Gender resources centers for orientation and professional qualification of socially excluded women in Albania and Montenegro

Gender Resources Centers for Orientation and Professional Qualification of socially excluded women in Albania and Montenegro (GRCOPQ-SEWAM), is a concrete action, which contributes to the women social cohesion in Albania and Montenegro, by using two work methodologies. The first one is based on creating professional training employment of the Albanian and Montenegrin women, in Durres District (Albania) and Ulcinj District (Montenegro). This process will be done by providing professional skills through professional orientation to the project target groups. On the other side the project intends to help these women, increasing their knowledge with regards to their role and status within the society, gender balances, equal opportunities, constitutional rights, reproductive rights, civil, social and other fundamental rights for women in Albania and Montenegro. The project aims to improve women economic situation, as one of the key factors of women empowerment. This will be done by increasing the professional skills of marginalized category of women, in order for them to respond to the market needs of employment, and make the necessary efforts to offer direct opportunity of work to them (employee about 600 women in Albania and about 300 women in Montenegro), decreasing the number of unemployment in Durres and Ulcinj districts. By this, the project intends to reinforce gender situation in this 2 regions, where the actual situation represents ; Albania - unemployment rate ; 13.8% with woman representing more than 30 % of it, and in Montenegro where the female employment rate falls well behind the male employment rate of 48%. A part from the professional training courses, the project will realize strong sessions of consulting for women with social difficulties, delivering information on civil political. The project targets the most marginalized group of women in Durres - Albania and Ulcinji – Montenegro, that comes from different social issues cases such as: ex victims of human trafficking, ex victims of domestic violence, head of family women – with died husband or divorced which needs to maintain their children, unemployed women, women that have never been employed because of their law educational level. This goal will be reached by creating 2 regional centers in Durres and Ulcinj, that, as explained will be not only a place for delivering direct professional skills and work opportunities to the most marginalized group of women in both mentioned above district regions, but will help them in the meantime to be socially included in their societies. The project will start in 2 normal spaces with the perspective of benefiting in the future local government public spaces for low cost rent, in order to continue the work. By the end, the project will create two professional women training centers that will become self sustainable. The sustainability is aimed to be achieved by the continuing support of the municipalities of these two districts. fund raising from the centers itself. On the other side, on the research aspect, the project will work to deliver two final law drafts. The first one: Law to estimate the unemployed women work time at fulfilling the quotidian family exigencies, and the second one: Law for regulating the functioning of social enterprises. Both laws will be done for Albania and Montenegro and the project will lobby to make them been approved by both parliaments : Albanian and Montenegrin. The project will be a combination work of the 4 partners listed here in the following with their acronyms. : Independent Forum for the Albanian Woman. (Albania) - IFAW. Women of Mediterranean, East and South European Network Italy - WMESEN. Municipality of Ulcinj (Montenegro) - MUM, Albanian Gender Institute of Research and Studies (Albania) - AGIRS.