Introduction

This call for proposals for action grants is based on the 2015 annual work programmes of the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (REC). It aims to co-fund national or transnational projects that encourage multi-agency and multi-disciplinary cooperation to respond to violence against women and/or children, and on tackling underreporting. The aim of the call is to contribute to supporting and protecting women and children victims of violence by encouraging multi-agency and multi-disciplinary cooperation, and to bring about more frequent reporting of such violence.

Priority

The priorities of this call for proposals cover two strands: - to encourage victims and witnesses to report violence against women and/or children to the relevant authorities and institutions, thus ensuring their access to the support they are entitled to receive, taking account of and signposting existing mechanisms such as child and women's helplines, women's refuges, interagency and multidisciplinary children's houses, etc.; and/or - to develop and implement multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary cooperation (at national, regional or local level) that enables relevant professionals to effectively collaborate to prevent and respond to violence against women and/or children.

Projects under this call may take a comprehensive approach to all forms of violence against women and/or children or may focus on particular forms of violence against women and/or children, such as female genital mutilation or forced marriages. Applicants are encouraged to embed a "behavioural" approach in their project, as a solution to the issues at stake often requires behavioural change. Behavioural sciences seek to understand how people make decisions in practice; how their behaviour is influenced by the context in which their decisions are made and how they are likely to respond to certain options.

Eligible activities

This call will fund the following activities:

- awareness-raising activities targeted at women and/or children who are victims or potential victims of violence, and/or at bystanders or witnesses, to encourage the reporting of violence. Awareness-raising activities targeted towards specific groups of women, children, bystanders and/or witnesses are particularly welcome.

- the exchange of best practices and development, testing and implementation of methods and practical tools (including protocols and guidelines) to enable the cooperation and coordination of professionals from different sectors (medical doctors, nurses and other health professionals, psychologists, lawyers, community workers, residential care givers, police, the judiciary, child helplines/violence against women helplines, victim support organisations, social workers, teachers at all levels of the education system etc.) who come into contact with women and/or children at risk of and/or victims of violence. This could, for example, include training these professionals to better identify victims, through routine check-ups or procedures or routinely posing questions on experiences of violence and adverse childhood experiences, and developing efficient referral mechanisms and pathways.

Eligible applicants

Applicants and partners must be legally constituted non-profit public or private organisations, or international organisations.

Partnership criteria

Projects can be either national or transnational and should be elaborated in close partnership with and/or be led by key players, such as police, health services, the judiciary, victim support organisations, helplines, social workers etc. The projects must involve at least two organisations. One public authority (ministries, regional authorities, public social services for example) per participating country must either be involved in the project (as applicant or partner) or express in writing its support for the application, in order to ensure that the results of the projects are integrated into national, regional and/or local governmental efforts.

Project duration

The duration of a project cannot exceed 30 months.

Funding

The grant cannot be lower than 75.000 Euro and cannot cover more than 80% of overall eligible project costs.

More information at http://ec.europa.eu/justice/grants1/calls/2015_action_grants/just_2015_rdap_ag_en.htm

In case of interest, please contact the Research Support Office (Leonor Norton, lnorton@fsjd.org; recerca@fsjd.org)