Products
In order to support Member States and services to improve sexual assault interventions for women, the Comparing Sexual Assault Interventions (COSAI) project has produced a series of documents, including evidence, recommendations and tools aimed at a multidisciplinary audience at both the policy and practice levels.
Documents
The mapping phase of the project has produced a literature review on models of intervention for sexual assault and existing evidence of service effectiveness; a mapping survey gathering information on current policy and programming of services for sexual assault in European countries; and telephone interviews with service providers on sexual assault service availability, effectiveness and appropriateness in different countries. These provided the background to a policy briefing summarising the evidence and presenting a series of recommendations that build on identified good practice and address common challenges. These recommendations are aimed at policy makers within regional and national governments, service providers and professional associations at the national level.
The project has also produced a series of case studies from the project’s partner countries: Czech Republic, Latvia, Malta, Romania and the United Kingdom. The aim of these was to explore services in their areas and identify pros and cons of different approaches from the perspective of both service providers and users. An overall publication summarises the findings and recommendations from these case studies.
Tools
The COSAI project has developed a Benchmarking & Evaluation Tool which focuses on the effectiveness, acceptability and humanity of sexual assault services and their response. The tool has been designed in order to assess current practice against recommended aspects of service provision, to ensure comprehensive care and support, and more positive experiences for women who are accessing sexual assault services.
Finally, to contribute to the improvement of practice and bringing knowledge and skills to front-line workers, a set of training materials was developed. These are aimed at a multi-sectoral audience and cover key aspects of provision by health, social and justice services.
Guidance
Lastly, following a series of meetings with key stakeholders in the partner countries, the project has published country specific guidance documents and an European Guidance on Sexual Assault Interventions.
