Adult Education in Victim Support: Empowering Men affected by Human Trafficking and Severe Exploitation. Exchange of Experience & Developing Recommendations.

"<< Background >>Since 2011, the EU-Anti-Trafficking-Directive obliges all EU member-states to provide specialized vicitim support also for men as victims of Human Trafficking. In recent years, all involved organizations of SAPE have been collecting experiences in assisting this new, neglected and hidden target group, which is growing, highly vulnerable and showing multifold needs for support and educational measures. Nevertheless, networks for systematically sharing experiences on this new target group are almost inexistent. In addition, we all realized, that adult education is a crucial element of victim support in this field. The needs of the participating organizations were:a) exchange experiences, learn from each other, build networks b) identiy good practice for implementing adult education in victim support routines.c) putting repetedly observed educational needs of trafficked men into a systematic scheme in order to get an overview. Then use this for developing recommendations for the guided implementation of adult education into victim support services.d) raising the visibilty of trafficked men and their educational needs, describing necessary support structures for affected men, so that adult education measures can be effective. << Objectives >>As pointed out above, the target group of men affected by Human Trafficking is a new in the focus of attention, still often not visible and hidden, allthough trafficked men do exist, also in the EU. Also, victim support structures for trafficked men often do not exist or are just about to be started. Therefore, the need for sharing and developing further knowledge is high. On this background, our project aimed at combining four objectives: a) Exchange practical knowledge in working with male victims and sharing experiences in already applied activities of adult education in this field, b) Discussing examples of good practice as well as analysis of obstacles and difficulties. c) On this basis, systematically identifying areas of need of adult education for affected men. d) Summarizing this and out of that developing a short digital publication, including written recommendations for systematically integrating activities of adult education into victim support. These recommendations then can be used for further steps of implementing adult education within victim support services and contribute to the development of commonly shared quality standards, raising awareness for male victims and their educational needs. << Implementation >>Implemented activities were the following, as described in detail in the application:- A ""Kick-Off""-meeting in order to start the project with all partners - Ongoing project management, including monthly online steering meetings - 3 Meetings in 3 countries of project members realized - 2 meetings had the focus on the exchange of experience,identifying needs for education and developing recommendations and a publication. Meeting 3 was dedicated on thepresentation of the content and objectives of the project and its esults. Each Meeting included a Mulitplier-event with national stakeholders concering national stratgies against Human Trafficking. - All these steps were accompanied by dissemination and networking activties by each partner organization. - Ongoing monitoring and evalution in order to reach the project-goals - Quality-Managment inculding feedback-loops from the target group- Joint conception and production of a written publication on Recommendations for the implementation of Adult Education measures into Victim Support for trafficked men. - The title of these publication is: ""Empowering Men Affected by Trafficking in Human Beings through Adult Education"", published in English and all project partner language<< Results >>The outputs and results fully meet the defined objectives of the project. They even exceed the expecations in central parts:Thanks to the high expertise ad rich experience of all partner organizations, the publication on the Recommendations for Adult Education in Victim Support grew, twice as long as planned in pages, into a focussed handbook, entailing precise information and backgrounds, giving a well structured, systematic and understandable overview of repeatedly met issues of Adult Education when working professionally with trafficked men. As added value, it also describes preconditions that need to be fullfilled so that measures of Adult Education measures can be effecitve. Also, it clearly elaborates the strong connections of Adult Education for this highly vulnerable target group with Victims Rights, Human Rights and Labour Rights. Another outputs were the 3 sucessfull, inspiring Meetings in Coimbra, Bukarest, Vienna, including multiplier events with key actors, as well as dissemination activities by all partner organizations. Also, the produced knowlege creates ongoing impact in the activities of the partner organizations and provides starting points for follow up projects as well as ongoing networking activities."