Workshops Insights from Slovenia
As part of the Women Voices project, my colleague and I prepared two workshops. One was for the staff at the Maribor branch of the King of the streets Association, and the other for Roma women. They are already part of an existing women’s group, where Roma women meet with our social workers, talk about their lives, children, labours, health problems and so on. In the past 8 years we created a safe space for Roma women to talk, to feel excepted and welcoming.
During the preparation phase, we had quite a few concerns—who would even attend the workshops, who would agree to participate in the project, and how to best present the project and its core idea, which is really made for our women. How to explain everything in a way that would be clear, understandable, and engaging for them?
Click here to read more about how it all came together.
Local Workshops Are Starting
By the end of March 2025, workshops were launched in 3 of our partner countries in the framework of the Erasmus+ Women's Voices - Putting Women's Visual Voices at the Heart of Homelessness Support project.
In France, La Cité de Refuge-Centre Espoir (CRCE), run by the Salvation Army, located in the south of Paris, is participating in the programme. They have launched 2 workshops, mainly with Muslim women. The first session started with a discussion on security based on a picture taken in Ireland.
Slovenia is represented by Kralj Ulice. The Ljubljana team is expected to start with 40 women in mid-April. In Maribor, two groups have been established. One group with Roma women has already started. As a first topic, clients were able to share their thoughts on what the concept of family and security means to them. The overall feedback was that all the women were very enthusiastic and had a good time.
In Hungary, two groups will be launched within the BMSZKI services. In the first group, the staff held an event called Spring Dance, during which they talked to 5–6 clients who expressed interest in the workshop. Once a secure location and the necessary technical equipment are available, the joint work can begin. The second group will be formed among the clients of one of our special night shelters. Several women here have also been informed and invited to participate. This group is scheduled to start at the beginning of May.
THE SALVATION ARMY AND THE WOMEN'S VOICES PROJECT
The Salvation Army Foundation in France is involved in the Women’s Voices project through the center La Cité de Refuge-Centre Espoir (CRCE), located in the south of Paris. At the CRCE, there is a long-term shelter for social reintegration of 300 people, an employment integration program, and a day and overnight shelter space for homeless women. The question of how to specifically support women runs through all the center’s activities. Consequently, a team made up of social workers, psychologists, and a service manager has been actively involved in the Women’s Voices project. More information about it can be read here.
FEANTSA WOMEN and Women’s Visual Voices: Addressing Women’s Homelessness through a European Community of Practice and a Participatory Project
FEANTSA, an EU-level social NGO brings together over 130 members across Europe with the aim of working towards ending homelessness in Europe through mutual exchange and learning. This article highlights FEANTSA’s work on women’s homelessness through a community of practice (FEANTSA WOMEN) and through an innovative European Project that focuses on participation (Women’s Voices).
The need to address women’s homelessness arose from service providers across Europe, who found that women were either not accessing services, disengaging, or struggling to strive within existing service frameworks. As a response to this clear gender gap in the homelessness sector, FEANTSA has started its work on women’s homelessness.
Around the same time, academic research – long dominated by studies on men’s experiences of homelessness began to highlight the unique challenges faced by women and underscored the critical need for more research with a gender lens.
Our work on women’s homelessness coincided with key advocacy opportunities at the EU level, including initiatives promoting women’s rights and gender equality. Ensuring that strategies like the EU Gender Equality Strategy reached the most marginalized groups, including women experiencing homelessness, became a vital part of our advocacy work. For example, we advocated for the inclusion of homeless women in EU-funded projects, such as those financed through the gender equality and gender-based violence funding stream.
Our first EU-funded project, PIE for Shelters, focused on developing resources to ensure homelessness services were both gender and trauma-informed. This initiative provided essential tools for improving service delivery to women and laid the foundation for further collaborations[1]. A subsequent Erasmus+ project ‘Women and Homelessness’ brought together eight organizations from eight countries, enabling invaluable exchanges of knowledge and practices in joint training sessions throughout the project.[2]
The success of these project has led to the launch of FEANTSA WOMEN, a community of practice that brings together various organisations and individuals working towards ending homelessness for women. This platform allows members to share best practices, collaborate on knowledge-building, and develop resources on women’s homelessness. Key themes explored by FEANTSA Women include trauma-informed care, gender-specific barriers, and innovative and promising practices to support women experiencing homelessness.[3]
Within FEANTSA WOMEN, some members expressed interest in closer cooperation and in the development of joint learning materials. The partners identified women’s safety needs as a key theme that services were lacking tools to ensure. They have also expressed interest in learning effective ways of involving women with lived experience of homelessness in their work. This has led to the development of the Women’s Voices project, which puts women’s visual voices at the heart of homelessness support.[4] The three-year long Erasmus+ funded project partnership includes diverse organisations from Belgium (FEANTSA, DoucheFlux) Finland (Y Foundation, No Fixed Abode) France (Armée du Salut), Hungary (BMSZKI), Ireland (SETU), Portugal (SOMOS) and Slovenia (Kralj Ulice). Women’s Voices will create a training package for staff of health and social services using the photo narrations (Visual Voices) co-produced by those with lived and learned experience (women with past or ongoing experience of homelessness and staff) in the project countries. The project also includes activities such as staff training on Visual Voices methodology, the development of Visual Voices workshops with women and pilot trainings, awareness-raising photo exhibitions and more.
These initiatives demonstrate the importance of addressing homelessness with a gender-informed approach, ensuring that women’s unique experiences and needs shape policies and practices. We will keep you informed with regular updates and articles on the project's progress and developments on the pages of this newspaper.
[1] https://www.feantsa.org/en/project/2018/02/01/pie4shelters-making-shelt…
[2] https://www.bmszki.hu/en/erasmus2/about-project
[3] https://www.feantsa.org/en/network/2022/03/10/feantsa-women-community-o…
[4] https://www.bmszki.hu/en/erasmus5/about-projekt