ABSTRACT
The new anti-violence centres found their expression in this new context. The first anti-violence centres and women's shelters in Italy were founded in the late 1980s, in Bologna, Milan and Rome, and represent an important change within the feminist movement. From discussion groups women started taking action and putting their experience and knowledge into practice. Almost every Italian battered woman's shelter consists of two separate places: a public one, accessible to everybody, which receives calls for help and provides counselling of various kinds: legal, psychological and self-help groups. The experience of many years tells us that helping the battered woman recover some of her own skills and potential as a mother not only is important but a further means of empowerment in her healing process. The priority of a shelter is to stop violence because only in a safe place can women re-plan their own and their children's lives.
