Anti-violence centers still without money

Every femicide is met with a chorus of indignation, a perennial talk-show discussion of men's guilt and how women should fight back, and barely a mention of anti-violence centers. Yet these are the most important and useful tool for combating violence against women, protecting and supporting them. Especially when they are particularly vulnerable, including financially. Currently, according to ISTAT data that aren't entirely up-to-date, we know there are 106 anti-violence centers, compared to 182 in 2021. And this alone is a figure that should give us pause.

But the real Achilles' heel concerns funding, which exists more on paper than in reality. The last government, led by Giorgia Meloni, declared, with documents in hand, that it increased the allocations granted to anti-violence centers for 2023 by 16 million euros and for 2024 by another 4 million euros. At the same time Action Aid denounces a completely different reality: the funds for prevention against gender violence Over the past year, they've decreased by 70 percent. How can this enormous difference be explained? Different calculations? Everything becomes clear when we look at the tortuous mechanism through which anti-violence centers are funded. And so both things are true: the government has increased funding, on paper, but the actual planned and allocated funds have plummeted over the past year. At the expense of women.

WHAT ARE ANTI-VIOLENCE CENTERS FOR?

Prevent, protect, and prosecute perpetrators. Anti-violence centers are an excellent idea, the only truly concrete and useful way to combat violence against women . And the victims understood this first and foremost, given that during the first lockdown , when abuse increased to its highest levels ever, calls to the centers also increased by 73 percent. In 2022, 20.711 women were welcomed into anti-violence centers (half between the ages of 30 and 49), a significant number, but one that does nothing to improve the safety of women at risk, and above all, their ability to react in the most decisive way: by reporting the attacker. This function of anti-violence centers is fading, as demonstrated by the fact that only one in seven women victims of femicide reported the person who allegedly murdered her. And more than six in ten women killed by the violent and criminal hand of a man had never spoken to anyone about the previous violence they had suffered.

What purpose do anti-violence centers serve? Their most important function should not be a last resort, when it's almost always too late, but rather a first frontier, serving women. A place where women find psychological support, assistance, and a listening ear, even from competent professionals. Where women are finally no longer alone in facing their tragic fate. And here we come to the waste, the chasm that separates declarations of intent, the pompous rhetoric denouncing violence, from the stark facts.

The functioning of anti-violence centers, through the usual tortuous twists and turns of politics and bureaucracy, is determined by the center, through the Department of Equal Opportunities, and then implemented at the periphery, where the regional government controls the process. The government even has a control room at Palazzo Chigi, and once the funds are disbursed, the regions distribute them. Everything should be smooth sailing, in the exclusive interest of women, but instead everything slows down and stalls . This leads to the abandonment and closure of anti-violence centers. Once the funds reach the regions, they undergo another very tortuous process. Each region operates in its own way. In some cases, the funding goes to the municipalities, and then (in part) to the centers; in other cases, the regions distribute them directly or through a lengthy tender process.

READ MORE: Violence against women on the rise with Covid-19

FUNDING FOR ANTI-VIOLENCE CENTERS

The result of this absurd funding mechanism is that an anti-violence center must wait 14 months to two years to receive the money it was promised. With interminable delays. For example, for the 2015-2016 two-year plan, after almost six years, the regions have only paid out 76 percent of the funds. A bloodbath. In subsequent years, things got even worse.

The funds that actually reached the anti-violence centers were 67 percent of those allocated for 2017; 39 percent for 2018; and 10 percent for 2019. Even for 2020, despite Minister Elena Bonetti's signing of a decree in April to accelerate the distribution of funds, so far only five regions (Abruzzo, Molise, Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia, and Lombardy) have begun distributing the funds . The result: only 2 percent of the funds for anti-violence centers have reached their destination , amid a tangle of bureaucratic red tape between the state (which allocates) and the regions (which distribute). Instead of making new regulations (the ones we already have are sufficient), we should ensure timely and abundant funding for the centers, ensuring there are resources to pay for the work of the people within the centers (this cannot be an activity entrusted solely to the generosity of volunteers). Furthermore, we should extend a national education plan against violence against women, starting with schools. Something truly astonishing in its strength and widespread reach.

ANTI-VIOLENCE CENTERS IN ITALY

The suspicion, not far-fetched, is that, given years of waiting and never fully distributing the funds, the resources earmarked for anti-violence centers are going elsewhere . Perhaps for running costs. But this is what the Department for Equal Opportunities and its control room should be monitoring, demanding explanations from non-compliant regions, conducting random checks on the use of funds in the centers, and even considering placing regional administrations that don't meet government plans and objectives under special administration for this specific activity. Currently, anti-violence centers are little more than isolated entities, perpetually at risk of liquidation and lacking any real coordination or synergy between the various structures. The only reliable information we have comes from an association, DiRe (Women Networking Against Violence), which brings together 84 volunteer groups working in this sector and publishes the region-by-region lists of anti-violence centers online.

Along with women, there are other victims of the brutal violence of men who commit femicides: children who are orphaned. In this case too, we have laws, a national fund to provide a small tip (300 euros) assigned to a potential foster family. But we don't even know how many orphans of femicides there are in Italy. They are ghosts. The Ministry of the Interior's website reports, like a war bulletin, the number of women killed, but not that of orphans. And reliable data isn't forthcoming, and can't be forthcoming from the volunteer network, which can only estimate around 2.000 orphans of femicide. Boys and girls who lost their mothers to their fathers' murder.