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BRIDGE

The Building Resilient and Integrated Victim Support Systems through Multi-Stakeholder Engagement (BRIDGE) project aims to ensure the effective functioning of national victim support frameworks in Latvia and Lithuania, to the benefit of all victims of all crimes. The project, which started on 20 October 2025 and will run for 24 months, addresses systemic gaps and seeks to improve the efficiency, coherence, and accessibility of victim support services across the two participating Member States. 

BRIDGE contributes directly to the practical implementation of the Victims’ Rights Directive, including its amendments, by supporting the establishment and strengthening of the standards set out therein. In doing so, the project promotes and protects victims’ rights through a system-oriented and participatory approach. 

Led by Victim Support Europe (VSE) and funded by the European Commission under the SG REFORM Technical Support Instrument (TSI), the project engages a wide range of relevant national stakeholders. Its activities include mapping existing services, identifying needs and gaps, and facilitating structured dialogue among actors involved in victim support. On this basis, tailored solutions are co-designed, developed, and piloted with selected stakeholders, and complemented by targeted multi-stakeholder training activities. Additionally, the project is based on a robust methodology that has been extensively tested by VSE in previous projects (IMPACT, AREV). 

Taken together, these actions aim to strengthen the implementation of victims’ rights and to contribute to more resilient, coordinated, and victim-centred support systems in Latvia and Lithuania.  

Partners

Objectives:  

The objectives of the project are to:

  • Map and assess the landscape, including needs and gaps in victims’ support systems in Latvia and Lithuania  
  • Enhance understanding of victimisation and victims’ needs 
  • Support the design of new victims support systems to improve services and access 
  • Build capacity, awareness and coordination  

Activities: 

  1. Identification of needs and gaps: Mapping of the victims’ support landscape, stakeholders’ mapping, community needs assessment, identification of practices at the international level, best practices research, development of channels for stakeholder engagement; 
  2. Co-development of solutions and tools: in key areas for victims’ support, development and delivery of national campaigns;    
  3. Support the design of new victim support systems: establish national multi-stakeholder working groups to advise development, develop roadmaps to guide design and implementation, and produce national model reports defining actions, roles and responsibilities; 
  4. Test and Fine-tune the Model: Pilot tools and procedures to assess effectiveness, accuracy and applicability, refine models based on results, ensuring strong multi-agency cooperation while maintaining flexibility for each Member State; 
  5. Capacity Building at the national and transnational level: to address shared challenges, strengthen capacity and cooperation, and promote knowledge transfer across the EU. 

(Expected) outcomes:

  • The building of an integrated, coordinated, participatory, multi-stakeholder victim support framework in Latvia and Lithuania, built on evidence- and needs-based tools. 
Funded by

News

BRIDGE Project Kicks Off!

DISCLAIMER: The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Victim Support Europe and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union.