Last month, the Center for Sustainable Communities Development organized a series of meetings with representatives of regional employment services, labor offices, CITUB employees from all over the country, business companies and NGOs. The WEGO3 project and tools and policies for protection and support of victims of this type of violence were presented to the participants.
The trainers Stanimira Hadjimitova and Diana Georgieva also presented the methodology for conducting policy laboratories. The labs will be implemented next year and their aim is to promote the rights of survivors of domestic violence through specific measures. The main goal is to support the economic independence of these women by identifying real needs. The experts also noted a number of women's labor rights, which are collected in a special brochure prepared as part of the project, which is to be available to all stakeholders.
During the workshops, discussions were organized, in which the participants shared their opinion that changes should be made in the Employment Promotion Act, and the measures should cover not only women but also their children. Labor offices also organize job search workshops, but their staff believe that there is still work to be done and say that in Spain there are individual employees of employment agencies who assist women victims of domestic violence by looking for jobs with facilitated working conditions.
In Bulgaria this function is sometimes performed by the so-called labor intermediaries, and in some offices there are also appointed psychologists and case managers. The participants in the workshops also shared that youth and health mediators, as well as experts from the Social Assistance Agency can help women by acquainting them in detail with their labor rights.
In parallel with these meetings, focus groups were organized with women survivors of domestic violence in three cities - Plovdiv, Ruse and Targovishte. For more information about them, follow our website!