Description
The aim of the project is the development of an organized and autonomous counseling center, which will be active on women and migrant women. The personnel will be trained and scientifically supervised by an experienced scientist. The counseling center will focus on counseling of women and migrant women. The project entails: (i) the development of the Centre, recruitment and training of executives, (ii) the certification of the center and the organization under the ISO 9001:2008 protocol (iii) the twinning of Women Association with Cypriot Women NGO for training, mutual management of incidents (focus on migrant women) and exchange of good practices. The partner organization is from Cyprus. The partnership will achieve the exchange of experiences and policies around the counseling of women between the two countries through common trainings and activities.
Summary of project results
Despite the wide operation of support centres for victims of abuse throughout the Greek region as well as of the counselling structures of Research Centre for Equality Issues (KETHI), there is no so far an established intervention protocol for victims, or framework measuring the effectiveness of interventions. The project, has supported women victims of domestic violence, with a focus on immigrants living in Heraklion, through the successful creation and operation of the "Counselling Centre - The Women's House", which was certified under the ISO 9001: 2015 for its services (the only certified centre through the ISO process). The Centre’s key priority is the effective reintegration of victims in society. During the project, the “Counselling Centre - The Women's House” was initiated and established. Today, it provides a set of support services for women victims of domestic violence, giving priority to immigrants. At the same time, it has developed and provides a complete educational kit of “tools” for all levels of school education focusing on Gender Equality and prevention of violence, which is recognized and approved by the Regional Education Authorities of the Ministry of Education. The Centre today is a key point of contact as well as a "training/educational point" for the Social Services of the Municipalities located in Heraklion prefecture. Moreover, an official partnership with the local Prosecution Authorities and the Regional Health Authorities was concluded. The Icelandic Centre for Gender Studies as well as cooperating organizations from Iceland with strong experience and expertise in the field of protection of domestic violence victims, have recognized the high quality level of the Centre’s services and have significantly contributed to the development of interventions towards perpetrators of violence, which until today remains an evolutionary process. So far, the structure has served 320 beneficiaries, through 672 hours of counselling. The incidents mainly came through the SOS Helpline operation, and also through individual appointments requested by women. The Centre has also been engaged in Criminal Mediation processes in 3 cases, in cooperation with the General Prosecution authorities of Heraklion.
Summary of bilateral results