whether someone receives a temporary restraining order and must leave their home. In practice the mayor will usually let the police (Assistant Public Prosecutor) arrange it. It is also the mayor who can then withdraw the temporary restraining order and the partner or family member may return home. The mayor can also decide to extend the temporary restraining order to a maximum of four weeks, if there is still a danger of domestic violence.

In a nutshell, it is still the police (as it is the case in other European countries) who arranges the procedures, but it is the underlying principle that domestic violence is put on a political level which is the interesting aspect about it.
(Further information on the restraining order in the Netherlands is available here: http://www.huisverbod.nl/doc/publicaties/folders_andere_talen_rijkshuisstijl/13870_Achterblijvers_EN1.pdf)

Newsletter 1 – May 2010

Promoting Awareness for Communication and Training in the field of Domestic Violence

PACT is funded by the European Commission to promote awareness communication and training for professionals and institutions that actively work in the support chain for women and children survivors of violence. PACT promotes collaboration among stakeholders, offers training and builds a European network of expertise in the field of violence against women and children.

Violence against women crosses all socio-economic levels, age, groups, races, religions and countries. Numerous studies have been published that document the prevalence of domestic violence and its serious effects on women. PACT seeks to act on the background of the support chain of women survivors of violence in Europe by increasing the level of awareness and knowledge among all relevant professional groups. PACT addresses professionals in education and vocational training as multipliers as well as various services offered to victims such as medical and psychological care, shelter, legal consultancy and empowerment.

Training functions as a mechanism to raise awareness and change attitudes regarding violence against women. Specific training on violence includes the concept of gender, all forms of violence, the situation of victims, their coping and their support needs, influence of violence on health etc. The project will develop an innovative approach aiming at filling an identified training gap by providing training in the field of domestic violence to those target groups that work in different services in the field.

The training kit that will be developed in PACT will also focus on a European exchange of knowledge and practice with view to different intervention models as well as on the promotion of a closer cooperation and networking of all relevant stakeholders.
A common international workshop in Lisbon as part of the training will bring physically together representatives of various backgrounds and promote an international exchange that will have a positive impact on the work of involved local stakeholders of every partner country.

PACT Project Activities in the First Project Phase

The project started in January 2010 and was officially inaugurated with a virtual online meeting that took place mid-January with representatives of all seven partner institutions.

During this meeting the first project steps were discussed and scheduled in accordance with the project design.

Needs analysis and contacts with local stakeholders

The first task was to conduct a comprehensive desk research as well as interviews during which specific needs and wishes in terms of training and networking of local stakeholders working in the field were to explore. The research phase aimed to create a sound common basis for the development of a training concept and training modules by identifying current practice, legal implications, intervention models and by analysing existing education and training in order to identify fields of improvement.

Research activities as well as interviews were conducted by means of specifically elaborated patterns and guidelines consisting of key points that needed to be considered to ensure comparable results. These key points were provided by the work package leader Orizzonte (Italy) that is currently compiling the transnational synthesis of the results. This principle of work package leader is applied in every work package, thus making sure that each partner has a defined responsibility according to the special field of interest and expertise. The synthesis will be available at the end of May and will give hints for the development of the training kit which will be started during the second transnational partner meeting in June in Malta.

Partner Meeting in Göttingen

Even though the virtual meeting was a good starting point, a “real” partner meeting took place in March in Göttingen where the project partners met for the first time. The meeting was an excellent opportunity to get to know to each other and to intensively work and further plan the project and its activities.

In the framework of the meeting local representatives of women’s associations, NGOs, police, training and social organisations were invited to join the transnational partner meeting in the framework of a European “fireside chat”. The event took place in the coordinator’s premises and offered largely time to share and exchange experience and information pertaining to the field of domestic violence.

TV Clip

In the month of April, another important task has started, namely the production of a TV clip. Its message will be as follows:
The problem could be closer to us then we think. Relatives, friends and colleagues can be victims, survivors… and perpetrators. Domestic violence is hidden in the home that should afford protection. It affects its victims in many ways. It knows no age, face, profession, economic means, culture, nationality. Social consciousness about domestic violence is made up of every individual’s awareness; social networks are signs of our time. We are taking advantage of increased awareness in the need to network. Communication between professionals who help victims of domestic violence is more important than ever. It offers complete support to those who need it most.
The spot is co-produced with the Education 22 of the Ministry of Education that will also broadcast it periodically. The Maltese partner OAF is taking care of the production and first scenes were already taken. The clip is expected to be ready within the next weeks.

PACT Website

The project website was implemented in March and offers information on the project. It will be updated regularly to allow an interested public to get a closer insight in the project work. For a special focus in PACT is put on a European exchange, which will be promoted among the involved associated local partners, adequate communication tools will be implemented on the project website at a later project stage enabling local stakeholders to get into contact with their European colleagues. Interested local stakeholders have the opportunity to present their work in the specific section on the website. For further information, please contact either the coordinator or one of the partner organisations.

PACT Consortium