EUROPE FOR WOMEN WITH WE GO!

Increasing the chances to find a job for 100 women recovering from violent relationships; sensitizing 80 companies on violence against women; building cooperative networks among anti-violence centres, public services, and labour market stakeholders so to guarantee a 360° response to a widespread problem - i.e. gender-based violence - in Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, and Spain. These are the main goals of the second edition of WE GO! - the project carried out by ActionAid Italy with SURT (NGO, Barcelona, Spain), WCK (the oldest women’s shelter in Greece), GPF (NGO, Gender Project for Bulgaria Foundation, Sofia), IRS (Institute for Social Research, Italy), and Rel.Azioni Positive (anti-violence centre, Padua, Italy).

According to the European Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), almost one in four women (22%) experience physical and/or sexual violence in a relationship with a man (2014). The lack of economic independence is one of the main challenges women face when trying to leave their abusive partner. According to the survey carried out by the anti-violence centres (AVC) involved in the first edition of the project, 82,5% of women who seeked for support had a low level of economic independence, 59,1% were unemployed, 73,7% had dependent children, only 13,3% owned a house and 14,8% co-owned their house with their husband/partner.

The main goal of WE GO! is to support the socio-economic empowerment of women who survived violent relationships by strengthening their skills and the local support systems by promoting good practices and building cooperation networks public and private actors, including companies. 

“The project aims to share the knowledge and the skills developed by AVCs in Europe and to create a connection with the services of other public and private actors, which is fundamental to ensure the socio-economic self-determination of women” says Rossana Scaricabarozzi, Head of Gender & Economic Justice Unit in ActionAid Italy. “The only solution for such a deep-rooted social phenomenon, such as gender-based violence, is to provide a structural response”.

The first edition of WE GO!, implemented by 15 partners in 7 EU countries, involved about 250 women in training and mutual-learning courses, and trained more than 140 social operators in 17 AVCs. It produced a toolkit for AVC operators with guidelines and practical tools to support women in their self-empowerment process.

WE GO! 2 is a project co-funded by the EU Rights, Equality, Citizenship Programme aiming to make a further step in the development of the know-how for shared solutions to women’s freedom from violence. The two-year long project will run until January 2021.