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Stuttgart law and order partnership against domestic violence
The Stuttgart Regulatory Partnership against Domestic Violence (STOP) has been in existence since 2001 and is coordinated by the City of Stuttgart. Institutions and counseling centers from the police-legal and psychosocial fields work together to effectively prevent and intervene in violence.
For 20 years, the Equal Opportunity Department has coordinated the Stuttgart Order Partnership Against Domestic Violence (STOP).
Anniversary event 20 years STOP
For more than 20 years, the Department for Equal Opportunities has coordinated the Stuttgart Partnership for Order against Domestic Violence (STOP). In this network of police, administration and counseling centers, the various expertise and perspectives of the cooperation partners are bundled. Thus, a reliable procedure for the protection of victims, for the work with perpetrators as well as prevention and further education could be established. The STOP process enjoys national and international recognition.
To mark the anniversary of the procedure, the Equal Opportunities Department held a ceremony at the tri-bühne theater in Stuttgart. In addition to greetings, inputs and interviews, the highlights of the live-streamed event were the play “My Home is my Castle” by Irfan Kars, written especially for this occasion, and an interview film with numerous voices of cooperation partners and politicians about the development and work of the network.
Under the umbrella of the Stuttgart Partnership against Domestic Violence(STOP (opens in a new tab)), the Equal Opportunities Department is continuously developing new projects, measures and services in the areas of intervention, prevention and public relations and adapting the working structure and networking with various stakeholders to current needs.
The modules of STOP
Expulsion of perpetrators from the country
consistent criminal prosecution
protective measures under civil law
prompt counseling
assistance for victims and perpetrators
help and counseling for children
Fair dispute training for couples who want to learn non-violent conflict resolution
want to learn
Couples counseling
The goals of STOP
Publicize domestic violence as part of a coordinated intervention structure and reduce it in the long term, if necessary integrating new areas of intervention
Further develop victim protection
Minimize the number of repeat offenders
Intensify public relations work
Raise awareness of the victims’ social environment, especially the children affected
Development of prevention measures
Organization of symposia on various focal points.
Cooperation partner in STOP
The cooperation partners in the Stuttgart Partnership against Domestic Violence are
Within the framework of STOP, numerous actions, projects and cooperations take place in the state capital. A selection is presented here.
STOP symposium in Stuttgart City Hall
As part of STOP, the city of Stuttgart has been organizing conferences on various topics related to domestic violence since 2004. Previous topics have included “children”, “perpetrators”, “migration”, “refugees” and “prevention”. The last symposium was held on March 26, 2019 on the topic of “Domestic violence and addiction”.
Domestic violence must not be a private matter. Women in particular experience violence by their partners within their own four walls, but men are also affected. For this reason, the Equal Opportunity and Diversity Department provides information about support services in Stuttgart through targeted public relations work.
Explainer film for the violence prevention project Look, Recognize, Act
Prevention project Look - Recognize - Act
The prevention project for children and young people “Look - Recognize - Act” was designed, centrally managed and implemented by the Equal Opportunities and Diversity department from 2013 to 2018. It was funded by the Robert Bosch Foundation (opens in a new tab). Since 2018, the modules and training offers developed in the area of prevention have continued to be offered by the department to a lesser extent.
The main aim of this project is to show the respective actors ways of recognizing and acting through systematic and institutionally coordinated sensitization and networking of the social environment of children and young people in a city district. The children and young people are to be strengthened accordingly, either to get help themselves as those affected or to support those affected in their environment.
Don’t look away - take responsibility
The general aim is to create a culture and attitude of looking and taking responsibility. For this purpose, multi-layered and sensitive methods were developed, which were implemented within the framework of the project, partly in cooperation with experts and specialized agencies on the topic of domestic violence, with instruments such as awareness training, training courses, events, theater pedagogy and workshops.
In addition to direct work with young people from grade 8 onwards with the workshop content developed by the department “Wenn Liebe wehtut - Gewaltprävention in Teenager-Liebesbeziehungen” (When Love Hurts - Violence Prevention in Teenage Love Relationships), another focus is on raising awareness and training multipliers from the social environment (including schools, daycare centers, and open and mobile youth work). The training sessions show how to recognize domestic violence and what options there are for taking action. Measures in the field of public relations, such as information events and flyers in different languages, round off the offer.
