Women in Safety, evaluation of the project to support women who have survived gender-based violence in Rome

Title WOMEN IN SAFETY – accoglienza e protezione in emergenza per donne vittime di violenza

Location Rome, Italy

Partners Girotondo Soc. Coop. Soc. Onlus,

Funding Fondo Beneficenza Intesa Sanpaolo

 

Context 

The Women in Safety project aims to tackle gender-based violence through measures to protect women and children, by strengthening the local community’s capacity to provide an immediate response to women who have survived violence, through the establishment of emergency shelter and support services.

WiS therefore aims to promote support services for women who find themselves in a situation of urgent and immediate need for protection, and to encourage the reporting of gender-based violence.

The project includes the La Mongolfiera Emergency Shelter: a facility established to guarantee immediate access to protection for women who have survived male violence and for children who have often witnessed such violence.
‘La Mongolfiera’ is therefore a safe space where women and children – referred by the police, A&E departments, anti-violence centres, social services, etc. – can immediately escape the control of the perpetrator and regain a sense of safety, be listened to and reclaim their self-determination.
Together with the three anti-violence centres and the two anti-violence helpdesks run by the Cooperative, the ‘La Mongolfiera’ emergency shelter therefore aims to address some of the key issues relating to the support of women who are victims of violence, such as the structural shortage of places in women’s refuges and the slowness of protection procedures.

 

General Objective

The M&E and Impact Assessment Unit was tasked with carrying out the final project evaluation, identifying strengths and weaknesses, examining in detail what works and what does not, and the underlying reasons, and promoting learning processes.

 

Our contribution

To carry out the evaluation, the ARCO research team adopted qualitative methodologies designed to place women’s experiences at the centre and to reduce the power imbalances typical of traditional evaluation processes. Focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews, storytelling and case studies were used as tools to hear directly from the project’s beneficiaries, female staff and partners within the local network.

These qualitative tools were complemented by document analysis and the analysis of monitoring data, ensuring data triangulation to reconstruct the complexity of the context

The research emphasised feminist participatory methods, based on the co-construction of knowledge: the beneficiaries and stakeholders were involved not only as sources of data but as active participants in the evaluation process. The women’s stories were listened to with the facilitators acting as mediators, taking into account the pace, wishes, limitations and emotional burden of each participant.

Particular attention was paid to ensuring the ethical conduct of data collection, guaranteeing a safe and non-intrusive process. Measures were put in place to prevent any form of secondary victimisation: care was taken in the wording of the questions, attention was paid to the selection of participants, their physical and emotional safety, and the management of potential triggers. The approach adopted was empathetic, non-judgemental and based on active listening, recognising women as rights-holders rather than subjects of investigation.

analisi territoriale sviluppo locale umano sostenibilitàLa valutazione femminista parte dal presupposto che il genere conta.