According to the European Commission´s 2018 Report on ¨Equality between women and men in the European Union¨, although more than 9 in 10 Europeans think that promoting gender equality and nonviolence is important to ensure a fair and democratic society, its promotion, protection and, last but not least, implementation still requires a constant change of mind-sets, lifelong education and solidarity. Given the unstable social, political and economic situation not only in Italy but also in the other partner countries and the rest of Europe, we decided to form a Strategic Partnership as we believe that it is of utmost importance to address abuse and gender inequalities. The Partnership will be formed by the following countries and entities: -Italy: Petit Pas, association of social promotion, -Netherlands: Stichting voor Aktieve Geweldloosheid´s (Foundation for Active Nonviolence) Towards a Nonviolent World Department, -Poland: Fundacja Zielony Słoń (GEF), Foundation working with fewer opportunities communities, -United Kingdom: Creativity Works Preston, entity providing an alternative learning and employment centre, -Spain: Permacultura Cantabria, non governmental organisation working on social development. As for the learning activities planned for the WOMAN: Working On Mastering Adult Nonviolence project and their main objectives, through three study visits, in Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom, and a course in Spain we will better understand the reality of adult gender abuse victims which will further allow us to raise awareness of this problem among our adult service users. By visiting participating organisations´ local communities and other institutions they cooperate with we will be able to directly get to know their best practices in fight for a more just, discrimination and violence free society and round tables will let us benchmark our methods of working with adult learners against newly experienced ideas and initiatives. We will exchange specific tools to contribute to a nonviolent and more equal society for the benefit of our adult service users such as SVAG´s methods to work on identifying and breaking the cycle of oppression, GEF´s manual to address the issue of cyber abuse and discrimination, CWP´s method of identification of micromachist behaviours, Permacultura´s emotional management tools and Petit Pas´ experience on working on empowering women and gender and power abuse in the labour market. The newly gained skills and insights will be further passed on to other adults and adults trainers during internal workshops organised by the course attendees and subsequently used in defining and implementing future European projects. On the other hand, gender is not the only factor in women's lives as there are many more aggravating issues that undermine their well-being and social inclusion which is why education and training that explore diversity issues such as ethnicity or disabilities, in addition to gender, are also needed. Moreover, in many cases gender violence victims are economically dependent on their offenders which is why shame and emotional dependence add on to the problem. For this reason, the course in Spain will be focused on measures addressing adult nonviolence through emotional management tools and we will also visit institutions that work with women with disabilities or from cultural minorities, get to know their best practices and deepen our expertise on working with collectives, especially women, with fewer opportunities. As for the project’s impact: Adult trainers directly participating in the Project will broaden their capacities and gain new abilities for their daily work which in turn will create a direct effect on the gender abuse vulnerable collectives they work with advancing the benefits of the educational activities provided by their entities. Adult learners who participate in the course in Spain will acquire best practices relevant when facing abuse and discrimination in different contexts becoming more active as European citizens. Also, the multicultural environment and direct diversity experience will raise both groups’ consciousness level and improve their linguistic, task-management and communication skills. Our Strategic Partnership members will deepen the expertise regarding gender discrimination and violence improving the scope of their activities and their staff’s qualifications. They will also broaden their international networks and connections for the future initiatives. Last but not least, directly and indirectly through a wide dissemination campaign and adult trainers’ work more gender related violence and discrimination victims are expected to be reached and empowered. Also, European citizens in general will be better informed and equipped to provoke a social shift so that women are no longer underprivileged and gender-based violence and harassment is less widespread across our societies.
Taking into account the above, we have decided to identify the following project objectives: 1. Exchange best practices to tackle gender-based violence and abuse among adult women; 2. Obtain new tools and methodologies to combat gender-based violence; 3. Raise the level of awareness about the abuse of power experienced by adult women; 4. Strengthen alliances at regional, national and European level with entities fighting to combat violence and gender abuse. Each entity in the partnership had shared their tools and knowledge developed to tackle gender abuse and target the environment of their country; we were therefore trying to create a space for exchanging ways to understand and resolve conflicts related to abuse. We sought a deeper understanding of victims of gender-based violence and their situation at all levels, as this knowledge was essential to create new ways and procedures to support them. We also wanted to share our original system developed to tackle gender abuse as we believed it would be beneficial for those interested in the subject.
Nowadays, with the problem of gender-related abuse of power still spreading violently in societies without a viable solution and with the emergence of new threats, such as the misuse of new technologies, women adults who find themselves exposed to such threats form a particularly vulnerable group. It is important to realize that most of them, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, have not been prepared to deal with such abuses: in many countries it has become a habit, the old generation forgotten pattern that repeats itself over and over again. . Gender-based violence and abuse have always existed in the history of mankind, but over the past decade this problem has grown perilously and gained visibility. Adult trainers, whose main area of work covers gender abuse, need to realize how important their support is in breaking this pattern of aggression. The participating entities and their adult trainers wanted to improve their skills in raising awareness of society as a whole in relation to gender abuse of power.