ItalyDAFNE Women on the way

The CIF (Italian Women’s Center) of Carrara operates in the territory of the province of Massa-Carrara in Tuscany in the fight against gender violence, a phenomenon that is unfortunately growing and affecting mainly Italian women. The services present in the area, such as the Anti-Violence Center “Donna chiama donna” in Carrara and the Anti-Violence Center of the municipality of Montignoso, managed by the CIF, carry out an extensive work to host victims in the network with the institutions and to prevent the phenomenon. However, there is no specific service that accompanies victims in the difficult path of social and work reintegration without which it is difficult to regain self-esteem and autonomy.

The project DAFNE Women in the way is the winning project of the Fondazione Marcegaglia call for proposals “Con le donne” in 2017 and provides for the creation of a continuous support service to women victims of violence who must re-enter the working world. In order to carry out this service in a first phase, the 12 volunteer operators of the center will be trained to acquire new skills useful in work guidance (preparation of skills balance, work orientation and training, link with services present in the area). This specific training will be accompanied by a broader training to strengthen the working group and improve the listening and relationship skills of the volunteer operators.

Thanks to the new work and social reintegration service, dozens of women can become aware of their work and interpersonal skills every year, experiment in a protected context and receive organizational help to reconcile work with childcare. The course provides for the accompaniment by the operators in identifying the skills of the woman, undertaking a training course, obtaining the required certifications and activating internships, traineeships or work grants. Some women are also involved in an experimental project of training in floriculture and horticulture activities, to which over the years have been added olive growing and beekeeping.

The Dafne project has allowed many women to approach the world of work proactively and in a “protected” context, knowing their fragility and difficulties in assuming roles independently by embarking on a path of empowerment, making it possible for them to enter the working world that is present, today more than ever, rigid and competitive. A very high percentage of women who followed the accompanying path found a job thanks to the regained esteem for themselves and the skills acquired.

Despite the difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the CIF operators continued the training path by obtaining the Level I Counseling Skills certification. Thanks to the availability of the Counselor and trainer Manuela Baiocchetti and the tenacity of the operators, the online training was successfully tested and allowed them to continue in the acquisition of counseling skills, deepen the theme of assertiveness, experience supervised operational practice and deepen the couple cycle to better understand and deal with the dynamics of violence.

Thanks to network work, the training will also involve some operators of the PUR (Responsible Men Project) of Carrara who are responsible for accompanying men who are abusive, in this way it will be possible to tackle the phenomenon of violence by also acting on the aspect of prevention. In addition, the training will also be extended to two other CIF centers, in Salerno and Reggio Calabria.