INTERLEAVE - Interventions with women drug users who are victims of gender-based violence, JUSTICE PROGRAMME

Women account for approximately one quarter of those with drug addiction problems and about one fifth of those accessing treatment in Europe. Among them, a high percentage are survivors of gender-based violence. Despite growing efforts and initiatives at local and international levels to address this issue, many barriers still exist in accessing treatments for female drug users.

The European Project INTERLEAVE aims to analyze the gender-based violence experienced by female drug users, as well as best practices in the field of prevention and intervention, in order to develop a toolkit for professionals working in this area.

Eight organizations participate in the project: Comunità di Venezia (Italy), Fundación Salud y Comunidad (Spain), Therapieverbund Ludwigsmühle (Germany), Therapiesalon im Wald (Austria), IREFREA (Portugal), Eu-Open (Italy), Zajednica Susret (Croatia), and ENSA (European Network).

Among its actions, the initiative includes an initial research led by Fundación Salud y Comunidad (FSC) to be conducted with a multinational sample of women victims of violence and the staff who assist them. Additionally, there will be an exchange of best practices among organizations from participating countries with the presence of local experts. Based on all the above, a set of intervention tools targeted at professionals will be developed.

With a multi-level and interdisciplinary approach, the project is designed to support civil society entities by strengthening their capacity to provide better services in the drug field from a gender and feminist perspective.

Fundación Salud y Comunidad (FSC) has been working for years in the intersection between drugs and gender through various projects. For more information: https://www.drogasgenero.info/

The INTERLEAVE Project is funded by the European Union’s Justice Programme (Drug Policy Initiatives) with a planned duration of 24 months (from November 2020 to October 2022). Its results can be consulted on the website: www.interleave.org