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Justice and Rule of Law

Project Title:

Protasis - Police Training Skills


Project Title: Protasis - Police Training Skills

Countries: Greece, Italy and Portugal

Overall Objectives:

Share best practices and create a victim-friendly, gender and child sensitive environment during victims’ contact with the police, aiming to enhance victim’s rights and facilitate their access to justice, while minimising the risks of secondary victimisation and increasing victims’ satisfaction.

Develop, pilot and implement training material and programmes for police officers, aiming to improve and strengthen their communication skills and knowledge on how to interact with and treat victims with special needs, especially related to gender- and child-specific issues.

Develop an information sharing framework through signposting, strengthening cross-sector and multi-agency cooperation in order to meet victims’ needs more effectively.

 

Activities:

  1. Sharing best practices, material productions and referral pathways’ development. This activity includes: a) a two day work visit in the UK for the identification and exchange of good practices, b) the structuring and production of the training material and program, and c) the development of referral pathways and cataloguing of available services in participating countries.
  2. Capacity building and training delivery to police officers. The program is consisted of 1. Knowledge Oriented Seminars 2. Skills Oriented workshops and 3. Signposting and Referral Pathways Seminar.
  3. Training evaluation and impact assessment. This activity will provide an evaluation of the training program and material, and an impact assessment of the training to the actual working life of the police officers.
  4. Awareness raising and dissemination of the project’s outputs and results, on national as well as European level.

 

Beneficiaries and target groups:

  • Police officers: at least 70 police officers per country will be involved in the training, i.e. a total of 210 police officers from 3 states.
  • An undetermined number of a wide professional, specialized and academic audience that will follow the works of the project through dissemination and awareness raising actions.
  • An undetermined number of victims of crimes, especially women and children, who will benefit from the project as a result of the professionals’ improvement of knowledge and skills.

Expected results:

  • Increase police officers’ awareness regarding the Victims’ Directive and victims’ needs, especially regarding child victims and victims of gender-based violence.
  • Improve and increase police officers’ theoretical and practical knowledge regarding victims’ needs and psychology of victims, and empower their skills to evaluate victims’ needs.
  • Increase cross-sector and multi-agency cooperation through signposting of relevant services.
  • Increase public and professionals’ awareness on victims’ rights and needs and the Victims’ Directive, and on gender and child specific issues.
  • Inform about, promote the use of and make available training materials to a wide police professional audience.
  • Inform all relevant actors about the available training materials.
  • Raise awareness among EU member states and practitioners, regarding the challenges and good practices for an effective and sustainable implementation of the Victims’ Directive and the role of the Police.

 

Funding Agency: DG Justice, European Commission

Leader: EPLO

Partners: IARS International Institute (UK); EuroCrime (Italy); Inter-area Local Police School Foundation (SIPL - Italy); Lisbon Law School; Portuguese Association for Victim Support (APAV); Ministry of Interior of the Hellenic Republic; Ministry of Internal Affairs of Portugal; Police and Crime Commissioner for Hertfordshire (UK)

 Timeframe: 1/12/2016 to 30/11/2018

Project tags: Protasis, Police Training Skills