CNRVV – Centro de Referência às Vítimas de Violência

CNRVV – Centro Nacional de Referência às Vítimas de Violência do Instituto Sedes Sapeitnaie (Reference Centre for the Victims of Violence) strives to meet the issue of domestic violence through programs and intervention policies.

It emerged in 1994 as a Reference Nucleus for the Victims of Violence, a sector of the psychological clinic of Instituto Sedes Sapientiae. It holds as a principle the relentless defence of human rights, of citizenship and ECA – Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente (Statute for Children and Youngsters).

In 2000 the nucleus was integrated to the “centres cluster” of Instituto Sedes Sapientiae, becoming CNRVV – Centro Nacional de Referência para Vitimas de Violência (National Reference Centre for Victims of Violence), motion approved by the Board of Directors and the Advisory Board of that institute.

In 2002 it won the prize “Prêmio Criança 2002” of the Abrinq Foundation in the category of Domestic Violence.

It intervenes in the fields of social and mental health with the following programs: treatment, prevention, professional training, research, partnerships/communication and management, creating alternatives for children and youngsters to break the pact of silence and the logic of cruelty that holds them, interrupting the path that frequently leads from the position of victim to that of aggressor.

I – Treatment

CNRVV develops concrete interventions in a trans-disciplinary/inter-institutional perspective, integrated with the judiciary, social, educational and health systems.

Case flow: direct line, screening, internal or external psychosocial referrals. 

The treatment prioritizes the family group. When this is not possible users are referred to specific groups: children, youngsters, parents/guardians, couples and aggressors, using as tools psycho-dramatic, psychoanalytical and/or systemic techniques.

CNRVV is linked to SMADS – Secretaria Municipal de Assistência e Desenvolvimento Social (Secretary of Welfare and Social Development of the City of São Paulo) – to carry out the Programa Sentinela (Sentinel Program) in the northern and western areas of the city of São Paulo.

The objective of Programa Sentinela is to treat sexually abused or exploited children and youngsters through a set of combined actions.  It strives to create possibilities for sexually abused children and youngsters, and their families, to reclaim their rights, finding access to the services of social assistance, health, education, justice and security, sports, leisure and culture.

II – Prevention

• In the field of prevention CNRVV maintains “Prophylaxis Poles” in social-educational services (such as nurseries or others) of the city of São Paulo – two per region – aiming for the prevention of domestic violence, training of multipliers and development of citizenship.
• CNRVV expands the number of Prevention Poles: the coverage and social repercussion in the institutions and the community helps to avoid the emergence of risk situations and gives better protection for children and youngsters. Thirteen Poles have been implemented; twenty new ones were implemented from 2005/ 2007 in a partnership with WCF Brasil (World Childhood Foundation) and Fundação Abrinq.
  A project in partnership with the Secretaria Municipal de Assistência e Desenvolvimento Social – SMADS for the training and implementation of new prevention poles in the Social-Educational Nuclei of different regions of São Paulo is currently underway.

• There are plans for expansion in public and/or private schools, as well as other social services, depending on new state or private funding.

III – Training

• CNRVV offers the two year long (second year optional) course “Professional Improvement Course in Domestic Violence” in a trans-disciplinary perspective, for professionals who work or have the intention of working in this field. The lecturers are CNRVV’s professionals and/or visiting professors.
• Professional Training: professional training programs are carried out in institutions that involve social workers, educators, psychologists and/or counsellors in the city of São Paulo and others throughout the country.
• Lectures, workshops, conferences and day-seminars thoroughly elaborate on the importance of the unavoidable involvement and commitment of the professionals with the cause of Domestic Violence, as well as the understanding of the phenomenon and the subsequent organization to deal with it, based on CNRVV´s acquired experience.

IV – Research:

CNRVV develops research on different fields of work in order to improve its intervention methodology.  It aims at the production of knowledge in order to surpass the common sense and the moralizing and normative approach of the phenomenon, producing specific methodologies for its praxis.

• Regarding the treatment, it strives to establish a profile of all those involved in the drama of domestic violence as well as the different forms of interventions to be used.
• In prevention, it establishes a profile of the assisted population – parents, children/youngsters, educational agents – focusing on domestic violence and the efficiency of the interventions.
• A research is now in process in partnership with UNICEF: “Systems of notification and detection of violence in public schools / Proposals for integration of political and pedagogical projects and the system of protection of human rights”.

V – Partnerships and Dissemination

• CNRVV intends to broaden and strengthen partnerships in order to create a network of services prepared to meet the diverse and complex needs of the treatment or referrals of the “victimized” children/youngsters, their families and the aggressor.
• It pursues faster and stricter procedures in order to protect the child and youngster, requiring greater proximity with the network of services; it therefore belongs to the Rede de Apoio de Pólos Nacionais Lacri, – Pole 3, of the southeast region (Support Network of the National Poles – Lacri). As P3, it is engaged in the ABOLITION OF PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT OF CHILDREN AND YOUNGSTERS IN BRAZIL campaign.
• It is part of the State Commission of Confrontation of Violence and Sexual Exploitation of Children and Youngsters.
• It participates in the Study Group on Violence of the Brazilian Society of Paediatrics.
• It is part of the Parliamentary Front of Confrontation of Violence and Sexual Exploitation of Children and Youngsters of the State of São Paulo.
• CNRVV demands social and educational services from the public and private sectors for the referral of acute cases
• It practices integrated actions within the community, such as the creation pilot-projects to help generate new public policies.
• It carries out monthly “Debate Forums” dealing with strategic topics in order to keep the network of partners constantly mobilized.
• It participates in Forums, regional debates and social movements for the defence of children and youngsters.
• It creates and develops communication tools to help disseminate and debate ideas amongst partners: folders and documentation offered to the official or communal radio stations.
• CNRVV disseminates its own publications, such as:
  •  “O Fim do Silêncio na Violência Familiar – Teoria e Prática”, (Breaking the Silence in Domestic Violence) (orgs) by Dalka Ferrari and Tereza Vecina, Editora Ágora, SP, 2002.
  •  “O fim da Omissão: A implantação de Pólos de Prevenção”, (The End of Omission: Implementation of Prevention Poles) The CNRVV team, 2002, an Abrinq publication.
• It searches for constant funding to sustain its financial autonomy – fund-raising – to pay for wages and the continuous qualification of CNRVV’s professionals.

VI – Management

This sector is responsible for the administration and management of the financial resources and supplies.

Conclusion

CNRVV carries out its programs taking special care of its own team, strengthening the internal mechanisms of cohesion and solidarity, so that the destructive aspects inherent to the phenomenon it deals with do not take away the vitality required for this line of work.