To alleviate the impacts of COVID-19 policies, many initiatives have been developed by civil society organisations – NGOs, local governments, or citizens. A team of national researchers from the RESISTIRÉ project has collected and highlighted a set of particularly relevant initiatives in 27 European countries and in Iceland, Serbia, the United Kingdom and Turkey. These Better Stories cover eight specific domains: gender-based violence, the labour market, the economy, gender-pay and pension gaps, gender care gaps, decision-making and politics, environmental justice, human and fundamental rights.

This Better Story was collected by Agnes Kende.

A local organisation with a wide range of activities

In Hungary, the Budapest Bike Maffia has been paying close attention over the years to the situation of women who are homeless. Before the pandemic, the volunteer organisation, started in 2011 by socially conscious inhabitants of Budapest, was already raising awareness and collecting basic needs products – like hygiene products – from various places around the city (cafés, pubs and clubs, community spaces,…). During the pandemic, the local organisation continued these activities, combined with a more ambitious project: a gynaecology clinic was set up in partnership with the Budapest Methodological Centre of Social Policy and Its Institutions (BMSZKI), which is the largest homeless service provider in the city. The clinic, which opened in October 2022, is aimed at homeless and vulnerable women. The ambition is to give the possibility to those who have been unable to go to a gynaecologist – because of being barred from facilities, trauma and/or a fear of humiliation – to finally do so in a safe and trusted environment.

This is a service that will provide care for hundreds of women: they will be examined for gynaecological problems, given medicines to help them recover and will also be able to undergo cervical cancer screening.

A successful initiative with a long-term impact

In addition to the furnishing and construction of showers, waiting rooms, examination rooms, handwashing facilities and toilets, the first six months of operation were pre-financed to obtain the licence to operate. Funds were obtained through donations. After the base period of six months, the clinic will be financed by the National Health Insurance Fund (NEAK). In the meantime, however, the Budapest Bike Maffia still has to provide the doctor, nurse and social worker’s fees, medical equipment, medicines to be given to the patients, etc.

The initiative was made possible by a successful collaboration between the Budapest Bike Maffia, who equipped and furnished the clinic and the BMSZKI, who is operating the clinic, as well as NEAK will take over funding.

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To alleviate the impacts of COVID-19 policies, many initiatives have been developed by civil society organisations – NGOs, local governments, or citizens. A team of national researchers from the RESISTIRÉ project has collected and highlighted a set of particularly relevant initiatives in 27 European countries and in Iceland, Serbia, the United Kingdom and Turkey. These Better Stories cover eight specific domains: gender-based violence, the labour market, the economy, gender-pay and pension gaps, gender care gaps, decision-making and politics, environmental justice, human and fundamental rights.

This Better Story was collected by Stine Thidemann Faber and Lise Rolandsen Augustine.

Reden (‘The Nest’) is a shelter for women in substance abuse and prostitution located in the inner city of Copenhagen and established in 1984. When public life effectively closed down due to the pandemic, the shelter decided that extraordinary measures had to be taken to protect the most vulnerable women and substance abusers.

Protecting the most vulnerable

Women who come to Reden often already had a fragile health and they ran an increased risk of COVID-19 infection because they still were/felt compelled to make money and buy illicit substances because of their addiction. Moreover, the often cannot meet the normal treatment conditions of the municipality: there are rules and criteria they have to adhere to (for instance, having to be at a specific place at a specific time), with sanctions involved if they cannot meet these.

When crises lead to creativity

With the urgent need to find a solution in the hectic days after the lockdown, those responsible for the substance abuse treatment decided to introduce a much more flexible treatment regime: instead of the women having to come to the municipal treatment centre, the treatment moved out to Reden’s premises to meet the women. This outreach approach proved to be much more effective than the alternative because the women felt more secure, and it became easier for the outreach team to build a durable relationship with them. They were able to reach women that they had never had success in reaching previously.

A successful initiative

This initiative was made possible by a successful collaboration between the local drug treatment centre and the municipal authorities of Copenhagen.

Apart from the obvious positive human impact, the new flexible substance abuse treatment also seems to be using fewer resources, as physicians are not waiting for people not showing up to their appointments.

The initiative has been such a success that the Municipality of Copenhagen has chosen to allocate extra money towards them, initially until the end of 2020 and subsequently until 2024 as part of the municipal budget negotiations.

