To improve the support offered by D.i.Re centers to asylum seeking and refugee women and girls, Leaving violence. Living safe includes training workshops for cultural mediators and case workers.

Supporting migrant asylum seeking and refugee women in D.i.Re anti-violence centers

Online training course

New and third edition of the training course based on the text The reception methodology of D.i.Re anti-violence centres. Notes and suggestions about working with migrant, asylum-seeking and refugee women  aimed at exploring together with cultural mediators and operators (case workers) of D.i.Re anti-violence centres how to build a path out of violence, which is aimed at autonomy and freedom of choice, with migrant women asylum seekers and refugees. The course was held in five meetings, on June 18 and 25 and Julu 2, 9 and 16, 2021.


Being Women. Expectations, gender roles, social norms, autonomy, freedom

Online training course

How is the construction of a pathway out of violence, which is aimed at autonomy and freedom of choice, articulated with internalised expectations about being women, and the needs and desires that arise from them, of which women from different socio-cultural contexts and geographical areas are bearers?
What are the gender roles that must be implemented in order to feel good in one’s own skin, to feel accepted in one’s own community of reference, and how do they meet, or clash, with the goals of a pathway out of violence?
What are the social norms that govern the processes of construction of being a woman? How do we get out of socio-cultural frameworks that can sometimes lead to not recognising violence?
This workshop gives voice to experienced cultural mediators who collaborate with D.i.Re anti-violence centres within the project Leaving violence. Living safe managed by D.i.Re in partnership with UNHCR.
The workshop – addressed to operators and cultural mediators of the D.i.Re anti-violence centres and to mediators who collaborate with the centres ‘on call’ – realised online on the Zoom platform in 2 sessions, on July 30 and August 6, 2020, uses the participatory methodology that characterises the project Leaving violence. Living safe, in which all the participants generate together the contents that will be deepened, through the sharing of experiences, questions, doubts, stories.

Download the program (in Italian)


Supporting migrant asylum seeking and refugee women in D.i.Re anti-violence centres

Online training course 

In 2019 a team of experts active in different anti-violence centres summarised the experience of the project Leaving violence. Living safe, carried out by D.i.Re – Donne in rete contro la violenza in partnership with UNHCR, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, since the end of 2017, in the text The reception methodology of D.i.Re anti-violence centres. Notes and suggestions about working with migrant, asylum-seeking and refugee women. This course – necessarily online due to the limitations imposed by the Covid19 pandemic – was created to share its contents with all D.i.Re anti-violence centres and facilitate the reception and support of migrant women asylum seekers and refugees.

Many centres of the D.i.Re network have already found themselves sporadically supporting migrant women asylum seekers and refugees, but to date the interaction with the reception system of migrants asylum seekers and refugees is still limited. This is sometimes also due to the feeling of “not being sufficiently prepared” to meet the needs of women who speak little (or no) Italian and are carriers of an experience of violence perceived as “different”.

The course – which was held in a first edition from June 9 to July 2, 2020 and in a second edition from September 1 to 24, 2020, each including 5 workshops on the Zoom platform, seeks to preserve the experiential nature of the training methodology that characterises the “in presence” workshops so far implemented within the project Leaving violence. Living safe, enhancing the active contribution of all participants, to recognise how the methodology of D.i.Re anti-violence centres has been able to adapt by finding together with migrant women asylum seekers and refugees a common working ground to build the exit from violence.

Download the program (in Italian)


Cultural mediation with and for asylum-seeking and refugee women survivors of violence. Specialised training workshop for cultural mediators active in anti-violence centres

Rome | Casa internazionale delle donne | October 7-11, 2019

This workshop, the third one organised by D.i.Re in collaboration with UNHCR, is addressed to cultural mediators interested in working with women asylum seekers and refugees, with particular attention to the support paths and methodology of D.i.Re anti-violence centres, in order to intervene more effectively and laying the groundwork for the construction of a professional figure who is also configured as an operator (case worker).

The residential course, lasting a total of 5 days, uses a participatory methodology, in which the active contribution of the participants becomes the subject of learning, with activities in small groups, role plays, exercises in pairs and creative activities, alternating with more formal presentations to ‘fix the knowledge’, in order to explore even the most emotionally involving aspects, deconstruct prejudices, train the ability to manage complex and articulated relationships with women and with the team of anti-violence centres.

Download the program of the workshop (in Italian)


Leaving violence. Living safe. Advanced training for case workers and cultural mediators

Rome | Casa internazionale delle donne  | 10-12 July 2019

This workshop was addressed to case workers and cultural mediators operating in 8 D.i.Re centres. They play a key role in piloting the adaptation of D.i.Re methodology taking into consideration the specific needs of asylum seeking and refugee women and girls.

Download the program of the workshop (in Italian)


Cultural mediation with and for asylum seeking and refugee women survivors of SGBV. Specialized training workshop for cultural mediators operating in D.i.Re centers

Rome | Casa internazionale delle donne  | 7-11 October 2019

This workshop – the third of this kind organised by D.i.Re in partnership with UNHCR – is addressed at female cultural mediators interested in working with asylum seeking and refugee women and girls survivors of SGBV. It offers in depth knowledge about D.i.Re’s survivor centred methodology to address SGBV and essential insights in the particular features of the professional relationship with case workers and experts within D.i.Re centres. It paves the way towards a professional profile that encompasses the two roles, case worker and cultural mediator.

The 5 days long residential workshop uses a highly participatory training methodology, building on knowledge shared by each participant through small group activities, group discussions, buzzing, role plays, Q&A sessions, alternated with more formal presentations by a variety of experts, to offer a vivid learning experience that facilitates appropriation of the content. The participatory training methodology allows for exploring the emotional impact of SGBV, deconstructing stereotypes and biases, strengthening the capacity to manage complex relationships, both with the SGBV survivors and with the center’s team.

Download the programme of the workshop (in Italian)