FADO

Finding Assistance, Delivering Outreach: a comprehensive support system for victims of gender-based violence

The FADO project aims to support individuals affected by gender-based discrimination and violence through the Theatre of Witness, a tool that enables victims to share their experiences and raise community awareness. It also seeks to empower victims by training them as group facilitators, helping them regain their status as active citizens. The project primarily targets professionals such as therapists, social workers, and theatre practitioners, with a secondary focus on victims of gender-based violence, including women and LGTBIQ+ individuals.

Context

Gender-based violence is a widespread and persistent problem across the EU, and several statistics demonstrate the need for a project to support victims of violence at European level.

It must be stressed that this is a major problem, with a very low rate of complaints. This low rate highlights the need to improve support and protection for victims, as well as the importance of projects aimed at raising awareness.

Traditional approaches to addressing gender-based violence, such as legal and political measures, while important, are often not enough in themselves. They may not reach all the people affected and they may not address the underlying social and cultural attitudes and beliefs that contribute to violence.

Educators, therapists, psychologists, community and social workers, volunteers and professionals from anti-violence centres must adopt new strategies to explore and question social norms and beliefs, promote more positive and equitable attitudes towards gender and relationships, and reduce the prevalence of violence in the long term. They must find more effective tools to reach communities that can be difficult to reach by traditional means, such as those that are socially isolated or have limited access to education or resources. Using theatrical performances as a means to raise awareness and foster dialogue on gender violence, the FADO project can encourage more people to get involved in preventing violence and supporting victims.

The FADO project also provides a response to the lack of adequate resources and training in many EU educational systems, as shown by the 2019 report of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE).

A project to support victims of gender-based violence at European level can help reduce this problem by facilitating cross-border exchange of knowledge, experience and best practice, which can lead to the development of more effective policies and strategies to combat gender-based violence. It can also help to create a more informed and aware society and better protect victims.

Specific objectives:

Support individuals facing gender-based discrimination, violence, machismo, and stereotypes.
Use theatre of witness to empower victims and encourage them to share their experiences, raising community awareness.
Upskill victims to become facilitators for other groups, regaining their status as active and free citizens.
Establish a network among educators,youth workers, therapists, artists, and anti-violence centers and upskill them using the FADO pathway
Actively involve local communities

Main activities

Development of a theatre pathway to involve victims of gender-based violence and help them to exit isolation and feeling active citizens again.
Adaptation of the pathway into a web portal, which will include the curriculum, graphics and videos, interactive material, and a chat rooms for participants
Piloting the curriculum with 10 participants in France, Italy, Serbia and Spain.
Theatre workshop and performance in each country
Dissemination activities, evaluation and quality control

Results and expected impact

A common theatre pathway including Knowledge of regulations in preventing and combating gender violence, understanding of the social and cultural roots of gender violence, understanding the role of theatre of witness as a means to support victims of gender violence, acquiring technical skills on theatre techniques, updating or getting soft skills
Guidelines for the replicability of the theatre workshop
Virtual dedicated web platform

FADO is coordinated by Maison de l’Europe des Landes WIPSEE (France) with partner organizations Asociación Bienestar y Desarrollo ABD (Spain), NET Associazione Culturale (Italy), UG Dah Teatar (Serbia), ETE FAROS LTD (Chipre) & MetaArte Associazione Arte e Cultura (Italy).

It will be implemented from December 2024 to May 2027 in France, Spain, Italy, Chipre and Serbia and it’s funded by the ERASMUS+ Cooperation partenariats in adult education (KA220-ADU) call.