Director of Child and Youth Protection Center of Zagreb, prof. dr. sc. Gordana Buljan Flander, was invited to present the work of the Center and to give a presentation „Addressing children’s needs and establishing services in Croatia“, that was held in the context of symposium Multidisciplinary Interagency Approaches, where the PROMISE project was presented at the 15th ISPCAN Regional Conference in Haague. Center`s director prof. Gordana Buljan Flander and psychologist Ana Marija Španić participated at the ISCPAN Conference that was held from 1st to 4th October in Haague, Netherlands.

During the Symposium Multidisciplinary Interagency Approaches Peter Van Der Linden Service Exchange Coordinator at PROMISE project represented ISPCAN and welcomed the audience and the panel, followed by Turid Heiberg, Coordinator of the PROMISE project and Head of the Children at Risk Unit in Council of the Baltic Sea States, who introduced the panel and presented the PROMISE project. Bragi Guðbrandsson, Lead Expert in the PROMISE project and General Director of National Child Protection Authority in Iceland, presented the Quality standards as one of the project main outputs. Andrea Goddard, Consultant Paediatrician (King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, UK), presented the medical investigation as part of the assessment in Barnahus model, Ólöf Ásta Farestveit, Head of the Icelandic Barnahus, presented lessons learned regarding forensic interviewing, prof. dr. sc. Gordana Buljan Flander, Director of Child and Youth Protection Center of Zagreb, presented the Croatian model of work and Child and Youth Protection Center of Zagreb and Janet von Bavel, Project Leader at Kenter, Jeugdhulp in Netherlands, presented the Dutch approach and work.

Detailed programme of the ISPCAN Regional Conference can be found on the following link: https://www.ispcan.org/15th-ispcan-european-regional-conference/

About the PROMISE project

The objective of the PROMISE project, which runs from 2015 to 2017, is to promote child-friendly, multi-disciplinary and interagency services supporting child victims and witnesses of violence, providing them with access to justice, avoiding re-traumatization and ensuring high professional standards for recovery. Drawing on UN, EU and Council of Europe law and existing Barnahus models, this project aims to strengthen capacity, knowledge and exchange between government’s justice and child welfare sectors, the medical field, public/private forensic and therapeutic services as well as child rights NGOs and advocates. The project promotes a one-stop approach for child victims and witnesses of crime, limiting the number of interviews and ensuring comprehensive care including social, medical, therapeutic and legal support.

PROMISE is managed by the CBSS Secretariat (Children’s Unit). Partners include the Child Circle, HAPI, Verwey-Jonker Institute, Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Trauma Unit and Barnahus in Iceland, Linköping and Stockholm. It also builds on the expertise of prominent specialists in law, sociology, pediatrics, psychology and psychiatry from different European countries. The Pilot Countries engaged on the project are: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, and the UK (England and Scotland). These countries have been identified as having the interest and potential to transform their current services for supporting child victims and witnesses of violence into a multi-disciplinary and interagency cooperation. The pilot countries will learn from existing Barnahus and similar models and also exchange experiences amongst themselves in order to support national level capacity-building and multi-disciplinary and interagency implementation strategies.

Key documents and more information about the project are available on the PROMISE project website.


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