PRESENTATION OF THE PROJECT

The project takes place with the support of the European Commission’s Daphne III Programme to combat violence against children, young people and women (2007 - 2013).


The partner organisations in this project are:

• SURT (Barcelona, Spain)

• Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation (Sofia, Bulgaria)

• University of Helsinki (Helsinki, Finland)

• Love without Hurt (Nicosia, Cyprus)
  

Background of the project

SPREAD is built on a previous Daphne project coordinated by SURT and called ALTRA - In prison support and therapy for victims and perpetrators of gender violence, 2006-2008, which among other activities, fostered the development of two pilot gender-focused programmes inside prison for male perpetrators and women survivors of gender violence (GV) in Catalonia (Spain) and Hungary.

ALTRA shed light on the lack of existing intervention and support programmes for male perpetrators and women survivors of GV, respectively, in Europe. The project also confirmed the need to intervene from a gender perspective inside prison with male perpetrators in order to change their beliefs and behaviours, the urgency to develop gender-focused in-prison support programs for women survivors in order to promote their recovery and minimised there risk for future relationships, and the necessity to raise awareness among prison staff and policy-makers, engaging politicians in the debate on this issue. 

The experience gained through ALTRA jointly with the good results achieved with the project and its impact at policy level in the two countries, put on the table the need to continue working on this area, to spread the knowledge, expertise and benefits of the former project and thus, contribute to move forward in this area. 

Aims of the projects

SPREAD’s general objective is to disseminate the knowledge and expertise gained through the ALTRA project to other EU countries and to establish the mechanisms to spread this knowledge, expertise and benefits to more European prison (male and female inmates, prison staff and penitentiary administration) and policy-makers at national and EU levels promotion the sensitisation on this issue, the implementation of new programmes and the improvement of the existing ones. 


Expected results of the 2-year project are: 

1) Agreed Minimum standards for programmes inside prison for men perpetrators and women survivors of GV
2) 45 women survivors of GV in Europe will receive a gender-focused support program inside prison
3) 70 imprisoned men perpetrators of GV in Europe will receive a gender-focused treatment program with a view to change their behaviour and avoid the relapse
4) 200 prison staff will receive training on GV and thus be more sensitised and increase their capacity of working with both target groups inside prison
5) A training package on tackling GV inside a penitentiary context 
6) Policy-makers and penitentiary staff in the EU will be more aware and sensitised on GV and the need to approach it inside prison
7) Sensitisation leaflet translated into 23 languages to raise awareness on the issue of GV inside penitentiary context 
8) A set of political recommendation on both the need to how to intervene inside prison on the issue for GV