ARCUS

The common thread which connects all of our developed and implemented activities and projects, and which is also our mission, is the support and special concern we have for women and their world, therefore everything that involves them:  rights, work, training, motherhood, children, schools, nurseries, family, business and management, entrepreneurship, art, culture, domestic management, marriage, domestic violence, sexual harassment, equal rights, fashion, cooking, cleaning, gardening and money management.
The experience that Arcus wants to bring in the project is related to the participation at the European project called “4WOMEN”.
This project is carried out by a Liyakat Association - project leader from Turkey - with three Turkish partners Konak Municipality, Dokuz Eylul University Graduate School of Social Science - the Department of European Union Studies and two Italian partners ARCUS Association and WORK IN PROGRESS.  The Municipality of Polpenazze also took part to some activities, without budget.
4WOMEN originates from the need to disclose the problem of violence against women in Turkey and in Italy in terms of its prevalence, incidence, rate and nature. This is an important topic that still needs further investigation. Women rarely disclose what has happened to them and even more rarely report to the police or seek help in the crisis centers or other social services. Both, citizens at individual level and organized Civil Society at political and general level, should ensure that society implements the necessary changes. The role of Civil Society is crucial in this respect, offering the opportunity to better meet the needs of the involved regions by providing support to Civil Society development and dialogue. 4WOMEN focuses on the areas of intervention of capacity building to fight VAW, leading to a transfer of knowledge and the set-up of a new trans-national network, supporting socio-economic CSOs playing the crucial role in the uptake, implementation and monitoring of the socio-economic acquits.
4WOMEN is foreseen as a tool to support social services to contrast VAW and improve their social inclusion. This phenomenon is recognized and considered by international organizations such as the UN and the EU as violence in general and it represents one of the most common violations of human rights; as a matter of fact it threatens the individual freedom and psycho-physical integrity of women and it is a worldwide spread problem, not yet properly acknowledged and reported.  Arcus is now also involved in the project 4WOMEN2 which addresses training needs for social workers dealing with women victims of violence.