SHINE WOMEN EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMME

1. “Before the SHINE programme I never felt the light, I was wrapped up in my darkness! But today I want to SHINE, today SHINING is my life and I want other women to SHINE like me!” - Programmefacilitator 1. Programme Description The SHINE Women Empowerment group therapy programme is focused on post trauma intervention and is developed around the model of Posttraumatic Growth (PTG). 3 Kinds of posttraumatic growth processes forms part of the programme and includes the following: 1. Strength through suffering Produces confidence in facing further difficulties 2. Existential re-evaluation Produces a sense of wisdom, life satisfaction and purpose in life 3. Psychological preparedness Involves creating a rebuilt assumptive world to withstand future shocks to the system A very important part of the SHINE programme is fashioning a narrative together with the trauma survivor (through storytelling) that respects the horror of trauma while at the same time opening areas of change and development, and encouraging an appreciation for the paradoxical in the trauma experience, so that vulnerability can be strength, and loss is a change that can also be positive. Our stories contain the answers to each other’s questions. What I cannot find in searching through the riches and rubble of my own life may become apparent to me in the witnessing of yours. “In the passing on of our stories, we gift each other with the power of possibility. When I watch you claim your life and go after your dream, I begin to believe I can do it, too. When I see what you risk to achieve what you want, I think that I, too, could take that chance. When I hear what you have suffered while I see you trudging forward, I believe I can make it to the other side of my own darkness. What can save us if it is not our stories, not the careful sharing of who we are and what we dream for a world whose future rests in our hands?” -- Jan, from ‘A Waist is a Terrible Thing to Mind’ SHINE WOMEN EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMME

2. 2. Course Content • ProgrammeIntroduction • Self-Enhancement • Domestic Violence and other forms of women abuse • Value Clarification • Building relationships • Stress management • Managing negative emotions • Paper dolls (Teen session) • Women’s health (Includes cancer, healthy living and fetal alcohol syndrome) • Sex and Sexuality (Teen session – includes STDs, birth control/contraception and teenage pregnancy) • Grief and Grieving • Sharing your LIGHT with the world (Summary and closure) • 3. Learning Outcomes • Develop strength through suffering and hence develop confidence in facing further difficulties • Develop a sense of self-love, self-acceptance, life satisfaction and purpose in life • Creating a rebuilt assumptive world to withstand future abuse or shocks to the system • 4. Target Audience • Any adult women but especially women in abusive relationships • Any teen women but especially teens in abusive relationships • 5. ProgrammeDelivery • The programme is delivered in 12 sessions over a number of weeks to give • participants time to complete their assignments (portfolio of evidence). • Sessions can also be used in the form of a once of workshop without the portfolio • of evidence activities to create awareness around women abuse. • 6. Monitoring and Evaluation • Pre and Post Assessment to determine behaviour change as a result of the programme • Sharing of SHINE stories • “Let your light SHINE” women empowerment projects SHINE WOMEN EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMME