Beşiktaş Municipality, carefully strives to promote European values and increased awareness of different events since 2016, such as European Local Democracy Week, European Mobility Week, Erasmus Days, Europe Day, and United Nations Day.
In addition, to take advantage of enormous and seminal resources, Beşiktaş Municipality encourages and inspires young people to engage in Erasmus+ projects. Beşiktaş Municipality Project and Fund Management Unit has contacted approximately 1500 young people through more than 20 youth exchange projects and has assured the involvement of almost 150 of them.
Beşiktaş Municipality became an accredited organization of European Voluntary Service now known as European Solidarity Corps in 2016 and then on continues without pausing to prepare and implement project within the scope of European Union grants. These projects help young people to develop active citizenship and mutual understanding and teach them how to be a European citizen.
Beşiktaş Municipality Directorate of Women & Family Services established in 2019 in order to develop social policies in response to the needs of the local population and disseminate the gender mainstreaming in all areas of local services. Directorate of Women & Family Services has three units;
Women’s Solidarity and Life Center
Beşiktaş Municipality opened a new Solidarity & Life Center for women, as part of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, November 25. The Women’s Solidarity & Life Center started its activities as a living space that women can live, produce, and improve themselves.
Women and their children exposed to violence will be able to receive support in our center on issues such as psychological support, legal consultancy, employment, and social rights. The Women’s Solidarity and Life Center, which will serve our citizens with a psychologist, a lawyer, and an employment officer, serves not only as a shelter but also as a living space that supports women and their children in psychosocial terms.
Equality Unit
Beşiktaş Municipality, which adopts equality as a principle and embraces differences, aims for all disadvantaged groups to benefit from municipal services equally, on the basis of rights and participate in social life, fights accordingly all kinds of discrimination and othering, collects data & generates services, and cooperates with national-international networks in implementation of municipal policies.
Child and Youth Studies Unit
Beşiktaş Municipality gives children the opportunity to cherish their childhood, ensures that young people exist as free and active beings in pursue of their own life adventures, and includes children and young people in urban decisions with the children’s and youth council, and advisory boards.
In order to enhance children and young people’s contribution, Child and Youth Studies Unit organizes research and workshops on the problems faced by young people and children. Unit also organizes protective and awareness-raising trainings and activities on issues such as neglect, abuse, substance use and suicidal behaviour, and develops projects with universities, NGO’s, and institutions to solve the problems of young people and children.
Protect is a project that explicitly addresses the areas in which Beşiktaş Municipality seeks to contribute, with its subject, field of study, and target audience. The lack of quality material and the insufficiency of training in the field make this project more valuable and necessary for Beşiktaş Municipality.
The Project and Fund Management Unit is unquestionably inspired to execute the project because of its outcomes, the Toolkit, and the diversity of the Partners. Beşiktaş Municipality strongly believes that project Protect will help to contribute to the field of study, enrich researches, widen the horizons of young women, and therefore children and young adults, and in the long run support society.
