In the period between 18th and 28th of June 2019, four one-day MeetUps were held under E-PROTECT in the biggest cities in Bulgaria (Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna and Burgas). The MeetUps welcomed more than 100 experts, whose activity is directly related to work with child victims of crime, including judges, prosecutors, lawyers, investigative police authorities, social workers and psychologists. Each of the MeetUps was assessed by the participants as eminently useful, as they managed to exchange experience of working with minors, as well as to discuss pressing issues in relation to the protection of the interests of child victims of crime.
Moreover, during the events case studies were presented to the divided in working groups participants. The cases were solved with joint efforts to identify the measures of protection that are to be taken in the relevant situation. Here, it should be noted that the case studies were examined through the lenses of the Individual Needs Assessment Methodology, which is one of the main outputs produced under the E-PROTECT project.
As a result of this exercise, a broad discussion between the participants was sparked and some good practices were outlined relating to the work with child victims of crime.
Last but not least, thanks to the debates and what has been shared by the MeetUps’ participants, policy guidelines will be formulated relating to the child protection system and the victims of crime access to social services.
The E-PROTECT project is implemented with the support of the Justice Programme of the European Commission under Grant Agreement № 760270.
