CITIES AND COMMUNITIES FREE FROM DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

The project “Cities and Communities Free from Domestic Violence” is the UNFPA project aimed at developing municipal systems for preventing and combating domestic and gender-based violence.

The purpose of the project is to improve the capacity and role of the municipalities in the development of the sustainable mechanisms for protecting and assisting those affected by domestic violence. 

The project helps establish a network of high-quality specialised services and enhances coordination and intersectoral interaction of the authorities and services at the municipal level, as well as fosters more active engagement of residents of the communities into prevention and early detection of domestic violence.

Establishment of the municipal systems for preventing and combating domestic violence is based on 4P principles and includes:

• prevention — development of zero tolerance to violence in the community and enhancement of readiness of the community members to combat violence;
• protection and services — improved access of survivors of any age and health to high-quality survivor-oriented integrated services and provision of such services;
• prosecution of perpetrators — adequate consideration of domestic violence and prosecution of perpetrators in accordance with the law, and change of the model of his/her conduct;
• policies — establishment of the coordinated intersectoral response to violence, which guarantees efficient and timely assistance in each case.

The UNFPA selects the communities for partnership at the annual competition. The partnership is established for three years in the respective memorandum and provides for the UNFPA’s comprehensive support to community authorities in developing a robust system for preventing and combating domestic violence.

In 2020, the competition was announced among the cities with a population of over 50,000 people from 12 regions of Ukraine (Vinnytsia, Dnipro, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Luhansk, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kherson).

32 Ukrainian cities filed applications for the project in 2020, and 15 of them were selected to take part in the project for 2020-2023, namely: 

Vinnytsia, Dnipro, Kyiv, Kostiantynivka, Kramatorsk, Kremenchuk, Lviv, Melitopol, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Pokrovsk, Poltava, Sievierodonetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson.

In 2021, the project expanded its assistance to communities in the development of the local systems for preventing and combating domestic violence. The expansion was enabled by the support of the Governments of the UK and Canada. 

In April, another competition was held for communities from all the regions of Ukraine. Out of 117 applications submitted 15 were selected to join the project. Thus, the cities and communities partnering with the project for 2021-2024 are: 

Avanhard, Bila Tserkva, Dobropillia, Zaporizhzhia, Kalush, Kropyvnytskyi, Lubny, Mariupol, Rokytne, Starokostiantyniv, Ternopil, Uzhhorod, Khoroshiv, Khotyn, and Cherkasy.

During the first year of implementation of the project “Cities and Communities Free from Domestic Violence” supported by the Government of the UK in 15 cities (cohort of 2020): 

• more than 60 capacity development activities were held for more than 880 persons responsible for measures to prevent and combat domestic violence; 
• 45 municipal subject matter experts were trained (three for each city);
• 38 local initiatives were supported within the campaign “16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence”, which involved more than 583,000 community residents;
• support was provided to establish and develop 21 specialised services for survivors of domestic violence (shelters, day centres, crisis rooms etc.).

During the first six months of the second year of implementation of the project “Cities and Communities Free from Domestic Violence” supported by the Governments of the UK and Canada in 15 cities partnering with the project for 2020-2023 and 15 cities and communities partnering with the project for 2021-2024: 

• more than 70 capacity development interventions were held for more than 1,000 persons responsible for measures to prevent and combat domestic violence; 
• 45 municipal subject matter experts were additionally trained (three for each city and community that joined in 2021);
• a joint symbolic action was conducted in 30 cities and communities partnering with the project within the campaign “16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence” to create unique manifests against domestic violence. In all the cities, there was a screening of the documentary film “Break the Circle” about domestic violence survivors’ pathway to violence-free life. The film was created by the UNFPA with the support of the UK Government.

In 2022, UNFPA planned to select additional communities that would become participants of the project. But due to the full-scale war, the competition had to be stopped. However, UNFPA continues to build systems at the city and community level and does everything possible to ensure that the topic of gender-based violence is one of the main in Ukrainian society.

From April 2022, UNFPA launched 101 mobile teams of socio-psychological support in 21 regions of Ukraine. 22 mobile teams works in the cities that are partners of a project.

As of December 2022, all mobile teams provided assistance to a total of 16,000 clients. In a third of the cases, specialists worked with domestic violence and/or gender-based violence.

UNFPA continued to support social workers from partner cities who managed to evacuate from territories that temporary not controlled by Ukraine government. We were able to gather several representatives of services from Melitopol and Severodonetsk at the training in Kyiv. In addition, UNFPA helps communities that temporarily under Russian military control to start a new life in the territories controlled by Ukraine. For example, online Day Counselling Centres for residents of Severodonetsk, Kherson, Melitopol and Mariupol have started to work. 

With the support of UNFPA, most of the project participants continue to actively build systems of respond and prevention of gender-based violence. All 30 cities and communities continued to implement the Roadmap and together completed 91 of its steps — that is 1/6 of the total number.

Despite the full-scale war, with the support of UNFPA, in 30 participants of the project "Cities and communities free from violence" was held an event under the slogan "Sensitivity defeats violence". In general, as part of the "16 days of activism against gender-based violence", the event took place in 60 cities of Ukraine and reached one million people.

Mosaics with images of various forms of violence were installed in the communities. The installation was made of magnets, so taking each of them, the negative image disappeared. Instead, the slogan appeared: "Sensitivity defeats violence." In addition to the thematic mosaic, an interactive online game was presented with the results of a public opinion research conducted by the UNFPA from December 2021 to February 2022 in 30 communities that participate the project.

Contact person for cooperation with communities on behalf of the UNFPA — Kostiantyn Boichuk, regional coordinator, coordinator of the project “Cities and communities free of domestic violence” (boichuk@unfpa.org, +38 095 262 74 96).

The project "Cities and communities free from domestic violence" implementing thanks to the support of the governments of the United Kingdom and Canada.