Metzineres. Environments of Shelter for Womxn who Use Drugs Surviving Violences is the first integrated harm reduction program from Catalonia exclusively for women. With holistic and individualized scopes tailored to the particularities of anybody, it offers direct and immediate access to flexible proposals in accordance with women´s expectations, disquietudes, curiosities, interests and needs. Throughout an innovatively daring grassroots intervention model, unfolded in Environments of Shelter, sustained by community-based strategies anchored in human rights and gender mainstreaming, that prove reliable, pragmatic, cost-effective, where every woman is a protagonist.
Metzineres is displayed by Environments of Shelter where they may take part and wander in virtue of their demands of wellbeing, circumstances, ambivalences, mutable degrees of involvement and entrust for accompaniment. It is about mitigating possibilities of failure as to avoid revictimization or secondary traumatisation.
Environment for healing, training and recovery
The Meanwhile is open to all WUDSV, with a refreshing agenda of training, occupational, cultural and leisure activities. Easing basic needs, giving social health careness and deploying a wide range of choices for self-healing, bonding, wisdom sharing, self-defence, solidarity and mutual support, whilst seeking to enhance technical proficiency and advocacy.
Environment for productivity
The Plucky fosters professional worth, entrepreneurship and job opportunities satisfying to WUDSV that challenge hampering labour markets, stimulates employability with regular steady incomes, and potentiates skills, boosts self-sufficiency, inspires personal growth.
Environment for housing
The Cover becomes secure housing that invites serenity, intimacy, rest and protection for WUDSV in situation of homelessness or that have run from home, laying at their will a whole range of therapeutic elements to propitiate stability.
Last update: April 1st 2020
Womxn (% from 250)
Cis Woman 225 90.0% Transexual woman 23 9.2% All 250
Old bands (% from 234)
From 20 to 29 years old 39 16.7% From 30 to 39 years old 78 33.3% From 40 to 49 years old 67 28.6% From 50 to 59 years old 39 16.7% 60 or older 10 4.3% Vulnerability / exclusion factors (% from 232)
Problems related to drugs 166 71.6% Adult over 55 years old 31 13.4% Young 47 20.3% Migrated 94 40.5% Functional diversity 17 7.3% Racialized 46 19.8% LGTBIQ 41 17.7% Sexual worker 42 18.1% Sex for survival 74 31.9% Ranks of mental health 105 45.3% Homeless 135 58.2% Without cover 118 50.9% Imprisonment 71 30.6% Others 3 1.3% Contact site (% from 16008)
Street 431 2.7% XADUD 750 4.7% Outside activity 1474 9.2% Telephone 1124 7.0% "Can trini / La Coberta" 277 1.7% "La Vida alegre" 11163 69.7% Home address 42 0.3% "Eucaliptus" 284 1.8% Social media contact 60 0.4% Other 403 2.5% Foundations (% from 31182)
Food supplement 9787 31.4% Lunch 3559 11.4% NSP 522 1.7% Shower 2072 6.6% Washing machine 786 2.5% Clothing swap 1285 4.1% Sleep by day 1888 6.1% Thelephone/ Internet 3116 10.0% Transport 420 1.3% Condoms 242 0.8% Chat / Mutual suport 7251 23.3% Image 1790 5.7% Housing 536 1.7% Activities (% from 5205)
Workshop 1549 29.8% Outing 146 2.8% DIRD 292 5.6% XADUD 607 11.7% Assembly 556 10.7% Second hand market 150 2.9% Activism 517 9.9% Network articulation 290 5.6% Communitary activity 1026 19.7% Congress / Session 72 1.4% Educational intervention (% from 19533)
Counseling / Information 874 4.5% Accompaniment 391 2.0% Followup 8096 41.4% Contact with family abd/or partner 322 1.6% Addressing violences 1702 8.7% "ConSumo Cuidado" 3450 17.7% Conflict resolution 388 2.0% Emotional support 4310 22.1% Approach to sexual work 609 3.1% Sanitary intervention (% from 11875)
Anamnesis 1775 14.9% Consultation 3593 30.3% Followup 5579 47.0% Cure 685 5.8% Accompaniment 75 0.6% Urgency 122 1.0% Domiciliary visit 16 0.1% Overdose 11 0.1% Unexpected effects of consumption 12 0.1% Social work (% from 824)
Initial interview 141 215.4% Followup on site 140 17.0% Followup on telephone 79 9.6% Acompaniment 65 7.9% Follow-up of the case (articulation with other RSS feeds) 233 28.3% Domiciliary visit or other places of residence or stay 17 2.1% Derivation 34 4.1% Family contact 15 1.8% Procedures 89 10.8% Employability 11 1.3% Substances (% from 2803)
Alcohol 527 18.8% Other 18 0.6% Energetic drinks 32 1.1% Benzodiacepine 4 0.1% Cannabis 309 11.0% Cocaine 870 31.0% Depo-progevere 5 0.2% Heroin 449 16.0% Depo-progevere NOT prescribed 8 0.3% Hormones 6 0.2% Methadone 82 2.9% Methanphetamines 56 2.0% Other opiate 3 0.1% Speed / Amphetamine 63 2.2% Speedball 125 4.5% Tobacco 13 0.5% Tropicamida 223 8.0% Ube 10 0.4% Substances and related problems (161 women consumers and 111 with problems)
Substance Current consumption Problems related Alcohol 68 31 Antipsychotics 11 2 Benzodiacepine 27 15 Cannabis 47 5 Cocaine snorted 15 9 Cocaine smoked 58 52 Cocaine injected 41 34 Heroine snorted 4 0 heroine smoked 16 13 heroine injected 49 41 Methadone 30 20 Methanphetamines 9 6 Speed / Amphetamine 17 5 Speedball 20 19 Tobacco 86 41 Tropicamida 2 2 During childhood (% from 44)
