The following is an invitation to participate in the "ALTRA: In-Prison Support and Therapy for Victims and Perpetrators of Gender Violence” Project Conference:

Final Conference

“ALTRA: In-Prison Support and Therapy for Victims and Perpetrators of Gender Violence” Project

5 February 2008,

Central European University, Budapest

Dear Madam/Sir,

We cordially invite you to Budapest for the Final Conference of the “ALTRA: In-Prison Support and Therapy for Victims and Perpetrators of Domestic Violence” project.

As you may have been informed, the aim of the two-year project was to provide an innovative, gender focused, in-prison pilot programme for women who have suffered gender-based violence and for men who have committed violence against women. The project was coordinated by SURT Women’s Association for Labour Insertion (Spain), with the partnership of the MONA Foundation for the Women of Hungary (Hungary) and Packhaus Counselling Centre (Germany). The project took place with the support of the European Commission’s Daphne II Programme, which is aimed at combating violence against children, young people and women.

The goal of the Final Conference is to present and discuss with an expert audience the main outcomes  of the ALTRA project. The conference comprises the following elements:

-          We will firstly present the results of the preliminary research on EU-wide in-prison programmes for women who have suffered gender-based violence and for men who have committed violence against women.

-          Secondly, we will summarize the experience gained by the organisations from the pilot programmes implemented in Hungarian and Catalan prisons for the above-mentioned target groups.

-          Finally, we will introduce the manual “Tackling Gender Violence in Prison: Manual of In-Prison Programmes against Gender-based Violence” prepared using the experience gained from the pilot programmes.  

The conference will take place on 5 February 2008 at Central European University, Gellner Room (Address: 1^st Floor, 9 Nádor utca, 1051 Budapest).

We hope that you will be able to join us at this conference and give us the benefit of your experience and expertise. Please confirm intended attendance at the conference by 31 January 2008 at altra@mona.t-online.hu.

Attached please find the agenda of the conference. For further information please contact the ALTRA project website at www.surt.org/altra.

Thank you for your reply in advance.

Yours faithfully,

Josefina Rubio, Coordinator of the ALTRA project

Director of SURT Association