Christian Estrosi, mayor of Nice, reveals the five winners of his call for projects launched last November. This aims to implement preventive and support actions for women victims of violence.
The city has been engaging in work on the issue of violence against women since 2008. Since then, women in the city have had access to a day shelter, Pass’R’elles, at 6 rue-Tonduti-de-l’Escarène. This allows them to initiate procedures with social workers, legal experts, and psychologists.
Emergency shelters and long-term housing, potentially accompanied by the anonymous schooling of children, are available. To go even further, the municipality sought to involve the private sector and associations to strengthen this institutional network.
A Successful Call for Projects
Christian Estrosi launched a call for projects in November 2022. This call was aimed at both private and associative actors capable of implementing an innovative project. The proposals needed to focus on two major axes in the plan to fight domestic violence: prevention and support. Partners were required to conceptualize their actions according to three time frames (short, medium, and long term) to best meet the needs of the victims.
Eleven partners, experts in the field, participated and offered a total of fourteen proposals. Christian Estrosi, at the HETIS Higher Education School, announced that five projects were selected to reinforce existing structures. The plan amounts to 33,000 euros bringing the total associative fund to over 100,000 euros annually.
Prevent Through Better Training of Social Workers…
It was the host’s turn to first present their winning project. The school developed learning modules to educate on solutions to exit intra-family violence. Philippe Fofana, general director of HETIS, announces: “It is a remote training program, six hours of e-learning, one hour of serious game, one hour of virtual reality immersion, which will be provided to social workers, professionals, and non-professionals.”
The goal is for social workers to better identify types of violence (physical, sexual, psychological, economic, administrative), and thereby better direct women for improved care.
… And Through the Education of Young Men
In the same vein, the mission locale project aims to reinforce the professionalization and specialization of its counselors. Its project stands out because it aims to engage young men. “The objective is to create workshops to dismantle all representations, and transition from violent masculinity to benevolent masculinity,” analyzes its head Sabah Haydadi.
“So that known, experienced, and represented patterns in their minds no longer exist and that they become part of the solution to this problem, of which some are central,” she concludes.
Accompanying the Filing of Complaints,…
Accompanying women in filing complaints is the “necessary” and “important” project supported by the MONTJOYE association. “Filing a complaint is the first step in launching the criminal process, an essential step on which the association will support victims throughout the process,” explains Cécile Thiriet, director of the socio-judicial division.
A legal emergency service is available from Monday to Friday from 9 am to 6 pm both in-person and by telephone.
…To Professional Integration…
Interactive theater as a support tool is the focus of Valérie Piola Caselli and Muriel Cauvin, known as Violette & Garance. Psychologists and coaches, they lead their project with CIDFF. To combat economic dependence, they support women in professional integration through forum theater.
Developed in Brazil, it is initially called theater of the oppressed. “We write a skit with a bad practice. We perform it. Then, we invite people from the audience to take the place of the person in difficulty to show them that by changing their posture, they can change, if not the other, at least their relationship with the other.”
…And to Moving In
The association Our Real Estate Agents Have Heart launches a platform for donating furniture left by former tenants or owners. “We will have on one side real estate agents, association members who will make the furniture of these owners available. And, on the other side, all associations that need furniture for these women,” details Sandrine Augier.