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Photo by Rene Böhmer on Unsplash

To alleviate the impacts of COVID-19 policies, many initiatives have been developed by civil society organisations – NGOs, local governments, or citizens. A team of national researchers from the RESISTIRÉ project has collected and highlighted a set of particularly relevant initiatives in 27 European countries and in Iceland, Serbia, the United Kingdom and Turkey. These Better Stories cover eight specific domains: gender-based violence, the labour market, the economy, gender-pay and pension gaps, gender care gaps, decision-making and politics, environmental justice, human and fundamental rights.

This Better Story was collected by Nathalie Wuiame.

A Belgian pilot project

Community Health Workers is a pilot project aiming to improve access to primary health care for vulnerable groups in lower middle-income neighbourhoods in Belgium.

This project aims to inform, raise awareness and support people experiencing poverty and vulnerability in the broadest sense of the term about health issues. In this context, vulnerable groups are defined as people in socially vulnerable situations who, because of their socio-economic status, encounter all kinds of obstacles in accessing health care. These groups are at the crossroads of various vulnerabilities that are intertwined and can reinforce each other. Because of this socially precarious situation they face various barriers in their access to first-line healthcare.

Defining the roles of Community Health Workers

The project is about the design and implementation of a system of community health workers. The objective is to improve access to first-line healthcare for vulnerable and isolated groups in deprived neighbourhoods through the outreach work of community health workers, who are themselves members of the community for which they work or who have an established relationship of trust with, or knowledge of, that community.

The approach of CHW is to be visible. They visit people in their own environment and are present in the streets, in local associations and events in order to be seen by the most vulnerable. They raise awareness and relay information to first-line services. The roles of CHW are to:

• build bridges between individuals, communities and health and welfare professionals,
• provide support to navigate in the health system,
• provide concrete solutions to overcome difficulties (E.g., mobility or getting a health appointment, etc) and empower people

Measuring the pilots’ impacts

The project started in March 2021 and is still ongoing. The federal Minister in charge of health allocated a budget to hire 50 full-time community health workers dispatched in the four regions/communities (Wallonia, Flanders, Brussels and German community). While the project is driven at federal level, each region and local cities have autonomy to be as close as possible to local needs.

The initiative is supported by a number of partners in the different regions, mainly associations active in combatting poverty.

As of 2022, 50 community health workers are active. From January 2022 to September 2022, around 10 000 persons have benefited from the initiative

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Photo by Mykyta Martynenko on Unsplash

To alleviate the impacts of COVID-19 policies, many initiatives have been developed by civil society organisations – NGOs, local governments, or citizens. A team of national researchers from the RESISTIRÉ project has collected and highlighted a set of particularly relevant initiatives in 27 European countries and in Iceland, Serbia, the United Kingdom and Turkey. These Better Stories cover eight specific domains: gender-based violence, the labour market, the economy, gender-pay and pension gaps, gender care gaps, decision-making and politics, environmental justice, human and fundamental rights.

This Better Story was collected by Elisabeth Anna Guenther and Annika Martin.

What is IG24?

The Interessengemeinschaft der 24-Stunden-Betreuer_innen (IG24) is a self-organised, non-partisan association which aims to represent the interests of migrant live-in caregivers in Austria.

The initiative is born out of the collaboration of Iniciativa24, the association of Slovakian carers, and DREPT, the association of Romanian carers. As an umbrella organisation, it supports bottom up, self-organised initiatives of caregivers.

A wide range of activities

IG24 offers legal counselling for carers in their mother tongue and engages in community building, networking activities and lobbying.

This interest group lobbies for live-in caregivers as a professional group. As they are considered self-employed, migrant carers often lack autonomy and are dependent on agencies, which act as an intermediate between care recipients in Austria and caregivers.

The group recently filed a legal case to fight bogus self-employment; it remains to be seen if the court will indeed take on it and open a case.

Currently, IG24 has two specific projects running:

• one project establishing digital counselling and information videos in the language spoken by many migrant live0in carers
• the second one in collaboration with LEFO-IBF titled ‘care4care’; this project focusses on how to improve the working situation for live-in caregivers and their working rights.

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Photo by Dominik Lange on Unsplash

To alleviate the impacts of COVID-19 policies, many initiatives have been developed by civil society organisations – NGOs, local governments, or citizens. A team of national researchers from the RESISTIRÉ project has collected and highlighted a set of particularly relevant initiatives in 27 European countries and in Iceland, Serbia, the United Kingdom and Turkey. These Better Stories currently cover eight specific domains: gender-based violence, the labour market, the economy, gender-pay and pension gaps, gender care gaps, decision-making and politics, environmental justice, human and fundamental rights.

This initiative has been collected by Aart Kerremans and Dag Balkmar.

