In November and December of this year, 5 two-day workshops were held for 70 representatives of the Beryslav, Kakhovka, Henichesk, Skadovsk and Kherson districts, who are members of local coordination and advisory bodies of the districts and local communities and are responsible for combating violence.

All seminars discussed key topics in this area, including the concept of domestic violence, the rights of victims and the service system, coordination and roles of actors, redirection and mapping of services at the community level, and the responsibility of actors at different levels for non-compliance or negligent performance of official duties in response to cases of domestic violence.

Almost all participants noted that such workshops were of vital importance, as most of them had only recently been appointed to their posts and clearly needed additional knowledge to build a system to combat domestic and gender-based violence in their communities.

We are most grateful for the support of our excellent coaches, Kherson Regional State Administration and, in particular, the Department of Social Development of Kherson Regional State Administration, the Regional Shelter for Victims of Violence for participating in the workshops, and, of course, we are grateful to the UN in Ukraine and UN Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme (UN RPP).