Project News 6 – January 2021
Our Time programme: successfully piloted
Despite all the challenges our project team has faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we managed to organise train-the-trainer events in all partner countries and piloted the Our Time programme in the United Kingdom, Spain, Bulgaria and Italy.
The results of the piloting evaluation, especially the feedback from participating women and their children, indicate that the main aim of the Our Time programme – to create happy memories for families who have suffered violent experiences – has been achieved.
“I liked this programme more than others, because I could take part with my family” (young girl, Spain)
The experiences from the piloting indicate that mothers and their children enjoyed the programme and appreciated the opportunity to spend time together. Through the activities, families were encouraged and supported to play and interact with each other – an ability that some mothers had completely forgotten – or neglected because of the difficult situation they faced in the past. A mother from the UK, who participated in the programme with her seven year old daughter said:
“I didn’t realise I wasn’t playing or talking to my daughter until we started the do Our Time programme. I feel like it has given us a new way of being together. Now we can play and talk in new ways”
Overall, the piloting of the programme demonstrates how important it is to work with women and their children to improve their relationship and counteract the often long-term effects of domestic violence. The Our Time programme gave families a rest from all their daily worries and fears. The activities gave mothers the opportunity to simply let go, to relax and to concentrate just on being together with their children.
“During this programme I saw my mom happy” (young girl, Spain)
…This says it all!
Two webinars
In October and November, the FSEPS project team organised two webinars for participants to learn about the Our Time programme. While the first online event focused on the general programme and presented the first piloting experiences, the second webinar dealt with the issue of working with the Our Time programme in other cultural settings. Our Bulgarian partner, AVODP, talked about their work with Roma women and their families and shared some insights from the first piloting of the Our Time programme with this community.
The webinars reached not only professionals from the partner countries, but also participants from Lithuania, Slovenia and Sweden, who were interested to hear about this new approach.
Both webinars can be watched here: https://fseps.eu/our-webinars/ (in English)
Comprehensive material and training resources
On the FSEPS website you can find the Our Time programme manual as well as resources and working material to:
- train your staff in working with the programme;
- to directly use the programme in your work with families.
The manual and training resources are available in English, German, Italian, Bulgarian, Spanish, Basque and Romanian.
https://fseps.eu/online-learning/
Our Time Policy Brief
Our Time programme is a logical and straightforward intervention that is designed for mothers and children who have left situations of domestic violence and are now in a safe environment. It is relatively easily to implement in refuges and places of safety. However, financial and other practical support is required from policy makers and authorities to ensure that Our Time programme is sustainable.
In a short policy brief the main benefits of the Our Time programme are highlighted and recommendations for how to support the programme are provided.
You can read the full text here.
Help us to support the Our Time programme and make a difference!
With your support in enabling the Our Time programme to run, you can help women and their children to successfully combat social exclusion, rebuild their confidence and become effective participants in their local communities.
If you would like more information please contact the project co-ordinator Professor Morag MacDonald: morag.macdonald@bcu.ac.uk
Visit us on facebook
Project News 5 – November 2020
Webinar 2 – November 4 2020, 14:00-15:30 CET: Working with survivors of domestic or other kinds of violence from different cultural contexts. Learn about the Our Time programme – in the context of working with women from Roma communities
Please register by November 2 at forms.gle/NvtEWX7WBNpvjCfT7 to attend the webinar.
Click here for more information about the agenda.
Project News 4 – October 2020
In October we organize two free webinars where you can learn more about the Our Time Program!
Webinar 1 – October 29 2020, 14:00-15:30 CET: Our Time – a new approach in supporting families in places of safety. Learn about the programme and the first experiences in the piloting.
Click here for more information about the agenda.
Project News 3 – July 2020
Ready for piloting…
…this was the headline of our last project newsletter. Just a few weeks later the Corona Pandemic reached Europe and almost blocked all FSEPS activities for several months.
So for our piloting activities this meant: “Please wait…”
Click here to read what happened the last months!
Project News 2 – February 2020
Ready for piloting!
The first step for the preparation of the piloting phase was the organisation of the train-the-trainer Seminar.
From 4-5th November 2019 twelve trainers and participants from Italy, Bulgaria, Spain, Romania and the UK met at Women’s Aid in Stafford for the training to deliver the new developed programme “Our Time”.
Read more about the project progress. Click here!
Project News 1
The FSEPS project team presents the first results of our project work. Click here to learn more about the results of our research and the development of the FSEPS programme!
