EASY - Increasing dialogue, awareness, and victim-centred support for victims of forced marriages
2023 - ongoing
The CERV-funded EASY project (“It is never easy to talk about this” – Increasing dialogue, awareness, and victim-centred support for victims of forced marriages) aims to increase community engagement and dialogue, raise awareness, and develop victim-centred support for victims of forced marriages. The project will in the long run contribute to a more gender-sensitive and and victim-centred access to services for victims of forced marriage and improve gender equality by preventing forced marriages and their harmful consequences.
Target groups
The main target group are women, and to some extend girls (aged over 14), who are victims of forced marriage or are in danger of becoming victims in 4 EU Member States (Spain, Ireland, Germany, Finland), and professionals who encounter (potential) victims: victim-support workers, police, migration authorities, social workers, NGO workers, teachers, youth workers etc.
Project activities
The first component is the collection of best practices on victim identification and support leading to the development of a best practice booklet and a customer journey map based on interviews and assessing real case examples. Best practices will concentrate on analysing issues and concepts that have a practical relevance in the development of effective and victim-centred interventions.
The second component includes activities enhancing community dialogue and awareness as well as developing and offering culturally sensitive victim-centred services to victims such as one-on-one, family counselling, awereness raising events, peer support groups, podcasts.
Thirdly the capacity building component provides professionals with tools to better identify and support victims such as checklists for identification and support and sharing of legislative and multiagency working best practices among professionals nationally and transnationally. The activities are mutual learning workshops, a study-trip, expert roundtables, and webinars as well as disseminating information on best practices via media, social media, national and international professional networks.
Contacts
Project coordinator (for all the general enquiries about the project), Finland
• Anniina Jokinen, Senior Programme Officer, European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control (HEUNI) anniina.jokinen@om.fi
Spain
• Carolina Villacampa Estiarte, University of Lleida, carolina.villacampa@udl.cat
• Pablo Becerril Martínez, Associació Valentes I Acompanyades, pablo@valentesiacompanyades.org
Germany
• Hasmik Manukyan, Solwodi, manukyan@solwodi.de
Ireland
• Valéria Aquino, Immigrant Council of Ireland, valeria@immigrantcouncil.ie
This project is co-funded by the European Union.