Monday, October 26, 2015

Workshop with Associate Partners - October 9th, 2015


On October 9th, 2015 we met with Associate Partners and discussed the project’s results so far. We talked about the comparative papers that have been written recently and the creative workshops that were developed in the four countries. We also brainstormed about the project’s final seminar, namely the organization of the talks. We also designated a provisional date for the event. Finally, we formalized the collaboration with the Association for Family Planning (APF), which has a specialized division that provides services to victims of human trafficking.

Rita Lopez

From left to right: Clara Sottomayor (Senior Researcher), Angélica Lima Cruz (Senior Researcher), Raquel Felgueiras (Artist-Researcher), Rita Lopez (Researcher), Ilda Afonso (Associate Partner - UMAR), Leonor Valente Monteiro (Associate Partner - APC), Fernanda Pinto (Associate Partner - APF), Rita Moreira (Associate Partner - APF), Maria José Magalhães (Principal Investigator)



Wednesday, October 21, 2015

"Creative Dialogue" in Berlin ein Erfolg EN/DE



For english version of this entry see below

"Creative Dialogue" in Berlin ein Erfolg

Am 16. September haben das DIJuF aus Heidelberg und die Universität Osnabrück, als deutsche Partner im EU-Projekt „Cultural Encounters in Intervention Against Violence“ (CEINAV), zu einem kreativen Workshop eingeladen, um die Möglichkeiten zu beleuchten, die Kunst zur besseren Verständigung über Erfahrungen von Betroffenen mit der Intervention leisten kann. Er fand in Räumen der „WeiberWirtschaft eG“ in Berlin statt; für die Frauenhauskoordinierung nahm Heike Herold teil.

Nachdem im ersten Projektjahr die Perspektive der Fachkräfte im Mittelpunkt stand (vgl. „working papers“ hier im Projektblog) haben die beiden deutschen Teams in diesem Jahr insgesamt 27
Mit "Fusspartituren" haben die Betroffenen ihren
Weg durch die Intervention gezeigt
Interviews mit Frauen und mit Jugendlichen durchgeführt, die Interventionserfahrungen nach häuslicher Gewalt, Frauenhandel, oder Inobhutnahme aufgrund von Gewalt oder Vernachlässigung in der Kindheit erlebt hatten. Dabei wurden besonders InterviewpartnerInnen gesucht, die einen Minderheiten- oder Migrationshintergrund haben. 

Im Sommer wurden die InterviewpartnerInnen eingeladen, an einem Kunstworkshop teilzunehmen, in dem sie mit Unterstützung einer professionellen Künstlerin selber ihre Interventionserfahrungen mit den Mitteln der Kunst darstellen konnten. Die Künstlerin, Ninette Rothmüller, bot den TeilnehmerInnen Material und Möglichkeiten an, mit unterschiedlichen Medien kreativ zu werden, und es wurde dann auch eine Vielfalt von Kunstformen verwendet: Malen, Zeichnen, Wortbilder und Gedichte, ein Quilt, eine Audiodatei, ein Guckkasten. Diese Kunst sowie drei eigene Werke der Künstlerin zum Thema waren bei dem Berlinworkshop nun ausgestellt, und auch die meisten der Kunstschaffenden waren anwesend


Es war eine bunte und zugleich ausgeglichene Mischung: Teilgenommen haben vier Gruppen:
Interventionsgeschichte in einem Quilt und eine lebhafte Diskussion
sechs Frauen (darunter eine Jugendliche), die in Kunstworkshops Bilder über ihre Erfahrungen geschaffen haben; sieben Fachkräfte aus der Interventionspraxis (zu häuslicher Gewalt, Frauenhandel, oder Schutz von misshandelten oder vernachlässigten Kindern), sechs Vertreterinnen der Praxisnetzwerke, die seit 2013 das Projekt beratend begleiten (KOK, bff und IGfH), und fünf Teammitglieder der beiden Forschungspartner. Es entstanden lebhafte und sehr spannende Gespräche. Eine externe Moderatorin sorgte u.a. dafür, dass in der Gruppenarbeit die verschiedenen Perspektiven präsent waren. Die Künstlerin, die die Workshops geleitet hat, konnte in Berlin nicht persönlich dabei sein, nahm aber per Video und Skype teil.


In der Schlussrunde haben die Künstlerinnen den Wert dieser Erfahrung für sie selbst betont. Mit der Die Vieldeutigkeit der Kunst und der Reflexion über sie erweitern den Horizont und ermöglicht, im
Nachdenken vor einem Kunstwerk
von Ninette
Gespräch sehr verschiedene Wege zu gehen. Gespräche ohne einen solchen Anknüpfungspunkt entwickeln sich oft eher „linear“. Somit eröffnen sich nicht nur den Künstler/innen Freiräume, auch Professionellen, bieten sich Räume für das Vorwärtstasten und die Reflexion. Fachkraft und Künstlerin begegnen sich auf Augenhöhe, es kann sich sogar eine Umkehrung der sonst in der Beratung vorhandenen Hierarchie ergeben, denn hier war die Künstlerin die Expertin, die befragt werden musste, um zu verstehen. Das habe eine ganz andere Qualität als bei den verbreiteten Methoden der Kunsttherapie und sei damit nicht zu vergleichen. Diese Erfahrung wollten mehrere Fachkräfte mitnehmen in die Praxis; es blieb aber offen, wie das umgesetzt werden kann. Zusätzlich wurde von den Fachkräften hervorgehoben, dass Kunst, die Interventionserfahrungen darstellt, ein Mittel sein könnte, denjenigen Gehör zu verschaffen, die in öffentlichen Debatten um ‚gute Praxis’ oft nicht wahrgenommen werden. Und auch im Rahmen von Fortbildungsveranstaltungen für Fachkräfte könnte Kunst ein Mittel sein, die Reflexion über eigene Interventionspraktiken zu vertiefen. Kunst wird, so mehrere Fachkräfte, eine emotionale Tiefe schneller erreicht als in Beratungsgesprächen, und kann in einfachen Worten erklärt werden. Unausgesprochenes kann sprechbar werden. 

