In times of economic difficulty such as the current European recession, Support Services for vulnerable adults and particularly for women across Europe, are often cut and 2015 is no exception to this. Statistics continue to paint the bleak picture of the issues facing vulnerable women which may prevent them from becoming economically or educationally active. 1 in 4 women across Europe experience domestic violence over their lifetimes and between 6-10% of women suffer domestic violence in a given year (Council of Europe, 2002). 68% of human trafficking victims are women (2013, Eurostat). A significant proportion of refugee women living in the UK have experienced violence prior to arrival and they remain vulnerable to violence in the UK, their country of asylum (Refugee Council, 2012). There continues to be a need to provide high quality support and training to vulnerable women at risk of exclusion from the labour market. The sector continues to rely on volunteers working with vulnerable women to provide much needed support in the fields of personal empowerment, confidence and employability or entrepreneurship skills. Support Workers who work to provide support to vulnerable women have been overlooked in terms of the type and variety of training they are provided with. Whilst issue-specific training is provided for Support Workers working with vulnerable women, Support Workers report that they feel less able to support and provide information and guidance on issues relating to employability and entrepreneurship to their female clients. EMPOWER (Educational Materials for Practitioners providing Opportunities for vulnerable Women’s Employability and Resilience) aims to bridge this gap by developing innovative blended training programmes to both target groups (Support Workers and vulnerable women themselves) via the EMPOWER Training Programme (training knowledge, skills and abilities in tools and methods for increasing confidence and awareness of strengths for employability) and EMPOWER Circles Programmes (action learning and increased self-reflection for success). EMPOWER is a consortium of skilled and experienced organisations from 4 partner countries (UK, LT, EL and IS) who all work in the field of gender and VET. The consortium of partners consists of two NGOs in social care (KMOP and SIF), an SME specialised in gender projects (INOVA) and the worldwide humanitarian organisation, Red Cross (RKR). EMPOWER focuses on a strengths-based training and coaching programme for volunteers and paid Support Workers affiliated to organisations working with vulnerable women and also to the vulnerable women they support in partner countries of UK, EL,IS and LT. EMPOWER objectives will be to: -Equip Support Workers working with vulnerable women with the soft skills training necessary to pass these skills onto women in order to increase their employability and entrepreneurship opportunities. - Equip vulnerable women with greater confidence, belief & resilience to succeed economically. 3,800 participants will benefit from EMPOWER from both direct target groups and indirect target groups and stakeholders. EMPOWER's main results include: -Training Needs Analysis of Support Workers working with vulnerable women to increase employability and entrepreneurship skills and opportunities. -Training Needs Analysis of vulnerable women in terms of increasing employability and entrepreneurship skills and opportunities. -Development of EMPOWER Others Training Programme (8 units of face to face training and OERs- 2 pilot phases) -Development of EMPOWER Yourself Training Programme (8 units of face to face training and OERs- 2 pilot phases) -Trainers' Guidelines for the EMPOWER Training Programmes (Guidelines of how to train Support Workers and volunteers for the --EMPOWER Others Training Programme and Guidelines of how to train vulnerable women for the EMPOWER Yourself Training Programme) -EMPOWER Others Professional Development Circles and EMPOWER Yourself Circles- 2 pilot phases -EMPOWER Online Learning Hub -Policymakers Guide for Improving Employability and Entrepreneurship Skills Training for Support Workers and the Vulnerable Women they Work With. The following Multiplier Events will be developed: -5 Dissemination Groups to take place over the 3 year project period in partner countries of UK, Greece, Iceland and Lithuania. -A final conference to showcase project successes to take place in the UK with over 100 delegates from partner countries and across Europe. The impact on the target groups will be increased skills, competences and knowledge about entrepreneurship and employability skills in addition to valuable soft skills and strengths-based training in resilience and positive psychology. Long-term impact is expected to influence training available to Support Workers in entrepreneurship and employability as well as supporting greater numbers of vulnerable women back into employment, education or self-employment.