The goals of the project are:
Educate children and young people in an age-appropriate way about domestic violence and inform them where and how they can get help for themselves or others.
To enable girls and boys to resolve conflicts without violence in order to increase the likelihood that they will not perpetrate or endure violence in their own, later partner relationships.
Raising awareness of the social environment of children and young people on the subject of domestic violence, for example schools, daycare centers, open and mobile youth work, religious and cultural centers, clubs and the public in general.
Teaching multipliers how to act and strategies for prevention work.
De-tabooing and “de-privatization” of domestic violence and partner violence.
Networking of all relevant institutions and organizations in the district.
Sustainability through implementation of the ongoing results in the responsible institutions and political bodies.
Fields of action and services
The fields of action and offers for children and young people as well as specialists include workshops, training courses and specialist days. As part of the public relations work, information events, campaigns and lectures are held, information material is produced and general press work is carried out.
Domestic violence in the context of refugees is one of the main topics of the “Stuttgart Partnership for Order against Domestic Violence (STOP)”. The “Domestic violence and refugees” working group was founded at the end of 2016 in order to develop target group-specific solutions across institutions and departments as far as possible.
Participants in the working group include advice centres working in the field of domestic and sexualized violence, full-time employees of refugee accommodation providers and specialist departments of the Social Welfare Office, the Youth Welfare Office and the Integration Policy Department of the City of Stuttgart.
The results of the working group include a cross-agency action plan for domestic violence in shared accommodation and the creation of an overview of counseling services for particularly vulnerable refugees in Stuttgart. Also relevant in this context is the documentation of the STOP symposium 2017, which focused on the topic of “Countering domestic violence in the refugee context”.
The Ethnomedizinisches Zentrum e.V.(EMZ (opens in a new tab)) launched the project “Gewaltprävention von Migrant*innen (MiMi)” at seven locations in Germany in 2016 on behalf of the Federal Office for Migration, Refugees and Integration (opens in a new tab). As a cooperation partner, the Equal Opportunities Department was in charge of implementing and developing the project in Stuttgart. In 2020, the project was incorporated into the regular operations of the state capital.
The mentors
The violence protection mentors are a group of women and men from countries such as Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Morocco, Palestine, Syria and Germany who have been trained as part of the violence protection program to strengthen refugees in their ability to protect themselves from violence in a language- and gender-sensitive manner. They provide information on important aspects of domestic violence, such as risk factors, protection options and legal principles. At the same time, they are a first culturally sensitive point of contact and can establish contact with specialist advice centers.
Offers for more protection
A wide range of services in the areas of prevention and intervention are designed to promote non-violent coexistence in the partnerships and families of refugees. Women and men, mothers and fathers should be strengthened in their roles and relationships. The aim of all formats is to provide information and highlight support options.
The offers are:
Information event: Participants are sensitized to the topic of “domestic violence / relationship violence” in their native language. The events take place primarily in shared accommodation.
Café Blabla: Every Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., the Heslach multi-generation house (opens in a new tab) offers a place for informal exchange for people with and without refugee experience and also functions as a low-threshold prevention service against domestic violence.
Support in individual cases: The violence protection mentors support employees in individual discussions with people who are suspected or known to have been victims or perpetrators of domestic violence. They also accompany those seeking advice to specialist advice centers or court hearings.
Support in the event of incidents of domestic violence: violence protection mentors support employees in initial discussions with victims and/or perpetrators following incidents of violence.
Consultation hours: In some facilities, the violence protection mentors are regularly on site at fixed times. They can provide support during discussions.
Gender team: All formats can also be carried out with a team of violence protection mentors. This makes it possible to take gender-specific differences into account.
Request and contact
These information and support services can be requested by public institutions, offices, meeting places, shared accommodation, specialist advice centers, but also companies and hospitals in Stuttgart for support. The contact person is the Equal Opportunities Department.
The steps are as follows:
1. you assess your local needs: What is your primary target group? Who would you like to reach? Which languages are spoken? Do you need female or male violence protection mentors or a gender team? Which format would you like to offer in your facility?
2. you inform us of your needs by telephone or e-mail.
3. we will search our database for the respective violence protection mentors for you
4. they will contact you to discuss the specific implementation in your institution.
5. the Equal Opportunities Department is your point of contact. We will support you and then evaluate the implementation of the measures with you.
