The third thematic Catch conference The needs of homeless women was held in Vienna in March 2006. Some of us arrived the day before the conference started and had time to do some sightseeing in the city centre. The Salvation Army, the Catch partner in Vienna had organised everything from a solid conference programme, to transportation to and from the conference venue as well as hotel. Our hotel, Kolping Wien-Zentral, located close to Karlsplatz and the city centre offered a closeness to the heart of Vienna.

The conference started after lunch on Thursday 16th of March with opening speeches of Mag Sonja Ramskogler, District councillor, Dr Barbara Bittner, Head of the college-course for social work, Mag. Gerhard Eitel, Coordinator of EUROCITIES´ working group on homelessness and Hans-Marcel Leber, Managing director of the Salvation Army Austria. The speakers talked about, among other things, showing solidarity for people in need and how Europe is on the move towards a deeper passion for social justice and that Catch is proof of this progress.

Dr Uta Enders-Dragässer visiting from Frankfurt/Main, Germany informed us about her most recent research project, based on qualitative interviews with 36 homeless women. The theoretical framework in the report is called “Lebenslagen approach” were a person’s access to internal and external resources and their interplay (income, education, occupational training and employment, health situation, mobility, regeneration, participation, social networks of family, relationships) decide about the person’s individual scope of actions. Dr Enders-Dragässer meant that there are gender specific risks for women which reduce the availability of resources considerably: women’s specific social commitments such as care responsibilities, role stereotyping and occupational disadvantaging, male violence etc. To read more about the research project or Dr Enders-Dragässer please click on the links in the left marginal. She further highlighted the importance of women only services and institutions where women would get a chance to regain their strength and be empowered. The creation of context and personal relations with other women help the empowerment process for exposed women. She believed women will be empowered thru the contact with other women in similar situations and thru personal social networks. In Germany a gender specific debate started in the 1980s and ten years later came the first projects for women confirming the special needs of women and initiated successful new services exclusively for women and exclusively staffed by women. Dr Enders-Dragässer said that in recent years there has been a shift of perception of homeless women and their needs. The focus has shifted from personal deficiencies to the impact of structural factors such as poverty and violence. Their problems are seen as multidimensional and heterogeneous and homelessness as resulting from an accumulation of problems.

DSA Elisabeth Corazza, member in women’s study group of BAWO academic communicated that the public space is male oriented and that existing services are oriented towards men. Women must “play the game” to adapt to this male environment and the exposure these women must endure is enormous. She raised her voice for a more feministic approach to the problem.

DSA Elly Loibl, academic consultant on feministic education and politics and head of Women’s Living Centre and Women’s Living Room told us about the day care centre which was created because the women avoided coming to the existing mixed daily centres due to risk of violence and aggression towards them. The women need help according to their needs and building up the self esteem is essential. In the Women’s Living Room the women may not only sit in the living room and chat, rest in day beds, shower, use the phone and it, wash clothes - they are also protected. The target group is women with mental health problems and women in exposed environments, facing homelessness.

DSA Doris Graber talked about the conflict between control, service and division of resources for social workers in the Viennese Homelessness Aid. She took the perspective of the social workers who in their job have to show considerations for the various tasks the work includes as off service, control and how to manage with limited and often pointed resources.

The last speaker of the day was Christina Almelund, head of the women-team in the department for homeless people in Stockholm, Sweden. They work with the target group homeless women with substance abuse and/or psychiatric illness, some with double diagnosis. This team is the first special service team in Sweden organised by the public social welfare system and celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Christina Almelund brought up the great vulnerability of these homeless women and how they often are dependent on men and live in quite destructive relationships all their lives. Homeless women lack female role models and their self image is very much influenced by the men they have in their surroundings. The Women’s team is convinced that it is important to give these women support from an exclusively female staff in both shelters, social service agencies and treatment centres.

The day ended with dinner at a traditional Austrian restaurant where we enjoyed specialities like knödel (dumpling), schottnocken (Austrian gnocchi) and powidldatschkerln (typical Austrian desert).

The following day the conference started with Susanne Schmölzer from F.E.M. F.E.M is a health centre for women, parents and girls at the Semmelweis Gynaecological Clinic, this is a contact point for women’s health promotion. Based on the experiences they had in this field they created a travelling health service for homeless women to go into the facilities where these women are. The team consists of one clinical and health psychologist, one psychologist in training and one psychotherapist working together with the gynaecological clinic, the concept is the result of a WHO Model Project with the objectives:

• health promotion and prevention
• holistic concept of health and disease
• women-oriented approach in the health care system
• promotion of women-friendly environments
• empowerment by strengthening the self-determination and decision-making power of women

Before lunch we continued with the Catch partner José Parente from Lisbon, Portugal, presenting their best practise Monsanto Park. Monsanto Park is a city park in Lisbon where the open prostitution is high. The project aims at supporting the women working in the park with counselling, social support, health care and to provide basic needs such as food, shower facilities and assisting in finding accommodation. The facilities brought to the park are quite simple but it is open for everyone to come in, have a shower, talk to the staff and have a warm meal. The innovative about this project is to bring the service to the field; the outreach work has showed to be very successful in reaching street prostitutes.

The last day of the conference was a mix between conference speeches and workshops. All participants had signed up for one of the four workshops and we spend the whole afternoon discussing and doing role plays. Before the conclusion of the conference each group presented their findings, below you may read summaries of each workshops.

Finally, the concluding speech was held by Mr Eduard Olbrich, coordinator of the National Action Plans on Social Inclusion of Austria. He explained history, idea and meaning of the NAPs to the audience.

Download paper {pdf}

Download presentation by Paolo Brusa {pdf}

Programme Vienna Meeting {pdf}

Enders-Dragässer {pdf}

BAWO {pdf}

Workshops

Workshop presentations {pdf}

Sara o Birgitta {pdf}

Workshop Manchester {pdf}

Multipolis {pdf}

Good practicess

Better housing for homeless women with substance abuse in Malmö - Malmö {pdf}

Casa Rosa Virginia - Bologna {pdf}

Catch housing - Vantaa {pdf}

Laurinkoti - Vantaa {pdf}

Mosaada - UK {pdf}

Mother and baby project - Varna {pdf}

Nacro - Manchester {pdf}

Shelter - UK {pdf}

SIID - Bologna {pdf}

Turvanen - Vantaa {pdf}