Community Matters! Community based model to stop domestic violence

ended

"Community Matters! Community based model to stop domestic violence: StoP The StoP model was initiated and driven by experts from Austria and Germany with practical experiences as social workers in women's shelters and as community organizers. The StoP model is innovative as, for the first time, it combines issues, practice, and research-based insights from those two fields. It builds on a social movement perspective, grounded in social movement theories that provide a broad range of theoretical tools to understand and facilitate social change processes that have the potential to provide a coherent representation of how mobilization and collective action is gradually developed and leads to systemic change for primary prevention. Community work or more precisely community organizing has not been applied to domestic violence prevention. The purpose of this StoP project is to adapt and expand a digital social design toolbox and curriculum in partner countries: Belgium, Czech Republic, France, and Romania. Women Against Violence in Europe (WAVE) and Working with Perpetrators in Europe Network (WWP EN) are able to leverage their large networks in Europe to positively exploit and instrumentalize the StoP Toolbox and curriculum throughout the EU. The long- term goal is to have a StoP program in every EU country in every city, municipality, and district to bring about social ""climate change"" against deep-seated patriarchy and toxic masculinities and traditional gender stereotypes and role models, so that partner violence against women and children is no longer ignored nor tolerated. In the short-term, the quality of the response for many victims, bystanders and perpetrators of violence will be greatly improved through community mobilisation. StoP is a sustainable and future-oriented initiative that creates role models and change agents who show that male violence is not a solution. The project will support the importance of multi-collaborative work to ensure sustainability."