Help centres for young women – a growing force against honour-related violence

The Swedish National Board for Youth Affairs has been supporting help centres for young women as part of efforts to combat honour-related violence. Through training the centres have developed the competence required to be able to help vulnerable girls at an early stage. An on-line help centre has also been established.

The organisation that runs help centres for young women was established in 1996 and builds on the experience of the women's movement. The centres play an important role in making contact with young women who fall victim to violence and threats.

In cooperation with various other actors, the Board has helped voluntary staff within the help centre movement to develop their skills. This training has met the needs of centres which previously lacked the knowledge and experience to deal with girls and young women who live under honour-related repression.

The training courses have provided participants with in-depth knowledge on violence and repression in the name of honour, as well as concrete advice on how the centres can help young people in crisis. The centres have also been advised on methods that can be used for preventive work in schools or in other activities for young people. Part of the Board's mission has also been to hold local cooperation seminars for the help centres.

Virtual national help centre for young women
In order for the help centres to support girls and young women, young people in Sweden need to know more about what the centres do and what they can help with. This is why the Board has helped centres to reach out with their activities, at both national and local levels.

With the help and commitment of nine centres, we developed a virtual national help centre for young women which ran for two years on the Lunarstorm social network. Thousands of young women turned to this on-line help centre for support and help. The Board has also supported cooperation between help centres at the national level, as well as efforts to lay the ground for a new on-line portal, www.tjejjouren.se, which is scheduled to launch in March 2010.

In working on this issue we have found that the lack of an established and accepted definition of honour-related repression and violence is something that hinders the development of methods.

The work on this mission is now complete. Below is a summary of the most important results, along with the Board's recommendations on preventive work against honour-related repression and violence.

Achievements of the venture
The most significant achievement of the Board's work is the national-level cooperation that has developed between local help centres for young women. It is here where the greatest long-term benefits are likely to be felt. A second achievement is that the issue of honour-related repression and violence has risen in importance on the agenda of help centres. A third achievement is that the work of the centres has been brought to the attention of other authorities.

Conclusions on cooperation:

• The work of the help centres for young women has grown in status in the eyes of national actors and authorities, and cooperation at national level has increased.


• There is a need for local cooperation and strategies to combat honour-related violence and repression at the municipal level. The help centres have an important role to play in this.


• The voluntary nature of the help centre organisation makes continuous cooperation with local public actors and authorities difficult.


• The authorities should involve the centres in any cooperation initiatives and make use of their competence.


• The venture has contributed to increased cooperation between the two national organisations for women's refuges and help centres for young women in Sweden.

• Emails to the virtual help centre for young women on Lunarstorm show that young women are unaware of their rights and that they lack adult contacts with whom they can discuss issues related to rights, sex and their own bodies.


• The help centre on Lunarstorm has helped many girls with a range of questions about life in general.
  
• The centres have come into contact with new target groups who have new questions.


• The help centre on Lunarstorm has probably not reached girls living with honour-related issues to the extent that we had hoped.

• The authorities need clearer instructions on the importance of young people as a target group for social work and for work involving women's organisations and equality issues.


• The government should initiate a dialogue with grant-awarding authorities about methods to support the long-term impact of preventive work against honour-related violence and repression.


• There is a need to focus on preventing violence among boys and young men.