Who are we?
The Youth Assistance, Recovery and Shelter Service (SARA Jove) is provided by Barcelona City Council and run by a team of professionals from the fields of social education, psychology, social work, law and job placement, working together to offer comprehensive assistance to young people who are victims of gender violence.
Who do we help?
Young people from Barcelona, aged 12 to 17, who are experiencing or have experienced any gender-violence situation, such as:
- Where someone that you are in a serious or casual relationship with wants to control you all the time, so that you behave the way they tell you.
- Where you are attacked for behaving differently (how you dress, speak or think) from the way girls or boys are supposedly meant to behave.
- Where someone forces you to have sexual relations against your will.
- Where you are attacked or rejected for identifying as an LGBTI person.
- Where an episode of gender violence is occurring at home (insults, control or physical attacks) between your parents or siblings.
- Where people, known or unknown to you, put you through any kind of gender-violence situation.
How can we help you?
If you or anyone close to you experiences a gender-violence situation, you can turn to SARA Jove. We are here to give you information and advice on the possible causes and consequences of gender violence. We can also help you to tackle it, as well as giving you support, alternatives and, if necessary, protection.
What are the signs of gender violence?
Here are some examples of gender violence, to help you decide whether you are experiencing it.
- Where your partner cannot stand your friends and prefers that you always spend your time together alone.
- Where it is your partner and not you who always decides what to do, at what time and where.
- Where they control the way you dress, do your make-up, speak or behave.
- Where they monitor your profiles on social networks and your mobile, to find out who you're speaking to.
- Where they can't stand not knowing what you're doing or where you are at any given time.
- Where they tell you they have to repeat things to you because you find it hard to understand them.
- Where they tell you they would be “capable of anything” if you were to end the relationship.
- Where they become very nervous when you contradict them and sometimes “get heated”, lose control and tell you they feel like hitting you.
- Where they laugh at you and humiliate you in public.
- Where you receive insults, threats or attacks for behaving differently from how some people think a man or woman ought to behave.
- Where they have been making fun of you ever since you came out of the closet.
- Where they constantly criticise your opinions or way of thinking or being.