This Handbook was developed in the context of the Erasmus+ project Pro-Women - Up-skilling Itineraries for Women as New Cultural Promoters to Enhance Territorial Heritage (www.prowomen-project.eu). It aims at helping professionals (educators, trainers) working with women in a vulnerable situation to develop learning activities and make their up-skilling and to promote their employability in the tourism sector.
The Handbook provides suggestions on how to work with vulnerable women, while emphasizing at the same time the individuality of each person. It also contains information on how to effectively communicate, listen and engage, observe, promote and enable, mobilise resources, assess and plan. It is a holistic reference point of the project objectives as a whole, while simultaneously utilizing all the resources that have been developed within the project duration.
One innovative element of this Output is that it offers tools and exercises that help identify the specific challenges of each woman in a vulnerable position and thus to assess their actual needs in order to adapt the intervention paths and perspectives to the real needs of the individual. This is reflected in the belief that women do not comprise a homogeneous group or category; they face different challenges and thus it is crucial to try and understand their situation and their specific needs in order to formulate appropriate plans of action.
Lastly, the methodological approach of the Handbook is focused on the perspectives that form the basis for empowerment of the work with women in vulnerable situations, namely:
• a gender perspective
• an anti-discriminatory perspective
• an anti-oppressive perspective
• an anti-racist perspective
• a users’ perspective.