In Essen, Germany, the municipal authorities have set as their long-term objective the connection of green spaces and  waterways  throughout  the  perimeter  of  the  city.  It  primarily  connects  the  Ruhr  River  and  the  Emscher  River  through a network of green routes.

Since the ‘New Ways to the Water’ project started in 2005, an abundance of green routes has been created totalling 150 kilometres, with the objective of ensuring that every inhabitant lives less than 500 metres from one of these routes.

The project was implemented by the City of Essen concurrently with another project aimed at cleaning up the Emscher River, which has had to bear the brunt of a long his-tory of coal mining in the region.

The project also has an important socioeconomic dimension, given that it is connected to an employment scheme providing long-term unemployed people with jobs and training. A lot of the sub-projects that make up ‘New Ways to the Water’ are concentrated in former coal mining neighbourhoods with high unemployment rates as well.

‘New Ways to the Water’ is expected to end in  2022,  but  other projects will continue to improve the liveability of  the  city  and  the  city  authorities  have  plans  in  the  works for future green projects.

Find out more about the project

To alleviate the impacts of COVID-19 policies, many initiatives have been developed by civil society organisations – NGOs, local governments, or citizens. A team of national researchers from the RESISTIRÉ project has collected and highlighted a set of particularly relevant initiatives in 27 European countries and in Iceland, Serbia, the United Kingdom and Turkey. These Better Stories currently cover eight specific domains: gender-based violence, the labour market, the economy, gender-pay and pension gaps, gender care gaps, decision-making and politics, environmental justice, human and fundamental rights.

This Better Story was collected by Marita Zitmane

Medical staff has been working long hours in difficult conditions for almost a year. Many doctors are burnt out or close to a burnout, as they are both physically and mentally depleted.

The aim of this initiative is to support medical staff in Latvia during the Covid-19 crisis. To do so, donations are collected, and the money is used to provide three days of free rest for burnt out doctors in some of the most beautiful places in Latvia.

The target audience is medical staff, mostly composed of women. Thus, this initiative addresses the gender care gap, providing means to sustain physical and mental health by allowing them to take a three-day break.

The campaign has a positive effect not only on busy medical staff, but also on the tourism industry, which has been hit hard by the restrictions imposed during the pandemic.

So far, €23,100 have been donated. Representatives of the hospitality industry are also invited to take part in the campaign, offering supportive accommodation conditions to medical staff.

The main promoter of this initiative is Hospiss LV, a non-governmental organisation aiming to emphasise the importance of palliative care services so that patients can spend the last days in pleasant conditions, under the supervision of professional staff.

Find out more about the initiative

To alleviate the impacts of COVID-19 policies, many initiatives have been developed by civil society organisations – NGOs, local governments, or citizens. A team of national researchers from the RESISTIRÉ project has collected and highlighted a set of particularly relevant initiatives in 27 European countries and in Iceland, Serbia, the United Kingdom and Turkey. These Better Stories currently cover eight specific domains: gender-based violence, the labour market, the economy, gender-pay and pension gaps, gender care gaps, decision-making and politics, environmental justice, human and fundamental rights.

This Better Story was collected by: Claire Stovell, Charoula Tzanakou, Alexis Still, Anne Laure Humbert. 

A group of black fathers in London have started their own podcast to challenge stereotypes and share their experiences of fatherhood. 

How it all started 

Marvyn, a black British father decided to send on Father’s Day 2018 a WhatsApp message to friends who are fathers saying thank you for their great work in raising the next generation. Every man replied quickly, and the group started discussing what it means to be a black dad in the UK today. The conversation being so rich and honest, they wanted to share them with as many people as possible and so they created a podcast. 

Calling themselves “Dope Black Dads”, they speak about the added pressures of being a black male parent: “the parenting part is the same, but what you’re trying to teach your child is much more layered. You’re trying to show them that having a different skin tone and hair might mean they are judged differently”.   

Launched in October 2018, the podcast has 60 regular contributors from around the globe. Episodes cover varied topics and some have explicitly referred to issues linked to the pandemic, for example, Get fit with Dope Black Dads; The mental load of masculinity and male parenting; Are you sending your kids back to school?; Back to school post covid. 

The impact of the podcast 

Dope Black Dads, a digital safe space for fathers who wish to discuss masculinity and their experiences of being a black parent in the modern world, is a success among women too. “We have had a fantastic response to the podcast from real people. Women are our biggest audience – there is a 60/40 split – and we have a global audience from different cultures.” 

The hopes are that this podcast will be a step in the right direction and might stop black dads from feeling alone. The aim is to celebrate, heal, inspire, and educate black fathers for better outcomes for black families. 

