Empowering vulnerable women through financial education

<< Background >>We decided to apply to this project to address the need of our beneficiaries- vulnerable women survivors of gender based violence and migrant women to learn new skills related to financial management and career management in order to gain independence and economic empowerment. according to current research across the EU, women have less financial education than men. the gender gap is particularly significant when it comes to financial literacy such as managing their budgets, savings or choosing convenient financial products. women survivors of gender-based violence are particularly vulnerable, since they were oftentimes under the control of their abusive partner and had no access to family finances. with this project we enabled 15 vulnerable women from Croatia and Italy to learn new skills related to financial management, savings, career managing, finding a better job, and using social capital. the two trainings they attended enabled them to set their long and short-term career goal s and to elaborate strategies and plans on how to realize them. a compendium containing relevant topics and outcomes of the trainings was created and disseminated to other interested stakeholders thorough partners’ websites and social media accounts. << Objectives >>The main goal of the project was to encourage the empowerment and the participation of the most vulnerable womenin their economic and social context. specific project objectives were objectives:1. to provide the basic theoretical and practical tools necessary for a proper financial literacy of women living in vulnerablesituations and economic and/or social difficulties;2. to improve the knowledge of financial issues, especially those related to the management of own money and savings;3. to strengthen women's self-esteem and their active participation in economic and financial processes within thecommunity;4. to raise community awareness of women's financial literacy needs.All project objectives were realized as planned. A total of 20 vulnerable women from Croatia and Italy were empowered to be fully integrated in their socio-economic context through the participation in two 4-day trainings which were organized in Rome (June 2022) and in Zagreb (October 2022). Through information events, final conference and media campaign relevant stakeholders and other community members were informed about the specific needs of this target group. << Implementation >>The following activities were implemented: Activity 1 project management and coordination -the objectives of this activity were to encourage the partners' participation in the activities and management; to ensure the achievement of project results and to define an internal monitoring procedures. Activity 2 transnational mobility 1 was held in Rome, Italy from 6-9 June 2022. A total of 14 vulnerable women from Croatia and Italy participated in the training which provided participants with basic knowledge related to finances, budget planning and savings management. Activity 3 transnational mobility 2 was held in Zagreb from 24-27 October 2022. During four days, 15 vulnerable women from Italy and Croatia learned new skills and worked on their careers through a series of topics related to career management and planning. Activity 4 project outputs: compendium and video - 2 videos and the compendium were developed by Progeu with inputs from AWHZ and Observo and are available on partner websites and social media accounts. Activity 5 communication and awareness-raising on project issues - through information events, final conference and media campaign relevant stakeholders and other community members were informed about the projec<< Results >>THE RESULTS AND OUTPUTS OF THE PROJECT ARE:- Better knowledge of participants related to financial issues and money management - Improved competences of participants to make informed decisions in the economic and financial fields;- enhanced self-esteem of women participating in the activities;- improved capacity of women to actively participate in their economic and social context;- increased awareness and knowledge of the community and EU citizens on women's financial literacy needs;- 2 transnational courses (4 days each) addressed to a total of 20 vulnerable women were organized- at the end of the 2nd transnational course 14 personal dairy booklets were developed by 14 vulnerable women who participated in the training. - 1 compendium containing details and materials of the training courses was developed and is available on partner websites in English and national languages: - 2 videos with testimonies of women during the trainings were created: https://www.instagram.com/p/ci-soggrrni/https://youtu.be/e8q3pwb9hui- 1 awareness-raising campaign on social media of partner organizations was implemented.