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Description
Out project will be implemented in three municipalities in Veliko Tarnovo District, i.e. Gorna Oryahovitsa, Elena and Zlataritsa. In Veliko Tarnovo District, Maria Centre is the only service for victims of domestic violence. There is no Crisis Centre for victims of violence either. Elena Municipality (with a population of approximately 10 000 people) has more than 100 small settlements in remote and hard-to-reach areas and just 5 schools. There are only two social services. Zlataritsa Municipality (5000 people) has 23 villages. The municipality has one social service and one social worker. The population has diverse ethnic background: Bulgarians, Turks, Roma, Pomaks and Vlachs. Both municipalities suffer from high unemployment rate. The cases that Maria Centre has had involve children at risk of violence, neglect, abandonment. Elena and Zlataritsa Municipalities are not capable of supporting victims of domestic violence. In many cases people in need cannot afford to use or pay for transport to access services outside their place of residence. This is an obstacle making it difficult to access services. The implemented project will help overcome an identified risk for 150 children and young people and 130 victims of domestic violence from 3 municipalities. The project aims at introducing innovative (new or improved) methods and approaches for the needs of vulnerable people. The project will empower vulnerable groups and improve their access to services through counselling, legal aid, mobile work and the use of new approaches: a family group conference and parents’ groups.
Summary of project results
The main objective of the project was to introduce new methods and approaches to the needs of vulnerable groups to enable more people from small settlements to get support and access to services in cases of domestic violence.
At information meetings in each municipality the project activities were presented, and work plans for implementation in each municipality were prepared. In the municipalities of Elena and Zlataritsa, thanks to the local authorities, psycho-social and legal counselling was provided in the premises of the municipalities and the Social Assistance Directorate, which also assisted in the organisation of parenting groups and family group conferences for families at risk, families with low parental capacity and with a deficit of social skills for raising their children.
In addition to counselling in reception centers, the team developed mobile outreach work in several villages of the municipalities of Elena and Zlataritsa, with meetings held in the homes of families who do not have the means to travel or the opportunity to use services in a municipal center. Legal aid and legal counselling in cases of domestic violence enabled vulnerable groups in small settlements to obtain information, funds to pay for medical certificates for court, legal representation in court and to obtain legal protection under the Protection from Domestic Violence Act (PDVA).
Two new methods for working with children and families at risk were introduced in the project: the Family Group Conference (FGC) and Parent Groups. Both methods are related to empowering families and raising their awareness to care without abuse and neglect, the difference being that the FGC also involves the children of the families, which allows for respecting the child''s opinion and encouraging child participation.
The project team developed the existing partnerships with the multidisciplinary teams of the municipalities by holding 3-day trainings related to multidisciplinary work in cases of violence and a series of supervisions in municipalities to discuss cases from practice.
For the monitoring a volunteer team of young members of the Youth Parliament - Gorna Oryahovitsa was used, who in trainings and focus groups developed a questionnaire with questions exploring public attitudes towards domestic violence and conducted a survey. The processed data from the questionnaires, the observations of the activities, the interviews conducted are included in the analyses prepared for each municipality separately.
The project provided people in the targeted small municipalities without social services with a working model for supporting victims of domestic violence, children and families at risk of violence or abandonment.
As a result of the implementation of the activities, the good interaction of the team with representatives of institutions from the municipalities and child protection authorities, new contacts were established with personal doctors, community workers, health mediators and educators who already know the problem of domestic violence, its consequences for children and know how to refer victims for support.