Service Name
HOSPITALITY HOUSE “SANTA MARIA” Service Provider
Community Association “Pope John XXIII”, Shkodër Contact Information Telephone: +355 (0) 692086327 E-mail: papaxhovani23@gmail.com
Service description Hospitality House “Santa Maria” is a shelter providing protection and rehabilitation for victims of domestic violence. Main service’s beneficiaries include adult girls and mothers with children, identified as victims of domestic violence. The service model aims at being as similar to family life as possible, offering a protected environment, rich in effectiveness, which takes into account the uniqueness of every individual by appreciating different skills and abilities and stimulates personal autonomy. The service operates based on the model of sharing life directly with persons admitted to the service, according to which service providers share their daily lives with the beneficiaries being fully available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Services provided include housing, food, health care, psycho-social support, referrals for employment or vocational training, referrals for legal issues, education and specialized services for children, socio-cultural activities and anything else normal in the life of a family. This way, in addition to addressing the problems of domestic violence and related trauma, the 028
service simultaneously meets several needs such as, empowering the individual and the family, education for the future, economic independence and reintegration in both family and community. Support is also provided for a medium-term transition phase immediately upon leaving the shelter. The average time spent in a shelter is 12 months. Service development history For 20 consecutive years, the Community Association ‘Pope John XXIII’ is helping girls and women in situation of violence, providing a relationship of trust, help, and psychological and spiritual support. In January 2018, the shelter officially opened as a newly specialized and dedicated service for victims of domestic violence, in response to the ongoing requests for housing and accommodation for victims of domestic violence, along with their children. Professional service providers The service is provided by 2 psychologists, 1 social worker and a personal assistant. Innovation Such a long-term service for victims of domestic violence is provided by no other public or non-public service provider in the northern region of Albania. The goal has not been to set up a residential institution, but to include, in an extended family, all girls and women with their children who are in difficult or violent situations, making them feel accepted, with dignity, protected, equal and see towards the future. Advantages Life in the shelter is completely dominated by coexistence that has a very familiar nature, whereby each member plays its own role within the large family; whereby everyone is accepted, and no one is excluded. Everyone
