Pilot project for an integrated approach to supporting migrant or refugee women in vulnerable situations
The project in short
The particular vulnerabilities of refugee women are obstacles in their integration process. The report from the National Academy of Medicine on the health and social situation of immigration in France published in February 2020 shows that the obstacles to the integration of exiled women can be exacerbated by the psychological after-effects of the violence they may have suffered. undergo in their country of origin, during the migratory journey, but also after arriving in France.
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Women victims of violence encounter more difficulties than men or women who arrived in France for different reasons. They combine the difficulties encountered by most migrants (lack of mastery of French, lack of knowledge of the host society and its administrative system) and problems specific to their journey.
The project led by FEA in Paris and CACIS-Maison d'Ella in Bordeaux offers a holistic care model for women in difficulty and/or victims of violence, immigrants or refugees, and the training of professionals in identifying and to support vulnerabilities.
A multi-disciplinary support offer
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Women who are victims of violence are offered multidisciplinary support, including an initial diagnosis to identify social difficulties and the violence they have suffered, as well as overall social support, medical and/or psychological care, and group or individual physical or artistic workshops to promote well-being and self-esteem.
The workshops will be tailored to each woman's individual situation. Reconstruction is a lengthy process, so the care provided respects the pace of each woman, who then benefits from personalised support tailored to her situation.
The support teams are made up of employees, service providers and volunteers.
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Informing professionals
The training offered to front-line professionals covers gender-based violence in the context of asylum, migration, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and psychotrauma.
For FEA, this training is based on a training manual on violence suffered during the exile process, vulnerabilities, intercultural competence, emergency psychological assistance and domestic violence (modules developed as part of the MFGE project - 2019-2021-, and completed as part of the MFGE-AC project, projects funded by the European Union). CACIS has also developed its own training modules as part of its activities and is Qualiopi certified.
A capitalisation brochure for professionals to provide training/information on vulnerabilities
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A capitalisation brochure will be produced as part of the project. Entitled ‘Identifying and managing vulnerability in refugee women’, this thirty-page brochure will be published in May 2023. It will be widely distributed to professionals in the asylum, social, health, police and justice sectors, as well as in accommodation centres, to raise their awareness of the issue of vulnerability among refugee women and help them adapt their care. Training courses will be offered by the project partners to help them get to grips with the tool.
Finally, an event to share the project's experience and disseminate the capitalisation brochure will be organised in June 2023. The event will bring together in Paris associations working in the fields of asylum, the prevention and management of violence against women, social services, public institutions responsible for asylum and social assistance, local and regional authorities and funding bodies.
Who are the project's beneficiaries ?
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The women who benefit from holistic care are :
Women who are victims of gender-based violence;
Non-EU nationals and new arrivals (beneficiaries of international or subsidiary protection or those who have arrived in France and have been regularised in another way, through family reunification for example).
All will benefit from a diagnostic interview on arrival, followed by individual support and group activities as required.
The professionals taking part in the training courses on offer will be public or private, voluntary or salaried integration workers. They work in the social, health, immigration and asylum sectors. The courses may also be aimed at representatives of the state and/or local authorities.
Duration of the project and financing
This project is put in place from September 1st 2022 until December 31st 2023.
The project is funded by the Ministry of the Interior and Overseas France, Directorate-General for Foreigners in France (DGEF), Directorate for Integration and Access to Nationality (DIAN).