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Description
The aim of the project is to launch an Emotional Support Point in the City of Toruń for adults in crisis, which will provide them with immediate, free diagnostics, therapeutic help and counselling. We will support 50 people with problems that have increased as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, such as domestic violence, conflicts in partner relationships, divorce, addiction, codependency and depression. The Polish Society for the Prevention of Drug Abuse ran an Environmental Prevention Counselling Centre in Toruń for 26 years. In 2021, due to a lack of funding, the Centre was closed down and its beneficiaries were left without help. The newly established Osnova-Toruń Association is not yet in a position to create an equivalent Counselling Centre on its own. Therefore, this project is an intervention aimed at people in need of support, experiencing various forms of violence and trauma, including those stigmatised in their communities. As part of the project we will conduct 2 empowerment workshops for 20 people and 3 open lectures on violence and its prevention for min. 90 people. Partners in the project are the Studio M6 Foundation and the Local Action Group ''For the City of Toruń''.
Summary of project results
The aim of the project was to launch an Emotional Support Point in Toruń for adults in crisis, providing immediate, free diagnostic, therapeutic, compensatory and advisory assistance. The beneficiaries were people with very specific problems intensified by the pandemic (mainly domestic violence, conflicts in partnerships, divorces, addiction, co-dependency, depressive disorders). For 26 years, the Community Prevention Clinic operated in Toruń (run by the Polish Society for the Prevention of Drug Addiction - an NGO dealing with support, diagnosis, counseling, individual and family therapy, educational and workshop activities). Residents received free help here in broadly understood crisis situations. The Clinic often received victims of domestic violence, co-dependents, with DDA and DDD syndrome, who could not afford private help. In June 2021, due to the lack of funding from the city and province, the Clinic ceased its operations, and people who used its activities or needed it in the future were left without help.
The intervention was a response to the huge demand for support for people with experience of various forms of violence, childhood trauma, inability to cope with stress, and environmental stigmatization. Victims of violence feel fear and helplessness. In such situations, the most important thing is the possibility of obtaining professional, fast, free help, based on the competences of employees, in an accessible, friendly and open place.
In Toruń, there is too little comprehensive support and free therapeutic help for people in crisis. The dramatic nature of the situation is intensified by inflation and problems related to, among others, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine (a state of strong tension and frustration translating into mental crises, domestic violence and its effects).
A person in crisis, waiting for systemic help, could meet with specialists at the open Emotional Support Point (depending on needs - clinical psychologist, family and addiction therapist, psychotherapist, court mediator) and get an initial diagnosis of the problem. Then, together with the therapist, they developed a strategy for corrective actions and selected the optimal form of work. The change we planned regarding the client''s feeling that they are not alone in the problem, and the help provided is professional, immediate (the waiting time for a visit was no longer than 7 days) and free of charge, aimed at specific needs, leading to a solution to the problem was achieved.
From September 2023 to March 2024, a total of 283 people took advantage of workshops, open lectures and help provided at the Emotional Support Point. This is MUCH more than we planned, which shows how necessary such activities are in Toruń.
1) The Emotional Support Point, run in 3 locations in Toruń, provided free specialist help for people in crisis. 50 people took advantage of 159 hours of meetings with therapists. Source: participation cards for meetings with specialists.
2) 2 workshop cycles “How to regain power and believe in yourself” were held for a total of 20 people. Source: attendance lists.
3) 3 2-hour open lectures on the issue of violence gathered 213 people. Source: attendance lists.
4) 2 entries on the issues addressed in the project were published on Osnova''s blog “From the Terapeutki''s Notebook”. Source: www.osnova.org.pl
5) Partners in the project were: Studio M6 Foundation (which provided us with a free therapy room in the Social Intermediation Agency) and the Local Action Group "For the City of Toruń" (which provided us with a room for workshops in the Local Activity Center ''Willa z pasją''). Source: 2 partnership agreements.
The project was addressed to adults, residents of Toruń, who were in a mental crisis and needed immediate, professional and compensatory specialist help.
As a result of the project implementation:
- 20 people developed skills related to coping with the problem, overcoming the crisis, and their self-awareness and self-control increased during the workshops. Importantly, at the stage of writing the application, we assumed that half of the workshop group would be people associated with our association, and the other half - people "from the city". It turned out that only 2 people associated with the association took part in the workshops - so much interest was in the help offered and so quickly the list of places for the workshops filled up. The opinions expressed in the evaluation surveys
showed how much such help was needed.
- 50 people received support from specialists at the Point, which was to translate into taking constructive, optimal actions, improving psychosocial functioning. During the project implementation, it turned out that 150 hours for the Point''s activities was not enough and that the assumption that each person would receive 3 hours of support did not always prove to be right. We allocated the funds remaining in the project from renting premises for additional hours for the Point''s clients. - 213 people (we assumed 90) expanded their knowledge of the forms of domestic violence and its prevention during 3 open lectures, which enjoyed much greater interest than we had planned.