Empowerment
Empowerment is a central element of the human-rights approach to social and economic change. One common aspect of the various definitions of empowerment is that it increases people’s and communities’ capacities to exert influence over their own lives. It is defined as a social process because power, or the lack of it, is ‘relational’ i.e. it only exists within a social set of relationships and, therefore, involves various actors.
One psychological aspect relevant to empowerment of trafficked persons is the lack of confidence in their capacity to exert influence over their lives or to end the abusive relationships they find themselves in.
In La Strada’s practice, empowerment means:
- Participation of trafficking survivors in taking decisions that concern them them, including programs and services which they will benefit from;
- Elaborating programs which are oriented to: awareness raising of survivors’ own human rights and encouragement of their skills; raising their self-esteem; developing skills for exerting influence over their own lives; developing skills for communicating without violence and abuse; increasing survivors’ trust in institutions; stimulating activeness, assertiveness and initiative.