🇪🇺 EU CERV Programme 2021–2027 · Child Safeguarding Initiative

Safe in Town

Every child
safe, heard,
supported.

Strengthening integrated child protection in selected European municipalities — building cultures, policies, and systems that ensure every child is safe, heard, and supported.

4 Countries

4 Cities

24 Months

4 Partners

About the project Our partners

— About the Project

Every child deserves to grow up safe and supported

Cities and municipalities are the closest level of governance to children — where they learn, play, and grow. Yet comprehensive child safeguarding policies have rarely been embedded at this level. Safe in Town changes that.

The project supports four European municipalities to develop, adopt, and implement City Child Safeguarding Policies: practical, multi-sectoral frameworks that coordinate all local actors — from schools and health services to law enforcement and social services — around a shared culture of child protection and wellbeing.

Grounded in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child, Safe in Town follows a child rights-based approach, placing children and young people as active participants in shaping the policies that affect them.

— Specific Objectives

What we are working towards

Coordinated Child Safeguarding Policies

Design and implement multidisciplinary, multi-sectoral safeguarding policies at municipal level, with particular attention to children in vulnerable situations.

Training & Capacity Building

Strengthen the knowledge and skills of local authorities and professionals through a child-centred, gender-sensitive multi-sectoral training cascade.

Inter-institutional Referral Systems

Develop city-wide child-friendly referral protocols that enable timely, coordinated responses across all sectors and services.

Dissemination & Replication

Share models and methodologies developed in the four cities to enable other European municipalities to adapt and replicate them.

— Where we work

The participating cities

🇮🇹

Genova

Italy · Municipio I Centro Est

Defence for Children International Italy

🇵🇹

Matosinhos

Portugal

CESIS

🇬🇷

Chania

Greece

Defence for Children International Greece

🇨🇾

Strovolos

Cyprus · Nicosia

"Hope For Children" CRC Policy Center

— Methodology

A child-centred approach to protection and wellbeing

The project follows the Keeping Children Safe International Child Safeguarding Standards and places children as active participants through a Child Advisory Board (CAB) in each city. All activities apply a gender-sensitive and intersectional lens.

Policy

Evidence-based City Child Safeguarding Policies tailored to each local context.

People

Train-the-trainers and cascade training for local professionals and authorities.

Procedures

Clear, multi-sectoral safeguarding procedures grounded in local needs.

Referral

Child-friendly inter-institutional referral protocols across all city services.

Monitoring

Ongoing assessment with accountability built in from the start of the project.

Dissemination

Replicable models shared across Europe via events, webinars, and partner networks.

Keeping Children Safe International Standards

— Consortium

Project Partners

Four expert child rights organisations from Southern Europe, each with decades of experience in child protection, research, and advocacy.

Coordinator

Defence for Children International Italy

🇮🇹 Italy · Genova

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Partner

CESIS — Centro de Estudos para a Intervenção Social

🇵🇹 Portugal · Matosinhos

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Partner

Defence for Children International Greece

🇬🇷 Greece · Chania

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Partner

"Hope For Children" CRC Policy Center

🇨🇾 Cyprus · Strovolos

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External Expert

Keeping Children Safe

Co-funded by the European Union

The Safe in Town Project has received funding from the European Union's Justice Programme, CERV (2021–27), under Grant Agreement n° 101195346. This document reflects the views of the authors only, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained herein.

Every child
safe, heard,
supported.

Every child deserves to grow up safe and supported

What we are working towards

The participating cities

A child-centred approach to protection and wellbeing

Project Partners

The Safe in Town Project

Be part of the EU Child Safeguarding Alliance

About Us (School)

FAQ (classic)

Be part of the EU Child Safeguarding Alliance

Learning course

English

Italiano

Português

Ελληνικά

Learning course

Resources

Safe in Town project

Resource center

User guide & F.A.Q.

Resources

Legal

Child Safeguarding Policy

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