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Continuing our path towards safe and effective perpetrator work in Europe

Dear Colleagues,

In 2022, we were ecstatic and intimidated to learn that the EU was offering networks like ours the opportunity of giving grants to our member organisations. Thanks to our hard-working team, brilliant external evaluators and dedicated board, we could make this grant opportunity a reality.

In this newsletter, you will discover that our members developed brilliant projects addressing crucial areas of improvement and development: Risk assessment, child protection, collaboration with victim support services, and more...

To hear more about how we learned which issues needed strengthening in European perpetrator work and the mitigation measures we are proposing, give my interview below in this newsletter a listen.

As always, if you have thoughts on our work or newsletters, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me.

All the Best,
Alessandra

In this newsletter

Interview with Alessandra Pauncz on supporting safe & effective perpetrator work in Europe
The WWP EN 2023 Grantees
Save the date: 2023 WWP EN Annual Conference
Project Updates
Links and resources

Interview with Alessandra Pauncz

Our special guest for this interview is WWP EN's very own Executive Director Alessandra Pauncz, who joined Anna from her office in Florence to share insights WWP EN has gathered over the past year on issues in European perpetrator work that need improvement and the exciting steps WWP EN will take to improve these areas.

Watch the Interview here

The WWP EN 2023 Grantees

Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation

During their project "Good practices, challenges and proposed solutions in practical work with perpetrators in Bulgaria", the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation (BGRF) will map gaps in Bulgarian perpetrator work to unify approaches and improve domestic violence perpetrator work.

Currently, Bulgarian perpetrator programmes lack continuity and sustainability, as projects funded by the Justice Ministry are too few and short.

BGRF will

develop professional guidelines for therapists, social workers and psychologists,
strengthen a coordinated community response,
train facilitators, and
work to ensure that perpetrator programmes across different Bulgarian regions follow international quality and safety standards.

Programa Contexto - University of Valencia

"Focused intervention protocols: Addressing perpetrators' risk factors" aims to improve the quality of perpetrator programmes by designing intervention protocols based on a detailed analysis of participants' main risk factors that hinder change.

Additionally, CONTEXTO will develop a protocol for analysing and contacting the perpetrators' social networks so that facilitators can gather relevant information for risk assessment and management.

Project activities include:

Analysing and categorising risk factors
Designing intervention protocols
Training facilitators
Conducting a feasibility evaluation of the protocols
Awareness-raising

League of Open Men

The "Improving Work with Perpetrators of Violence in the Czech Republic" project goal is primary and secondary prevention of violence in relationships and gender-based violence in the Czech Republic through the expansion and improvement of our work with clients (mainly men and the vast majority fathers) who commit violence against their partners and children. In the Czech Republic, there is still very little perpetrator work.

As part of the project LOM will expand its' perpetrator programme by adding a group and train the team to work with young men aged 15-18.

A particular priority is on strengthening gender-sensitive approaches. LOM will map the gender attitudes of men programme participants and the impact the programme has on changing their attitudes

Association NAIA

"Applying a child-focused approach in working with perpetrators in Bulgaria" aims to improve the safety and well-being of child survivors of domestic violence.

The project will increase the effectiveness of treatment programmes for perpetrators in Bulgaria by developing and implementing a child safety-oriented model for assessing and managing domestic violence cases involving children.

Project activities include:

Mapping the implementation of child protection policies in Bulgarian perpetrator programmes
Developing tools for child protection during perpetrator work
Training perpetrator work professionals to implement Child Protection Policies and Procedures, risk assessment, and multi-agency protocols for child protection

Associazione Relive - Relazioni Libere dalle Violenze

With the recent passing of an Italian law on gender-based violence, members of the Italian national perpetrator programme network "Relive" have seen an increase in enrollment in their perpetrator programmes and requires coordination to create shared procedures and protocol agreements across Italy.

With the "Re-Live the network" project, Relive will remunerate three professionals to handle administrative work, coordinate activities, and improve services for members. This will allow them to coordinate the important process of introducing shared procedures and protocols across Italy, as well as holding a national meeting on European and national standards.

Society for Psychological Assistance (SPA)

With the 2023 grant, SPA is implementing the "Responding to increased need for victim-safety oriented perpetratorwork in Croatia" project.

With this project, SPA will

improve the quality of their current perpetrator programme with a special focus on victim safety
strengthen their cooperation with survivor support services
promote safe and effective perpetrator work as an important part of coordinated-community responses to domestic violence in Croatia

Project activities include

conducting training for facilitators to increase available programmes
improving their child protection policy and risk assessment
expanding their programme evaluation

2023 WWP EN Annual Conference

SAVE THE DATE

The 2023 WWP EN Annual Conference will take place 11 & 12 October, online. During these two days, we will interrogate the concept of "high risk" in domestic violence perpetrator work, what that actually means and how a complex understanding informs our work with domestic violence perpetrators. As always, the conference will be a mix of keynotes, panel discussions and practice-oriented workshops.

Project Updates

MARVOW 2.0 Project

The MOVE project is offering a day-long capacity-building programme "Culturally sensitive approaches to perpetrator work" on 8 June with Daliah Vakili from WWP EN, a gender-based violence & migration expert and anti-racism trainer. If you work in a perpetrator programme and want to enhance your skills in working with culturally diverse groups of men, you can still join the waitlist for the training here.

To improve access to perpetrator programmes for men with migrant backgrounds, project partners prepared motivational cards in multiple languages. Such materials can encourage men with abusive behaviours to reflect on their actions and seek help to change.

https://www.work-with-perpetrators.eu/stop

StoP Project

Our latest project, StoP - Community Matters, aims to expand the Stop Model of community-based violence prevention. At the kick-off meeting in Vienna, the pioneers of the "StoP: Districts without Partner Violence" concept shared their vision of involving neighbourhoods in preventing intimate partner violence in their community.

Over the next three years, the StoP team will adapt and expand the StoP Model to Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, and Romania. We at WWP EN will enhance specialised services awareness in Europe in collaboration with Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE). Read our newsletter for updates as the project works towards building safer communities.

Picture of project partners at kick-off meeting

MARVOW 2.0 Project

With the MARVOW 2.0 project, we are proud to continue our previous work of building multi-agency collaboration to protect older women. This project builds on key outcomes and pathways of the MARVOW project to establish a coordinated and structured model for responding to abuse of older women. It will also expand the model to 7 countries while increasing the focus on risk assessment, case management, and advocacy.

In the long run, MARVOW 2.0 will contribute towards improved gender equality by combating violence against older women and creating a long-lasting transnational change.