17 Jan HACKATHON IN BARCELONA: THE (RE)INSERTION OF WOMEN SURVIVORS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

The ACTIV Hackathon in Barcelona was organized by the Spanish partner CEPS Projectes Socials, with the help of LaGroc Solutions and #plantauno, and 23 people from a variety of women focused organizations attended the event.

It was organized in a World Café style. The people attending were divided in four groups, and each group was assigned a table, a color and a letter. When putting a person from each table and a person from the organization team together, their name tags created the word ACTIV, with each letter in a different color.

During the day, 4 groups were formed with women from different fields, based on their preferences on the topics to be discussed. First, a general round was held in all the groups, in which 3 questions were discussed: if there is a pattern in the specific needs of women survivors of gender violence, what is the first step to get out of the cycle of violence, and if, on an individual level, the participants work with a specific profile of women.

Once the general round was over, a different topic was dealt with at each table, on which a series of questions had been posed that the participants were asked to answer, always based on their personal experience and opinion.

When the first specific round was over, the rapporteurs moved to another group, where they discussed the same topic as in the previous round, but with different participants.

In both the general round and the two specific rounds, keywords or important phrases that emerged in the discussion were written on a poster in a color assigned to each group.

At the end of the general round and the two specific rounds, conclusions were shared, and an open debate was proposed, with the goal of drawing collective conclusions.

Take a look at some of the questions and conclusions in this album:

Conclusions

On one hand, there is a clear problem with the way the system is built. Professionals that work with victims are considered to be the only ones that have enough knowledge about gender politics and issues, which causes them to be left to deal with every issue that has to do with gender. The lack of gender focused trained professional causes specialists to be overworked, making it impossible to tend to all the victims that need their services. To fix this issue, they ask for more trained professionals, or a bigger economic investment so that new people can be trained in gender related issues.

On the other hand, it’s important to empower victims and give them back the independence that was taken from them. To accomplish this, women need to find ways to support themselves, and the best way is for them to get training in specific areas so that they can work, which brings us to the next issue: companies are not sensibilized enough. Most companies just want to employ victims for a certain amount of time to get economic benefits, but don’t care enough about them as to actually build a healthy and lasting employment relationship. For this reason, it’s essential that companies and employers are sensibilized and trained in gender and violence topics, so that they understand the situation this people have been through and are still going through.

Lastly, it’s important to highlight the fact that this type of violence affects women in many ways. Most policies focus on the (re)insertion of victims, but don’t take external factors, such as mental health issues or kids, into account. Employers and companies need to give victims the flexibility they need to recover and sort out their lives, without needing to still keep up with a regular work schedule or having to face consequences when it can’t be done.

Working and reflection session for experts who work directly with women who have suffered this type of violence.

When? Friday, February 18 2022, from 9:45 am to 1:00 pm.

Where? Espacio #Plantauno (Avenida Fabregada 22, planta 1. 08907, Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona – face-to-face event if the health situation allows it, otherwise it will be online. Language: in Spanish and/or Catalan).

Attendance subject to prior registration here.

This event will be held with a small number of people in World Café format, with the aim of networking and sharing one’s own experience with other people and organizations. The goal of the session is to gather experiences and draw conclusions about the current situation of (re)insertion of women survivors of domestic violence into the labor market, discuss the challenges that entails, and analyze what aspects need to be improved in the future to make (re)insertion into the labor market effective.

This action is part of the ACTIV Project, co-funded by the EU ERASMUS+ program, in which CEPS Projectes Socials is the partner and contact entity in Spain, and the event is organized with the collaboration of LaGroc. 

The ACTIV project continues to advance, and you can read the guide here.