Learn more 

To alleviate the impacts of COVID-19 policies, many initiatives have been developed by civil society organisations – NGOs, local governments, or citizens. A team of national researchers from the RESISTIRÉ project has collected and highlighted a set of particularly relevant initiatives in 27 European countries and in Iceland, Serbia, the United Kingdom and Turkey. These Better Stories currently cover eight specific domains: gender-based violence, the labour market, the economy, gender-pay and pension gaps, gender care gaps, decision-making and politics, environmental justice, human and fundamental rights.

This Better Story was collected by: Marloes van Engen

Nurses were hit hard by the corona crisis, among others, due to a shortage of materials and over- crowded hospital wards. If the health crisis revealed that nurses are among the most important employees in a hospital, they had until then little influence or say about hospital policies. This changed at the start of the pandemic, as nurses saw the opportunity to improve their position. They advocated for more influence on hospital policies.

When crisis teams in hospitals were made at the start of the corona crisis, nurses (or nursing advisory councils) were not included. In fact, they did not even know crisis teams were created, while they are the largest occupational group in hospitals and responsible for the large share of the crisis response. Nurses, however, do not think this happened intentionally, but they simply were not immediately thought of. After lobbying, they have entered the crisis team in many hospitals.

Establishing nursing advisory councils (VAR’s) has also become more common. VAR’s provide advice on a professional basis to the management or board of directors of an organization to ensure and improve the quality of care. The VAR’s are nowadays often represented in the crisis teams within hospitals. This implies that nurses have a voice in short- and long-term policies through their advisory role

The position of nurses has formally improved. In the near future, nurses will be asked to give advice about policies in some hospitals, just like medical staff and patient councils. Thus, the corona crises gave the emancipation of nurses an impulse. Increasing decision-making for nurses can also lead to better working conditions, which should help battle the shortage of medical personnel.

To alleviate the impacts of COVID-19 policies, many initiatives have been developed by civil society organisations – NGOs, local governments, or citizens. A team of national researchers from the RESISTIRÉ project has collected and highlighted a set of particularly relevant initiatives in 27 European countries and in Iceland, Serbia, the United Kingdom and Turkey. The initiatives currently cover eight specific domains: gender-based violence, the labour market, the economy, gender-pay and pension gaps, gender care gaps, decision-making and politics, environmental justice, human and fundamental rights.

This societal initiative has been collected by: Elisabeth Anna Guenther and Celina Beck

Protecting all sex workers 

In August 2020, Berufsvertretung Sexarbeit Österreich launched a campaign focusing on the precarious working conditions of sex workers in the context of the Covid19 crisis. It is a response to the government’s Corona aid support programmes and their access criteria, which exclude sex workers through bureaucratic hurdles. 

The initiative aimed to help sex workers cope with their situation during the pandemic. Among sex workers, some groups are particularly in need of protection: migrant women, single mothers, people affected by poverty or in debt, people suffering from addiction, homeless or houseless people. 

Sex in a state of emergency  

The initiative aimed to help sex workers cope with their situation during the pandemic. Among sex workers, some groups are particularly in need of protection: migrant women, single mothers, people affected by poverty or in debt, people suffering from addiction, homeless or houseless people. 

Due to the lockdown, sex workers had no income as sex work was legally prohibited between 3 November 2020 and 19 May 2021. Sexual services are not subject to the Austrian trade regulations and are thus excluded from revenue subsidy, as it was the case for other businesses. The guidelines for revenue subsidies explicitly state that “establishments engaged in the practice of prostitution” are exempted. As self-employed, sex workers can apply for money from the Hardship Fund, but often fail to meet access criteria, such as an Austrian bank account or proof of income. 

The pressure to work illegally therefore increased and Berufsvertretung Sexarbeit Österreich was founded in response to this. BSÖ collected money through the fundraising campaign “Helping is sexy” which were then redistributed by the association, for example in the form of shopping vouchers for sex workers. 

During lockdown, other feminist initiatives also supported sex worker; LEFOE, in Vienna, collected money for (migrant) sex workers, and Maiz, in Linz, created information videos in six languages to support (migrant) sex workers to apply for the Hardship Fund. 

Berufsvertretung Sexarbeit Österreich was founded by sex worker and activist Shiva Prugger in response to the situation of sex workers during the pandemic. The centre Sophie  – offering counselling and support in legal, social and health-related areas for women who are or have been involved in sex work – is used as the association’s headquarters.

