Surt works in a European project to strengthen services for attention to gender-based violence in crisis contexts

Surt participates in the European Trust project, aimed at strengthening the response capacity and resilience of services specialized in gender-based violence in crisis contexts. The starting point is to systematize the learning and challenges that the experience under the pandemic has left.

“It’s about developing mechanisms that allow us to be more prepared than we have been with the arrival of Covid-19 and that in the face of future emergency situations and crises, the services will be stronger”, says Laura Sales, head of research of Surt.

Trust aims to collect and evaluate the measures taken by the services to protect women victims of gender-based violence in partner and their children in times of crisis, as well as improve their capacity based on new tools.

Also, develop practices that provide support for service professionals and create spaces for sharing knowledge and practices between women and children care professionals, especially in times of crisis.

The project will run until March 2024 and nine entities and research centers from Cyprus, Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Portugal, Greece and Catalonia will work there, coordinated by the Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies.

Covid-19 forced to prepare for the long-term consequences of the crisis on women and, as United Nations Women highlighted in 2021, “like any other crisis, it creates challenges while presenting opportunities to innovate and adjust services”, in order to “fit in with the new reality and develop more effective and better quality services”.