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 Carolina Wienand-Sangare

The project was launched on short notice in response to the pandemic as part of the Federal Funding Program “Together against violence against women,” initiated by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, and Youth (BMFSFJ). The Government responded promptly to the challenges presented by the Corona pandemic, ensuring improved accessibility and support for abused women and their children. The application deadline concluded on March 31, 2022.

Enhancing support for women in difficult situations

The “Help System 2.0” project, a recipient of the funding, is dedicated to supporting women’s shelters and specialized counseling centers in effectively navigating the digital challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Its main focus lies in enhancing technical capabilities by providing staff with essential digital training. Moreover, the project extends its support by offering professional language mediation services to counsel women and girls affected by violence. As highlighted on the website, the pandemic exposed a critical issue: numerous women’s shelters and counseling centers faced a severe lack of basic technical resources like computers, company mobile phones, and reliable. This deficiency created significant obstacles, hindering their ability to render optimal assistance to those seeking help.

By investing in such vital initiatives, the project ensures that support services remain robust and readily available even during these challenging times. It empowers women and girls facing violence, offering them the necessary assistance and resources to help them through their difficult situations.

Find out more about the initiative

Photo by pch.vector from Freepik

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.

Coping with high levels of stress and preventing violence

During the first lockdown, civil society organisations in Austria, Germany and Switzerland worked together to help men cope with stress during the COVID crisis and more specifically to prevent domestic violence. These organisations are specialized in working with boys, men and fathers.

The toolkit includes 10 concrete recommendations for men to follow, to help them remain calm and non-violent, such as taking space to tend to their needs, sharing their emotions and protecting their boundaries.

To this day the toolkit has been translated in 22 languages, thereby increasing its reach, and widely shared by many civil society organizations across Europe. Leaflets are also available as templates including empty space for inserting national or regional information.

Find out more about the CSOs:

The umbrella organisations for working with men, boys and fathers in Austria (Dachverband Männerarbeit Österreich), Germany (Bundesforum Männer) and Switzerland (Männer.ch), in collaboration with Fachstelle Agredis, männerbüro züri and Fachstelle Gewalt Bern

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. 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.

Achieving an authentic partnership between the sexes, with equal pay, care responsibilities, and equal rights is the vision of the Katholischer Deutscher Frauenbun, the Catholic German Women’s Union. To tackle the negative effects of the pandemic on gender equality, the KDFB has organised a digital 48-hour workshop in cooperation with the Bavarian Ministry for Social Affairs. The event, open to women and men of all ages, aimed at gathering ideas to shape the future of gender equality.

The COVID-19 pandemic as a turning point for gender equality and justice

The aim of the hackathon was to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the care work, the responsibilities allocated to the different sexes, and the mixing of the private and professional spheres, acting as a catalyst for ideas and practices mitigating these impacts and bringing positive change. The hackathon was opened to discuss the challenges and opportunities for equality, for both women and men.

Following the success of the initiative, the KDFB has organised a series of further online events on the topic, running online until November 2021:

2nd team meeting: October 6th, 2021, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

3rd team meeting: October 20, 2021, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

4th team meeting: November 10, 2021, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

5th team meeting: November 24, 2021, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Closing event on December 2nd, 2021 for “Digital Volunteer Day” from 7:00 p.m.

Read more about the Equal = equal hackathon