TRUST, European repository of tools to respond to violence against women

SURT maintains its partnership commitment with the European TRUST project, intended to strengthen the response capacity and resilience of services specialized in gender-based violence in times of crisis. Through the compilation and evaluation of the measures implemented to protect victims of gender-based violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, tools and programs are being designed for this purpose.

Now closing its two years of activity (April 2022-March 2024), the transnational project has presented the creation of a repository that highlights 138 measures adopted by various organizations and public services during the pandemic. An essential initiative of the project, the repository is constituted as a platform where the measures implemented in the European countries part of the TRUST project consortium (Cyprus, Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Portugal, Greece and Catalonia) are collected in detail.

From specific actions to care for victims of gender-based violence to strategies to support professionals, this repository provides a comprehensive view of the actions carried out during the pandemic and serves as a testimony to the previous difficulties and shortcomings that they are going to be addressed in times of crisis.

Accessible on the website of the coordinators of the project – Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies -, this resource allows researchers, professionals and other interested parties to explore and learn from the experiences they have had. Through this initiative, it is not only sought to look at a critical past, but also to generate strategies for the future to be able to face challenges and weaknesses in the social sector at European level.

TRUST (Towards replicable forms of support and tools in crisis situations)

TRUST is a two-year transnational project (April 2022-March 2024) that aims to ensure the capacity and resilience of women’s specialist services (WSS) to more effectively adapt and scale up their services and interventions in response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis and the post-pandemic. Also to develop robust mechanisms to prepare for future emergencies/crises.

The project envisages capacity building and the training of professionals and the design and implementation of protocols, and the development of working methods and tools to support APS and effectively protect women victims of gender-based violence and their children using a victim-centered system and a gender approach.

Project activities include mapping and evaluating measures taken by specialized services for women to protect women victims of intimate partner violence and their children in times of crisis; the development of support tools to improve the sustainability and resilience of the AEA in times of crisis; address service provider staff strain by developing practices and tools that promote staff well-being; and communication and advocacy activities.