About the Project
Between July 2016 and June 2018, Solace Women’s Aid and Shpresa Programme delivered the Empower Women project to asylum seeking, refugee and migrant women affected by gender based violence (GBV). This is the second phase of a project that first began in 2012 to engage Albanian Speaking Women in London around experiences of violence and abuse.
There are three key elements to the Empower Women project:
- Work with young people at Shpresa to develop their understanding of gender-based violence and of healthy relationships
- Group work with women at Shpresa who have experienced violence to raise awareness of violence against women and girls, to help prevent violence against women and girls, and to promote healthy relationships
- Casework for women experiencing violence and abuse, provided by Solace via one-to-one advice, information, practical and emotional support and advocacy.
The Empower Women Toolkit was developed to share the learning from this project, which includes resources to support community groups, mainstream providers of services for women and children, those making decisions about the provision of services for women and girls and funders commissioners, and full evaluation report.
QUOTE
“In Albania you have to accept domestic violence as part of the culture. You do not have any support, any encouragement to talk about it. Whereas here we are aware that there are ways of becoming safe and not living in a violent relationship.”
Woman trafficked from Albania, interviewed at Shpresa Programme.
IMAGES