"War die Zeit für die Gruppenarbeit genug, zu wenig, zu viel?"

 "Creative Dialogue" in Berlin  a success


The two German partners in CEINAV jointly organised an all-day „Creative Dialogue“ workshop with associate partners (national umbrella organisations of NGOs and practitioners), women and young people who had created art works reflecting on their intervention experiences, and professionals who had participated in the 2014 workshops. It took place on September 16 in Berlin. On the day before, the two research teams from Heidelberg and Osnabrück met with representatives of the associate partners to discuss interim results of the project. The creative dialogue was focused entirely on the art work exhibited, and sought to explore the possibilities of using art to further better understanding between professionals and the recipients of intervention. 

The workshop drew on the research activities of CEINAV. During 2015 the two research teams
Participants portrayed pathways through intervention
through "foot prints"
carried out a total of 27 interviews with women and young people who had experienced intervention due to domestic violence, trafficking for sexual exploitation, or removal from the family due to abuse or neglect. Particular efforts were made to find interview partners with a migration or minority background. 

The women and young people were then invited to participate in art workshops led by an artist-researcher, Ninette Rothmüller. The artist prepared the workshops, bringing a variety of art materials and offering the participants a range of options for the kind of art work they would like to undertake, and a variety of different “products” were made: paintings, drawings, word pictures, poetry, a quilt, an audiotape, and a peep-box. Outside these workshops the artist, who is herself a sculptor, also created three art works of her own reflecting on themes that emerged from how interviewees described their intervention experience. All of the art work was on exhibit in rooms where the creative dialogue was held, and almost all of the artists took part in the workshop.

The „creative dialogue“ workshop was made up of four equal-size groups: six women who had been creative in the art workshops (five women who had
Intervention experience in a quilt and a lively discussion
survived domestic violence and one adolescent with child protection experience), seven professionals with experience in intervention in one or more of the forms of violence that CEINAV is studying, six representatives of the associate partners who have contributed the perspective of practitioners to CEINAV since 2013, and five researchers from the two partners. An external facilitator from Heidelberg moderated the workshop through the day, ensuring that discussion groups had a mix of these different perspectives. The artist-researcher who had led the art workshops was unable to be in Berlin but was present by video, giving an introduction to how the art workshops had been run, as well as explanatory notes to her own art work, and participated in a Skype discussion with all participants.

In the closing reflective discussion, the artists who had exhibited their work emphasized the value of this experience for themselves. The intervention professionals found that through art work emotional
Pondering Ninettes artwork
depths could be reached more quickly than in advisory talks, and that with the art, these feelings could be expressed in simple words. Unspoken aspects can thus find their way into speech. (This has added value for women with a migration background, who may not be fluent in German.) The ambiguities inherent in art and the process of reflecting on these widen the horizon and make it possible to take a variety of different directions in conversation. Conversations that do not have such a reference point often tend to develop in a more “linear” way. Thus, a space of freedom of action is opened up, not only for the ones who created the art, but also for the professionals, enabling both to “feel their way” forward taking a reflective approach. Professional and artist meet as equals, and this can even reverse the hierarchy in their intervention relationship, in which the counsellor is the expert and the person seeking help asks questions. Here, the ones who created art were the experts, and the professionals sought help and advice in order to understand. This changes their relationship, and is, they said, an altogether different process from the established methods of art therapy.
Some professionals explicitly said they would like to carry this experience over into their practical work, but it remained an open question how this can be done. In addition, it was said that art representing the experience of the recipients of intervention could be a means of making marginalized voices heard, and it could be used to advantage in further training with professionals to encourage them to reflect on their own intervention practice.
"Was the time for the group work enough, too little, too long?"

 

Monday, October 12, 2015

CEINAV on ISPCAN Conference in Bucharest

The CEINAV findings from the child physical abuse and neglect stream found broad interest on the European Regional Conference of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) in Bucharest on September 26th to 30th, 2015. Janna Beckmann from the DIJuF-Team presented “ethical issues and dilemmas in German child protection interventions”. Concentrating on the high value of relationships of trust in the German system she showed the tensions professionals in the expert workshops sensed when acting without consent, for example to share information or to intervene. From the interviews with young persons she could show the importance of confidentiality and trustful relationships in their perception. Thomas Meysen talked about the international comparison between the four countries: “paternalism and ethical sensitivity in diverse approaches to child protection interventions”. Different systems face similar problems and find diverse solutions, e.g. on the approach towards multidisciplinarity, information sharing, weighing between interests or delegating professional decision to rules and detailed criteria. – The responses indicate that ethics in child protection interventions is deemed as highly relevant and discussions wait to be deepened.

Thomas Meysen