Despite the 2010 amendments to the Household Violence Prevention Act, local government agencies of the Środa Wielkopolska county have not diagnosed the senior or disabled citizen community; neither do they act to make the local community aware of the scale of the problem or related issues. Social welfare centres do not employ psychologists, lawyers, or therapists to support violence victims; social workers do not have the skills or competence to diagnose the problem. Senior and disabled persons have limited access to knowledge of forms of violence and assistance options.
The project purpose was to prevent social exclusion of senior and disabled citizens exposed to household violence.
The project served to improve approximately 800 senior and disabled persons’ and local community’s knowledge of the household violence phenomenon.
A local educational and information campaign was organised, actively attended by senior and disabled citizens (100 posters and 1,000 leaflets). Five municipalities of the Środa Wielkopolska county organised 5 educational meetings for 577 attendants in total, and 10 theatrical meeting-and-debate sessions for a total of 764 spectators, based on 2 prevention performances prepared by a community theatre of 31, including 21 senior citizens. Sixteen county venues (15 rural day activity centres and one centre in Środa) operate a flying café (105 meetings, 275 participants – including 93 disabled persons) providing psychological, legal, social and teaching assistance, and digitisation classes. An “I Am a Disabled Person, a Senior Citizen, a Household violence Victim – I Have the Right to…” manual (1,000 copies) was drafted and published.
Project beneficiaries included approximately 800 senior and disabled citizens from the Środa Wielkopolska county.
The partner supported all activities (the violence prevention campaign in particular), and provided premises and computer equipment for the flying café in Środa.