ESF+ Project ‘Support Instruments to Reduce Domestic Violence’

ESF+ Project ‘Support Instruments to Reduce Domestic Violence’ 

Ministry of Welfare in European Union's Cohesion Policy Programme 2021-2027, Specific Support Objective 4.3.6 ‘Promote social inclusion of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, including the most deprived and children’ 4.3.6.4. measure ‘Development and implementation of support instruments to strengthen family functionality’ implements a project to prevent and reduce violence against children and domestic violence – both incidents of violence against children in the family and in out-of-family care, and incidents of domestic violence against adults, including partner violence and violence against seniors. 

The aim of the project is to develop and implement support instruments to strengthen family functionality in order to prevent and reduce violence against children and domestic violence, covering both cases of violence against children in the family and out-of-family care and cases of domestic violence against adults, including violence against partner and violence against seniors, as well as to implement educational and informational activities for professionals and the general public.  

Activity number: 4.3.6.4.

Project number: 4.3.6.4/1/24/I/001 

Project funding: €5 453 364 (including ESF+ funding €4 635 359 and state budget co-financing €818 005) 

Project implementation period: 3 April 2024 - 31 December 2029 

Project impact or specific goals:  

• To introduce evidence-based early intervention instruments for violence prevention; 

• To assess the violence prevention and reduction ecosystem, its weaknesses and strengths, and define areas where interventions are needed;  

• To develop a comprehensive system to protect and assist victims of domestic violence;   

• Increase the administrative and human resource capacity of institutions that are implementing or are involved in the implementation of measures of prevention and reduction of domestic violence, so they can cooperate effectively in unified approach in combating domestic violence. 

 Target group:   

• General public (primary prevention measures);  

• Parents of pre-school or school-age children (primary prevention measures); 

• Professionals who work with or may encounter with victims of violence or perpetrators (police officers, social workers, psychologists, medical practitioners, judges and assistant judges, prosecutors, probation officers) (primary, secondary and tertiary prevention measures);  

• Persons providing out-of-family care services in a family environment (persons granted the status of foster family, guardians, host families, adoptive parents) (secondary prevention measures);  

• Adult and minor victims of violence (tertiary prevention measures);  

• Adults and minors who have committed violence (tertiary prevention measures). 

Following activities are planned in the project: 

1. Evaluation of the violence prevention system and improvement of the monitoring of the situation: 
   • Ex-ante evaluation of the protection and support system, as well as support instruments for victims of domestic violence – qualitative and quantitative information on the current situation, cooperation of institutions, including NGOs, in work with victims of violence and perpetrators, available support instruments, competence of specialists and professional development needs, etc. An impact assessment of violence reduction measures will also be carried out, identifying the main issues of concern and setting concrete objectives and proposals for policy development in the coming years. 
   • Two public opinion polls: 
     • on non-violent child-raising practices in families and 
     • on tolerance of domestic violence; 
   • Improvement of the monitoring of data on violence against children and domestic violence – evaluation of the availability of statistical data on the prevalence of violence against children and domestic violence, identifying missing or incomplete administrative data, necessary improvements in data exchange, and proposing appropriate comparable indicators of the prevalence and dynamics of violence. This will allow the identification of available sources of comparable data and the identification of administrative data to be collected, which will contribute to the production of qualitative information on the prevalence and dynamics of domestic violence in the future. 
2. Support measures to reduce the risk of violence against children: 
   • Development and implementation of educational programmes for legal representatives of children and foster families and professionals – evaluation of the educational programmes available to the target group for increasing family competences, as well as development of universal criteria for the content of such educational programmes. In cooperation with sectoral experts, such as associations of psychologists, the development or adoption (purchase, including adaptation if necessary) of an educational programme (with priority given to evidence-based educational programmes) will be selected with visits abroad organized if necessary; 
   • Development of a methodology for professionals working with child victims and abusive children – guidelines for social workers (which can also be used by other professionals), which will also include the evaluation of family functionality, i.e. the development of family functionality assessment methods that help to understand how the family functions and thus allow to assess whether or not the child is safe (in cases of the risk of violence). 
3. Introducing new methods for working with children and adults who are victims of violence and perpetrators: 
   • Evaluation of the quality of social rehabilitation services and development of criteria for a) crisis centre services for victims of violence; b) social services for children-victims of unlawful acts; c) social rehabilitation programmes for perpetrators; 
   • Implementation of therapeutic approaches for survivors of violence and perpetrators – adaptation and implementation of evidence-based therapeutic approaches for strengthening family functionality, including therapeutic approaches for survivors of violence (e.g. trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (TF-CBT)) and therapeutic approaches for minors who have committed violence (e.g. multidimensional family therapy (MDFT)); 
   • Improvement of the social rehabilitation programme and provision of support to perpetrators – an evaluation will be carried out, as a result of which the programme will be supplemented with methods for providing individual counselling to adult perpetrators and proposals for introducing other forms of support for this target group will be developed; 
   • Establishment of an interdisciplinary team for support service in complex cases of violence – a team of four to five specialists from different disciplines whose primary task will be to provide support and professional assistance to professionals who work with perpetrators and victims of violence on a daily basis. The team will be involved in a crisis or in a situation where issues related to violence cannot be resolved for a long period of time; 
   • Crisis helpline for preventing potential cases of violence – an anonymous helpline that will run for two years to provide confidential support to people who feel they may be sexually, physically or emotionally abusive. 
4. Educational and informational activities for professionals and the general public: 
   • Competence development activities for professionals: 
     • Organization of interdisciplinary educational and good practice dissemination events (annual conference, methodological seminars, as well as other trainings for professionals on topical issues to reduce domestic violence) and the provision of educational information, including interactive (podcasts, videos, etc.). 
     • Developing or adapting a training programme on domestic violence for professionals of different fields (e.g. educators, medical personnel, judicial and other professionals) and providing training for professionals. 
     • Promoting inter-institutional cooperation, including by developing guidelines for municipalities on inter-institutional cooperation in cases of violence, providing experience exchange events and methodological support services, as well as developing algorithms for recognizing and acting in cases of violence for professionals who may encounter with victims of violence or perpetrators. 
   • Development of informative materials: 
     • on inter-institutional cooperation in dealing with minors who have committed violence; 
     • on the principles of psychological support for victims of violence, etc. 
   • Evaluation of the use of mediation and conciliation in cases of domestic violence: 
     • Identification of practices and limitations of mediation and conciliation in cases of domestic violence and their effectiveness; 
     • Preparation of guidelines for the use of mediation and conciliation in cases of domestic violence; 
     • Training of professionals on the nature and purpose of mediation, the application of mediation and conciliation in cases of domestic violence and the actions when dealing with violence (training with tailored content for professionals of specific fields such as mediators, police officers, judges and assistant judges, social workers and orphans' court staff and other professionals). 
   • Informational and educational events for the public: 
     • Development of a public information communication strategy to reduce tolerance of violence, defining target groups and appropriate channels and ways of information dissemination; 
     • Implementation of an integrated media campaign – for the general public, children and youth, victims of violence and persons at risk of violence from vulnerable groups (seniors, people with mental disabilities, people with functional disabilities) on reducing violence and societal tolerance of violence, empowering people to seek protection from violence and to get help in cases of violence; 
     • Educational activities for the target groups and the development of digital solutions for reporting violence cases (anonymous). 

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