Domestic violence and violence in close relationships still persist as serious forms of violence and crime in Europe. In the field of prevention and fight against DV and GBV, the EU regards the Istanbul Convention as the benchmark for international standards. Victims of DV should have an easy and secure access to justice and necessary services, assistance and support.
IMPROVE aimed to increase DV reporting and improve access to DV services for under-served, marginalised victims, by providing a novel entry point to existing frontline responder (FLR) networks by means of an effective conversational AI Chatbot which has been piloted and validated in RP2 (WP2).
To complement the service provision for under-served, marginalised victims, IMPROVE has also aimed at improving the work performed by the practitioners alike. To improve multi-agency DV responses for underserved populations by fostering capacity building of FLRs through scalable, low-threshold, targeted training, raising mutual understanding and bridging sectoral divides (WP3), IMPROVE developed training modules with respect to professions addressed, languages available, and content included. IMPROVE’s multi-agency approach encompasses key sectors crucial for effective DV management. These efforts are published in the European Training Platform on Domestic Violence.
Furthermore, IMPROVE aimed to accelerate DV policy implementation using a validated common approach for FLR organisations and policy makers to reinforce and exploit existing solutions and enablers, while removing barriers to change and overcoming organisational inertia. IMPROVE has planned to achieve this objective, through problem analysis and solution development: The specific work steps comprised of empirical qualitative research identifying existing challenges as well as positive change factors within DV public policy and FLP organisations and the development of organisational decision support tools spanning across two Work Packages (WP1, WP4) and summarising all research efforts in the handbook “Building better responses to domestic violence”.
Complementing all efforts and goals of IMPROVE, it is the overarching and integrating objective to raise awareness among, and empower, underserved European populations to access existing DV services, while increasing FLR organisations’ and policy makers’ knowledge and awareness of underserved populations’ needs. Accordingly, WP5 draws from the research findings, as well as the development of technical and organisational solutions as well as capacity building materials to inform its strategy and messaging. In that, its achievement is linked to the progress of the work done in all WPs.