EMPOWER (Educational Materials for Practitioners providing Opportunities for vulnerable Women’s Employability and Resilience) was developed by a consortium of 4 skilled and experienced organisations: 1. Inova (UK), SME specialised in gender and skills-building projects 2. KMOP (EL), NGO in social care 3. SIF (LT), NGO in social care 4. VMST (IS), Directorate of Labour It found its origin in research demonstrating that in times of economic difficulty, such as the recent recession, Support Services for vulnerable adults and particularly for women are often cut. 2015, the year that EMPOWER started its development, formed no exception. Statistics painted a bleak picture of the issues vulnerable women face, within and outside of the EU, preventing them from becoming economically or educationally active: - 1 in 4 women across Europe experience domestic violence throughout their lifetimes and between 6-10% of women suffer domestic violence in a given year (CoE, 2002) - 68% of human trafficking victims are women (Eurostat, 2013) and - A significant proportion of refugee women living in the UK have experienced violence prior to arrival and remain vulnerable to violence in the UK, their country of asylum (Refugee Council, 2012). There continues to be a need for high quality support and training to vulnerable women at risk of exclusion from the labour market and their Support Workers. The sector strongly relies on volunteers to provide much needed support in the fields of personal empowerment, confidence and employability or entrepreneurship skills. Support Workers have however been overlooked in terms of the type and variety of training they are provided with. Whilst issue-specific training is provided, Support Workers report that they feel less able to support and provide information and guidance on issues relating to employability and entrepreneurship to their female clients. EMPOWER was initiated to bridge this gap and set itself two main objectives: 1. Equip Support Workers working with vulnerable women with the soft skills training necessary to pass these skills onto women in order to increase their employability and entrepreneurship opportunities. 2. Equip vulnerable women with greater confidence, belief & resilience to succeed economically. The main activities undertaken to achieve these objectives have been the following: - A preliminary Needs Analysis to further define the training needs of Support Workers working with vulnerable women and of the vulnerable women themselves to increase employability and entrepreneurship skills and opportunities. - Development of 3 high-quality Training Programmes (EMPOWER Others – EMPOWER Yourself – EMPOWER Circles) that have ensured to train the project’s target groups in building the necessary soft skills to better support vulnerable women (in the case of Support Workers and volunteers), and to better support themselves (in the case of vulnerable women). - Development of a set of Facilitator Guidelines to support the delivery of EMPOWER Training Programmes. - Development of the EMPOWER Learning Hub, an online eLearning platform that contains all training materials developed, extra reading materials and other interesting resources. This platform will remain available as an open access OER. - Development of the Policymakers Guide – ‘Female Empowerment for Employability – a Guide for Policymakers’ covering lessons learned in EMPOWER and recommendations to improve policy and practice in the field of employability and entrepreneurship training for vulnerable women and Support Workers. - Multiplier Events to promote EMPOWER project results and to further spread the word about its activities. - A Final Conference to celebrate the project's success. With these activities EMPOWER achieved positive impact among the partners, its participants and beyond, leading to around 23,000 Support Workers, volunteers, vulnerable women, stakeholders and other interested parties directly and indirectly benefiting from the project. Not only did most of our quantitative targets exceed in numbers, qualitative feedback received from everyone involved has been incredibly positive throughout. Our direct target groups enjoy increased skills, competences and knowledge about employability and entrepreneurship skills together with added soft skills and strengths-based training in resilience and positive psychology. The project funding may have come to an end, but EMPOWER will continue. The partnership has received broad interest from a number of organisations to continue delivering the programme with their clients and/or employees. The project has hereby grown its capacity for support, which is in turn expected to lead to helping an increasingly large number of vulnerable women back into employment, education or self-employment. “The EMPOWER Course has been such a big help to me. I learnt that with perseverance you can do anything you put your mind to. There is never a problem, it’s a challenge.'