"Vi ska lyssna, vi ska stödja och vi ska ge hopp" : En studie om volontärers arbete med kvinnor som blivit utsatta för incest

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study has been to investigate how two female volunteers from two different NGOs help and support vulnerable women, who have been exposed to incest. This includes how these abused women and the picture of perpetrators are perceived and described by the volunteers. The study has also examined the collaboration with social services. The study results show that the volunteers within the two NGOs lack cooperation with social services, and that the work with support-seeking women can be perceived as both positive and negative. Positive experience is described by being a volunteer as part of an important change. Negative experience describes the volunteer as painful as it involves listening to, and taking part of these women's self-experienced stories, about their own experiences of incest. The work as a volunteer with support-seeking women, has been shown to offer support in various forms of support groups. The volunteer's task is to listen in these support groups and to confirm what the women seeking assistance are saying. The result has also shown that the women seeking support, are perceived as very afraid and degraded at the beginning of the meeting with the volunteers, but that they at the same time bear strength within themselves. The result also shows a lack of cooperation between the NGOs and social services. This is even though both activities work for the same clientele, which is the women seeking support.