"I had found nowhere to go," had confided, moved to tears, a woman victim of violence during a citizen workshop in the middle of the 2020 municipal campaign. The sentence upset all the participants, including Patrick Jarry, the mayor (DVG).
From the city of Nanterre, in partnership with the hospital, has undertaken to create a women's center at the end of 2021. This reception area will aim to care for, welcome and support women victims of violence.
A project that will be presented to residents in April.
A first in the Hauts-de-Seine department.
For the moment, no location or budget have yet been defined.
But this structure should be divided into two distinct poles: a medical component and a social one.
The first, overseen by the hospital, will provide the necessary care for the victims as well as psychological support.
"There will also be a family planning unit, with the practice of abortion and a desire to guide women on contraception," informs Valérie Thomas, head of the public and social health center of the Nanterre hospital center.
A police officer would come to the scene to collect the complaints.
"
For a year, domestic violence has exploded
The second will host the hotlines of associations specializing in women's rights such as CIDFF (Information Center on the Rights of Women and Families) or Femmes Solidaires, stakeholders in the project.
The latter are eagerly awaiting the inauguration.
Because for a year, requests for domestic violence have exploded.
“We are reaching saturation!
There is a waiting list of several months for our psychologist.
My colleague is obliged to ensure her calls with victims in open space, for lack of space ”, deplores Anne-Charlotte Jelty, director of CIDFF in her narrow local rue des Fontenelles in Nanterre.
Above all, this women's center will facilitate the procedures for victims by bringing together various services.
Because the objective is to bring together in one place a permanent access to rights, social and psychological assistance, a unit dedicated to emergency accommodation or a professional reintegration space.
In short, a whole arsenal to get the victims of violence out of the psychological or economic grip.
Save time in the process
“Some women abandon their efforts because of the multiplicity of actors.
There, we would just have to go to the office next door to consult a social worker or a public writer.
We would save a lot of time in the follow-up of the files ”, welcomes the lawyer of CIDFF.
That day, Lauren Ghenton, assistant for women's rights, Patricia Cerisay, president of Femmes Solidaires, Anne-Charlotte Jelty and Fatiha Abdouni gathered to discuss with enthusiasm the project, still evolving.
The challenge: to define specifications before the summer.
So the ideas fuse.
“We will have a social café!
», Launches Anne-Charlotte Jelty cheerfully.
When Lauren Ghenton corrects: “I don't know if we will call it that but it will be a space of conviviality so that women can forge links between them.
"
For children, trauma care
If the lines are not all defined, the project is ambitious with a wide range of issues.
“We would like to take children into account with the management of trauma linked to violence.
There will also be a permanence ensured by
Women to say it Women
to act
which works in the handicap, continues the elected official.
Reconstruction workshops as well as sports activities will be organized in partnership with city stakeholders.
"
On a larger scale, the inauguration of such a place aims to initiate a real public policy to raise awareness of women's rights.
Inside, a feminist library will adjoin with exhibitions.
“Schools will be encouraged to come,” emphasizes Lauren Ghenton.
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From now on, all hope to benefit from the support of the Hauts-de-Seine department for financing.
“At a time when a movement for the liberation of the voices of victims is observed throughout the country, each department should have its women's house,” concludes the elected official.
This makes invisible things visible in space.
"