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Das Ausmaß an Gewalt im sozialen Nahraum bzw. in intimen Beziehungen ist nach wie vor groß, wobei insbesondere Frauen von schwerer und wiederkehrender Gewalt im häuslichen Bereich betroffen sind. Im Rahmen dieser Bachelorarbeit wird dieses soziale Problem behandelt und im Speziellen auf Interventionsmöglichkeiten gegen Intimate Partner Violence eingegangen. Konkret wird nach innovativen und alternativen Wegen im Gewaltschutz gefragt und Potentiale und Gefahren von alternativen Interventionen aus dem Bereich von Restorative Justice und Transformative Justice werden beleuchtet. Bei Restorative und Transformative Justice handelt es sich um alternative Konzepte für den gesellschaftlichen Umgang mit Schädigung und Gewalt. In beiden Ansätzen wird Gewaltbetroffenen eine zentrale Rolle zugesprochen, gleichzeitig werden auch Familien und Communities in die Prävention und die Bearbeitung konkreter Gewalterfahrungen einbezogen. Im Verlauf dieser Arbeit zeigte sich, dass alternative Verfahren den Möglichkeitsraum für Betroffene von häuslicher Gewalt erweitern und ihnen zusätzliche Handlungsoptionen bieten können. Im besten Fall übernimmt das soziale Umfeld für Gewaltbetroffene eine unterstützende und Sicherheiten herstellende Funktion. Gleichzeitig bestehen die Gefahren, dass das Umfeld wenig hilfreich ist, etwa wenn dort gewaltbejahende und patriarchal geprägte Werte vorherrschen, oder dass gewaltausübende Personen ein vorhandenes Machtgefälle ausnützen und Druck auf Betroffene ausüben. Eine fachkundige Konzeption und machtsensible Begleitung von Restorative und Transformative Justice-Verfahren scheinen daher äußerst wichtig. Hierbei können die Soziale Arbeit und ihre Vertreter*innen einen maßgeblichen Beitrag leisten. Intimate partner violence remains widespread, with women in particular being affected by severe and recurring domestic violence. This thesis deals with intimate partner violence as a social problem, exploring innovative and alternative ways to address intimate partner violence. Drawing on the concepts of restorative justice and transformative justice the potentials and risks of alternative interventions are examined. Restorative and transformative justice are alternative concepts for dealing with (interpersonal) violence and harm in society. In both approaches, people affected by violence are given a central role, while families and communities are also involved in the prevention and handling of violence. This thesis shows that alternative procedures can expand the scope for victims of domestic violence providing them with additional ways of dealing with the situation. In the best case, the community assumes a supportive role enhancing the safety of those affected by violence. At the same time, there is a danger that the community is not very helpful, for example if violent and patriarchal values are predominant within the community, or that perpetrators of violence exploit an existing power gap and put pressure on those affected. Concepts developed by experts and a power-sensitive coordination of restorative and transformative justice practices therefore seem extremely important. In this respect, social work professionals can make a significant contribution.

Some research acknowledges engagement in creative and literary activities as constructively impacting rehabilitation and recovery. Nevertheless, there is a deficit of literature describing experiences of participation in literary activities. This study examined how members of a non-profit association for mental health, with experiences of mental problems or illnesses, experienced group-based literary activities facilitated of a bi-disciplinary research team during one semester. This study held a constructive/naturalistic design and used a qualitative methodology with a latent analysis to describe how participants experienced literary activities (creative writing, reading and conversations about published and own written poetry and prose texts). Both individual and focus-group interviews were performed early 2014. Despite previous negative experiences, the findings showed that the participants perceived the literary activities empowering. Four categories were created: Presumptions of personal literacy, leadership role, participants’ role, and literacy development. These were abstracted and interpreted into three themes: Identifying a reading and writing self-image, challenging and redefining one’s reading and writing identity, and strengthening one’s intellectual and humanistic capacity. Literary activities seemed to positively change the participants’ attitudes towards writing and reading, and also enhanced their literacy skills. We argue that literacy skills are interconnected with health literacy. Involvement of literary activities into rehabilitation in mental health practice may be beneficial for some groups, and merits further studies.

This paper presents a World Bank led and Russia trust fund financed work program to measure financial capability and the effectiveness of financial education in low and middle income countries. The two activities and their staging have been motivated by the lessons of high income countries with financial literacy programs and the deviating characteristics of low and middle income countries. While progress has been made in high-income countries to measure financial capability, there is little robust empirical evidence that financial education can improve it. While applying the financial capability concept in low and middle-income countries looks promising it will need to be adjusted to their characteristic and supported by innovative interventions and rigorous impact evaluation to improve it.

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of development activities provides government officials, development managers, and civil society with better means for learning from past experience, improving service delivery, planning and allocating resources, and demonstrating results as part of accountability to key stakeholders. Within the development community there is a strong focus on results, this helps explain the growing interest in M&E. Yet there is often confusion about what M&E entails. The purpose of this M&E overview is to strengthen awareness and interest in M&E, and to clarify what it entails. The M&E overview discusses: performance indicators, the logical framework approach, theory-based evaluation, formal surveys, rapid appraisal methods, participatory methods, public expenditure tracking surveys, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis, and impact evaluation.