THE IMPORTANCE OF THE AFTER-WOMEN’S SHELTER SUPPORT SERVICES FOR COMBATING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

One of the main goals of the combating violence aganist women is protection of women from violence. Women shelters play an important role in fulfilling this goal by enabling the violent women to move away from the violence they are exposed to and remain in a safe place. The ultimate goal of the combating violence against women is to abolish gender inequality-based vio-lence altogether. The attainment of this goal requires a series of support ser-vices in cooperation with different institutions and organizations, as well as services provided in shelters to protect women from violence. The im-portance of these services is highlighted by the fact that women who cannot reach the support services they need after shelter are often exposed to the need to return to shelter. Within this framework the study focuses on the question of how to organize the supportive services that may be needed in the post-shelter life, taking into account the variables related to the educa-tion and socio-economic situation of women coming to shelters in order to escape the violence they are exposed to. Based on the provisions of The Council of Europe Convention on the Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, the study aims to demonstrate the importance of supporting services to prevent violent women from being re-exposed to similar grievances in reaching the ultimate goal of eliminating vi-olence against women based on gender inequality. The study utilized data from a field research conducted in a women shelter using qualitative research methods on violent women and workshop report on "After- Women’s Shel-ter Supporting Mechanisms". In the light of the data obtained, attempts have been made to determine how the main support services needed after the shelter are, and how to set up the necessary mechanisms so that these ser-vices can provide results in the direction of eliminating violence against women based on gender inequality. Based on the results of this study, it is thought that support services should not aim to encourage violent women to live a life dependent on social assistance; rather it should aim at ensuring the widespread understanding of gender equality