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GRACE
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CERV-2025-DAPHNE · 2026–2028

Gender-based violence
Restorative Ambassadorship
for Correctional Environments

Transforming accountability into restorative change across European correctional environments.

GRACE project builds trauma-informed rehabilitation, restorative accountability and safer reintegration pathways with the professionals and communities that carry them.

About the projectProject Resources
Abstract GRACE pathway leading through architectural arches towards an illuminated doorway

Project at a glance

The essentials

Call
CERV-2025-DAPHNE
Project name
Gender-based violence Restorative Ambassadorship for Correctional Environments
Project acronym
GRACE
Project number
101254844
Period of implementation
2026–2028
Duration
24 months
Countries
Greece, Cyprus, Romania
Expert partner
Germany

01 — Context

About GRACE

GRACE is a 24-month, transnational initiative addressing a critical gap in EU responses to gender-based violence (GBV): the lack of structured, trauma-informed rehabilitation for perpetrators. 

GRACE partnership was formed to create strong links between justice and GBV experts, VET providers, correctional facilities, public bodies and civil society organisations for the reintegration of ex-prisoners and probation. 

Targeting Greece, Cyprus, and Romania (where GBV rates are exceptionally high and rehabilitative services are limited and GBV perpetration rates remain high, according to the European academic literature), GRACE focuses on five goals.

02 — Objectives

Five project goals

  1. 01

    Rehabilitation across the justice pathway

    GRACE will develop multi-tiered, trauma-informed training programmes for incarcerated, at-risk, and post release individuals who have perpetrated GBV or are prone to. These programmes, co-created with inmates and correctional staff, focus on empathy, accountability, and long-term behavioral change.

  2. 02

    Restorative Ambassadorship

    The project introduces the Restorative Ambassadorship Model, training selected inmates & ex-detainees to serve as peer mentors, support behavioral change, and foster a culture of responsibility and rehabilitation within correctional facilities and beyond. 

  3. 03

    Professional capacity building

    GRACE will provide training to correctional staff (officers, psychologists, social workers, teachers, directors and probation staff) to respond to GBV-related dynamics using trauma-informed and gender sensitive approaches, aligned with national action plans and EU frameworks.

  4. 04

    Early intervention & post-release support

    The project targets young, at-risk individuals through early-intervention workshops and provides post release support to former detainees via peer mentoring, gender-awareness sessions, and community-based accountability tools.

  5. 05

    Survivor-centred coordination

    GRACE prioritizes the safety of victim-survivors by establishing survivor liaison committees and engaging key stakeholders (such as NGOs, victim support services, and public authorities) in policy dialogues, training, and dissemination activities.

03 — Participants

Who GRACE works with

GRACE targets six distinct groups, each playing a critical role in the GBV prevention ecosystem. These groups were selected based on their current exclusion from structured interventions, their proximity to GBV dynamics, and their potential to contribute to systemic transformation when meaningfully engaged.

  • 01

    Incarcerated GBV offenders

    Often excluded from structured rehabilitation opportunities, these individuals will participate in trauma-informed, peer-mentored training programs that emphasize behavioral accountability and victim safety. They will also be engaged in co creation processes that foster ownership, internal motivation to change and involve them from an early start of the project as agents not only beneficiaries.

  • 02

    At-risk or quasi-offenders

    Young men in probation or alternative justice settings (who may display early indicators of violence or control) will benefit from targeted early-intervention workshops. These sessions address toxic masculinity, promote non-violence, and cultivate emotional literacy.

  • 03

    Post-release former offenders

    To ensure continuity of care and reduce the risk of reoffending, GRACE provides former detainees with access to peer-led mentoring, restorative accountability circles, and community-based reintegration pathways. This support is critical for long-term transformation. 

  • 04

    Correctional staff and frontline professionals

    Prison officers, probation staff, psychologists, teachers and social workers will be trained in restorative, trauma-sensitive approaches to better manage GBV-related dynamics and to align institutional practices with national and EU-level frameworks. 

  • 05

    National and local stakeholders

    GRACE builds a collaborative network of NGOs, victim support services, and public institutions to ensure continuity, safety, and systemic change. These actors will engage in joint training, co-creation workshops, and policy roundtables aimed at reinforcing survivor centered practices and improving institutional responses.  

  • 06

    Victim-survivors of GBV

    While not directly targeted, survivors are at the heart of the project’s purpose. Survivor liaison committees in each country ensure that all interventions uphold ethical standards, the “do no harm” principle, and contribute to creating safer communities for women, the LGBTQ+ community and children.

    Guided by the “do no harm” principle: survivor safety, consent and dignity define the ethical boundaries of every GRACE intervention.

04 — Approach

What makes GRACE innovative?

I

Participatory and Trauma-Informed Rehabilitation Design

Rehabilitation designed with the people who live and work inside correctional environments.

GRACE introduces a unique, multi-tiered rehabilitation model that is co-created with detainees and correctional staff, ensuring both contextual relevance and internal motivation for change. Unlike traditional top-down interventions, this approach involves participants in the design and refinement of the training curricula, embedding trauma-informed and gender-sensitive principles from the outset. The structured development of training materials across the justice continuum—pre-custody, custody, and post-release—ensures that the intervention addresses offenders’ needs at every stage while maintaining a focus on accountability and empathy. 

II

Restorative Ambassadorship and Peer-Led Change

Change carried by peers, not only delivered by professionals.

One of the project’s most innovative elements is the creation of the Restorative Ambassadorship Model, where selected detainees and former offenders are trained as peer mentors to promote behavioral change and foster a culture of non-violence within prisons and communities. These ambassadors help bridge the gap between formal systems and lived experiences, reinforcing new social norms from within correctional environments. This model not only enhances the reach and legitimacy of the intervention but also cultivates leadership and resilience among those typically excluded from reform processes. 

III

Integrated Professional Training and Survivor Safeguards

Institutional capacity and survivor ethics built as one system.

GRACE significantly strengthens institutional responses to GBV by building the capacity of frontline professionals (prison officers, psychologists, and probation staff) to deliver trauma-informed and gender-sensitive care. This professional development is grounded in survivor-informed ethics and reinforced by the establishment of survivor liaison committees in each participating country. These dual innovations ensure that interventions are not only effective but also ethically sound, fostering institutional cultures that are more responsive to both offender accountability and survivor protection.

GRACE — Gender-based Violence, Restorative Ambassadorship for Correctional Environments

Building safer pathways through accountability, rehabilitation and restorative change.

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