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The RESPONSE project publishes their State of the Art Report

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RESPONSE's report gives an overview of the support needs of women with disabilities who are victims or survivors of gender-based violence.

RESPONSE's State of the Art (SOTA) report has been published, providing readers with a general overview of the current state of the topic the project focuses on: responsive services to address gender-based violence against women with disabilities. With this, RESPONSE's SOTA report gives a brief summary of the support needs of women with disabilities, especially those who are victims or survivors of gender-based violence.

The report is based on a survey conducted in six partner countries - France, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, and Spain - taken by women with disabilities, service providers in the disability sector, and mainstream service providers.

On top of identifying the necessary support and training, this report also presents flagship initiatives that not only tackle gender-based violence, but also provide better support for women with disabilties who are, or have been, victims of gender-based violence. For example, in France, the association Femmes pour le Dire, Femms pour Agir created a hotline dedicated to providing legal, social and psychological support to women with disabilities who are victims of violence and abuse. The CERMI Women's Foundation in Spain developed a guide to provide women and girls with disabilities, mothers, and caregivers with practical knowledge and advice on how to report gender-based violence to the authorities, and how to seek help or refer to available support services.

Who is this report for?

The report is for service providers - both in the disability field and the mainstream field - to understand what the current conditions are when it comes to supporting women with disabilities, who are victims or survivors of gender-based violence. This requires asking and answering the right questions.

For example, what is needed for these services to do better? What needs to be included in the training of the professionals within this field, in order to provide quality services and support to the specific needs of women with disabilities? How can these services become more inclusive and responsive when dealing with gender-based violence?

The report has been released - what's next?

The information gathered in the SOTA report will be used by the RESPONSE consortium as a foundation for developing a training and awareness-raising (TAR) manual and a Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) aimed at women with disabilities, service providers for persons with disabilities, and mainstream service providers. The latter target group includes all kinds of professionals working for services providing support to victims of gender-based violence. For instance, professionals working in shelters for victims of gender-based violence, lawers, doctors, etc.

To access the full report, please go to the publication.

Project webpage