News

 The Polaris Programme has begun providing expert support to seven partner hromadas in building an effective system to prevent and combat domestic violence. The first step was an online meeting titled “Coordinating Efforts to Address Domestic Violence,” which brought together 17 hromadas representatives.

The event was attended by representatives from the Verkhnodniprovsk hromada (Dnipropetrovsk Oblast), the Kuyalnik hromada (Odesa Oblast), the Chervonenska hromada (Zhytomyr Oblast), the Hoshcha and Berezne hromadas (Rivne Oblast), the Gorokhiv hromada (Volyn Oblast), and the Bobrovytsia hromada (Chernihiv Oblast).

The kick-off meeting provided an opportunity to establish a shared understanding of the goals and objectives of the upcoming work, define the roles of the participating parties, expected outcomes, and formats for collaboration.

“The kick-off meeting allowed us to establish a shared understanding of the goals, objectives, roles, expected outcomes, and methods of collaboration among all stakeholders. This lays the foundation for effective work and partnership between Polaris and the hromadas,” noted Yulia Savelyeva, a Gender Expert.

The support involves hands-on work directly in hromadas and assistance in establishing an effective coordination mechanism.

Visits to hromadas are scheduled for October–November. As part of the “Residences of Ideas” initiative, interactive meetings will be held during which representatives of local government and the public will be able to jointly analyze the current state of affairs, identify key problems, and develop concrete solutions.

This will be followed by consultations for each hromada, an exchange of experiences, the study of best practices, and the development of effective mechanisms for interagency cooperation to prevent and combat domestic violence.