Certification and Qualification: Coordinators for Domestic Violence Strategic Intervention Erasmus Project

Project Title

Certification and Qualification: Coordinators for Domestic Violence Strategic Intervention

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Home and justice affairs (human rights & rule of law); Recognition, transparency, certification; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

Domestic violence (DV) and violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a global pandemic which affects not only its victims but also the development of entire societies and countries. Despite some progress in Northern Europe, levels of DV and VAWG remain high throughout the European region. In most EU Member States, until relatively recently, DV and VAWG were considered a private matter in which the state played only a limited role. According to Council of Europe, 15% of women in Europe are victims of this serious form of gender-based violation of human rights. Over the last decade, the majority of EU Member states implement interventions to face and prevent violence cases. The success of interventions depends on whether the processes that are institutionalized centralize victim safety, improve offender accountability, and work to change the climate in the community from tolerance to intolerance of DV. Many different professionals are engaged in implementation of interventions, which include, early detection, follow-up investigations on active cases, conducting interviews, obtaining warrants, making arrests, providing shelter, set up preventing measures and cooperating with many authorities or organisations.

Need:
This complex and accelerating situation is radically impacting upon the role of professionals working on DV and VAWG interventions, giving rise to an emerging occupational role of the ‘Domestic Violence Coordinator (DVC)’ – a professional who works in DV and VAWG issues. This occupational role extends beyond, for instance, social workers, psychologists, lawyers, health care professionals etc. Furthermore, there is a common need to many EU member states to develop a certification scheme for the role of DVC.

Project aims and objectives:
Currently, job descriptions and levels of skills and influence differ vastly across European countries, and there is no standard Qualification Profile nor a Certification Scheme that focuses on certifying common competencies and skills to support the role of DV Strategic Coordination. The DV field in Greece and partner countries, Romania, Latvia and the UK is focused on supporting a range of front line roles. The CQ4DVCI project addresses this gap. Our objectives are to:
1. Develop a detailed Qualification Profile
2. Develop European Core Curriculum according to Qualification Profile. The requirements of the KSCs in the Learning Outcomes will be addressed by a specifically designed Curriculum, which will be based on the EU Core Curriculum.
3. Implement and pilot a blended learning course for DVC leading to certification.
4. The European Professional Certificate for DVC will be developed at EQF Level 5 according to the certification standard requirements for personnel certification programmes (specifically ISO/IEC 17024:2012 Conformity assessment – General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons).
5. Design and run an e-platform with learning resources and virtual network that will accomodate the Blended Learning and the Certification process

Partnership:
The project brings together 7 partners from 4 European countries, forming a transnational cooperation partnership with a balanced regional geographical representation of the Erasmus+ Area and with qualitative representation of countries that depend heavily on the DV and VAWG. Training, occupational standards and profile, according also to EQF, should be developed with the input of various EU countries in order to achieve alignment.

Impact and long term benefits:
– Promotion of European Cooperation among various countries
– Creation of new employment paths for professionals in DV and VAWG
– Provide complementary and sustainable development options for professionals
– Boost the performance of professionals and services
– Offer new approaches to identified issues and needs
– Developed training tools and materials that will be open for the public to use
– New certification scheme to remain after the end of the project

Project Website

https://cq4dvci.projectlibrary.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 229389 Eur

Project Coordinator

APOSTOLI & Country: EL

Project Partners

• Asociatia pentru Dezvoltarea Serviciilor Sociale si Educationale CATHARSIS
• ARISTOTELEIES KATARTISEIS AKSIOLOGISEIS PISTOPOIHSEIS ANONIMI ETAIRIA
• Standing Together Against Domestic Violence
• DIMITRA EDUCATION & CONSULTING SA
• Nodibinajums Latvijas evangeliski luteriskas Baznicas Diakonijas centrs
• ROYAL BOROUGH OF KENSINGTON AND CHELSEA