Read more about the initiative

To alleviate the impacts of COVID-19 policies, many initiatives have been developed by civil society organisations – NGOs, local governments, or citizens. A team of national researchers from the RESISTIRÉ project has collected and highlighted a set of particularly relevant initiatives in 27 European countries and in Iceland, Serbia, the United Kingdom and Turkey. The initiatives currently cover eight specific domains: gender-based violence, the labour market, the economy, gender-pay and pension gaps, gender care gaps, decision-making and politics, environmental justice, human and fundamental rights.

This societal initiative has been collected by Maresa Berliri

The “Not Alone” Programme is an integrated programme implemented by Save the Children in response to the COVID-19 pandemic which aims to tackle educational poverty, the divide in access to distance learning of schools, and the difficulties of fragile families in accessing basic necessities. 

It provides support (material, psychological, social, educational, etc.) to children and young people living in vulnerable families and in situations of hardship (including, therefore, for example, unaccompanied foreign minors) and targets children and young people, vulnerable families, new mothers and unaccompanied foreign minors. 

Educational poverty during a health crisis 

In Italy, educational poverty deprives millions of children and adolescents of opportunities. Children and young people who, because of difficult economic conditions, do not have the same opportunities as their economically stable peers to learn, experiment, develop and allow their abilities, talents and aspirations to flourish freely. 

Before the pandemic, educational poverty was estimated to affect 1.2 million children and youth. In 2020, 335,000 new families became poor. According to ISTAT data from March 2021 in Italy, there are 1,346,000 minors living in poverty, equal to as many as 13.4% of children and youth, an increase of about 200,000 minors compared to the 2019 data, to which must be added those in relative poverty – there were about two million in 2019. In addition to the risks of poverty, there are the consequences from the educational point of view, the closure of schools and the difficulties children and young people have in accessing education. 

Three other categories at risk are unaccompanied foreign minors, whose path to inclusion risks being abruptly interrupted, children whose forced stay at home increases the danger of domestic violence against their mothers and the children and adolescents directly affected by the disease as well as their parents. The program addresses these four categories of people at risks.  

A myriad of activities  

The main activities carried out under the programme include:  

– delivered tablets, connections and kits with games and educational materials to children from disadvantaged backgrounds;
– activated Punti Luce educational centers throughout Italy to provide online extracurricular educational activities and support;
– supported the school, together with the Fuoriclasse teachers’ movement (involving 170 schools, in its commitment to inclusive and quality distance learning, building an accessible and free online training path for all;
– encouraged students to meet online or by phone, through calls, Facebook groups, Whatsapp and other dedicated platforms to prevent learning loss. In these “virtual” meetings, children and adolescents met for creative activities, music, theater and drawing workshops and much more;
– distributed food kits to families
– provided support to new and expectant mothers (Fiocchi in ospedale and Per mano projects), helping them with the necessities for newborns, such as diapers, milk and baby food, and giving them advice and support in such a delicate phase;
– provided guidelines to domestic violence support services operators in the field so that they can detect dangerous situations for women and children as soon as possible and facilitate their escape;
– activated, thanks to the network of volunteer lawyers, an online legal support desk and guaranteed the operation of the help-line dedicated to foreign minors that responds daily in 6 languages;
– guaranteed, through the Civico Zero network, Italian language courses for unaccompanied foreign minors and distributed educational materials and kits to 45 communities hosting unaccompanied foreign minors;
– provided an initial psychological support service on how to make the best use of time with the children and deal with their anxieties and fears, including the dissemination of videos through social channels;
– involved the Save the Children Youth Movement “Sottosopra” to animate the Change the future platform and the UndeRadio webradio on issues related to the pandemic;
– activated in June 2020 the Future Spaces, equipped areas in the suburbs of our cities intended for play, meeting and educational paths. 

A long-lasting impact

The “Not Alone” programme was carried out by Save the Children in collaboration with 41 other mainly civil society organisations in various Italian cities also thanks to funds raised by citizens, businesses and foundations. This was a very multifaceted programme, involving many organizations, with a great deal of staff effort and resource deployment. 

Since the end of March 2020, it has involved some 75,000 people; 20,000 people have already been involved during the first two weeks. Starting from June 2020, Save the children launched the national campaign “Rewrite the Future”, a 15-month intervention program that aims to reach 100,000 girls, boys and adolescents on the national territory and their families, and that includes a series of initiatives focused on the need to ensure the rights and meet the needs and requirements of minors in the post-Covid period.  

Save the Children Italy is a Non-Governmental Organization with activities and projects aimed at both boys and girls in the so-called developing countries and those living on Italian territory. 

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