Physical aggressions 23 52.3% Sexual aggressions 16 36.4% Rape 7 15.9% Psychological aggressions 21 47.7% Lgtbi-phobia 13 29.5% Other 1 2.3% Family breakdown 25 56.8% Institutionalization 6 13.6% Criminalization 1 2.3% Sexual or sex-affective partner (% from 64)
Physical aggressions 55 85.9% Sexual aggressions 11 17.2% Rape 6 9.4% Psychological aggressions 56 87.5% Verbal 48 75.0% Environmental 34 53.1% Economic 22 34.4% Other 9 14.1% Family breakdown 1 1.6% Criminalization 1 1.6% Stigma / discrimination 2 3.1% Vulnerability confidentiality / intimacy 1 1.6% Mistreat 2 3.1% Other 1 1.6% Security deposit / fine unavailable 1 1.6% Eviction 1 1.6% Nearby environment (% from 38)
Physical aggressions 14 36.8% Sexual aggressions 8 21.1% Rape 5 13.2% Psychological aggressions 14 36.8% Verbal 14 36.8% Environmental 11 28.9% Economic 8 21.1% Lgtbi-phobia 12 31.6% Unknown (% from 26)
Physical aggressions 12 46.2% Sexual aggressions 6 23.1% Rape 8 30.8% Psychological aggressions 6 23.1% Environmental 6 23.1% Economic 4 15.4% Lgtbi-phobia 10 38.5% Other 1 3.8% Physical 1 3.8% Sexual 2 7.7% Rape 1 3.8% Social care system (% from 32)
Ignoring the demands 8 25.0% Family intrusion 8 25.0% Stigma / discrimination 22 68.8% Vulnerability confidentiality / intimacy 13 40.6% Lgtbi-phobia 8 25.0% Not supporting idiomatic barriers 6 18.8% Other 2 6.2% Health care system (% from 32)
Ignoring the demands 8 25.0% Family intrusion 1 3.1% Stigma / discrimination 19 59.4% Vulnerability confidentiality / intimacy 11 34.4% Mistreat 2 6.2% Lgtbi-phobia 8 25.0% Not supporting idiomatic barriers 4 12.5% Other 4 12.5% Judicial system (% from 23)
Preventive prison 4.3% Security deposit / fine unavailable 26.1% Disproportionate condemnation 43.5% Multiple short jails 26.1% False conviction 13.0% Stigma / discrimination 34.8% Inadequate defense 26.1% Lgtbi-phobia 4.3% Other 8.7% Police system (% from 14)
Ignoring the demands 8 34.8% Physical 4 28.6% Sexual 2 14.3% Psychological 5 35.7% Harassment 5 35.7% Economic 1 7.1% Access to treatment as a form of coercion 1 7.1% Lgtbi-phobia 1 7.1% Eviction 3 21.4% Other 3 21.4% Penitentiary system (% from 16)
Isolation 7 43.8% 3 18.8% Scatter 2 12.5% Barriers to PMM access 2 12.5% Indigence in prison 4 25.0% Withdrawal of custody due to imprisonment 3 18.8% Denial of permits and penitentiary benefits 3 18.8% Threats and / or coercion by officials 5 31.2% Torture or vexing treatment 3 18.8% Rape 1 6.2% Other 3 18.8%
The transcendence of the almost 40 daily accompaniments undertaken by Metzineres, committing to heart warmth the wellbeing of more than 220 brave women, currently participating in the project, has shown along the two years of implementation, extraordinary results, exceeding our best expectations.
Despite the broad commitment of all of us in Metzineres, the countless alliances linked to the social and solidarity economy as well as the multiple visits from around the world to get to know our approach model, the lack of funding and infrastructure endanger put at risk our Shelter Environments.
For these reasons we call on institutions, philanthropic communities, entities, companies, movements and individuals with whom we share common ideals and objectives, to show their support and solidarity, willing to activate support within networks that may guarantee the sustainability of Metzineres.
Metzineres is a collective of 250 women and gender non comforming people in multiple situations of vulnerability, 90% of us are surviving multiple violences, half of us are homeless and 70% have problems related to drugs, legal and illegal.
Beyond the risks that we live in our day to day life and the harm reduction measures that we are already adopting (COVID19 HARM REACTION guide. In Metzis we don’t want Corona) we want to highlight the complexity of our reality so it can be contemplated in the social, health and economic measures applied to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We prioritize access to safe confinement, which respects our human rights, with a feminist approach, taking into account intersectionality and harm reduction. That would allow us to maintain our link with the environment, the companions and the social and health professionals we trust. Respectful of our habits and committed to our empowerment and well-being.
We want to be able to take care of ourselves, access our belongings and give continuity to our treatments, especially those of us living with mental health disorders. Those of us who are in active consumption want to reduce risks and not go through forced abstinence. Also, if we do sex work or sex for survival we want to be able to protect ourselves.
These days, measures have been deployed aimed at us that, although well-intentioned, they are not adapt to our circumstances, in some cases even retraumatizing us and violating our rights.
In order to alleviate and redirect those responses that are reproducing stigma and discrimination, we present the following recommendations:
Nothing About Us Without Us
Full text available here.
"Amb molts pocs diners salvem vides". Report in Vilaweb, reference media in Catalonia. [catalan]
"Metzineres: shelter and empowering women who use drugs, survivors of violence". Article in Innovative approaches in drug policies and Incarceration. [english]
