Geriau visiems — Lithuania's First Multi-City Network for Working with Male Perpetrators of Domestic Violence

Until 2013, the Men's Crisis Centre of Kaunas County (Vyrų krizių centras) was, by its own account, almost the only Lithuanian NGO delivering a structured behaviour-change programme — 28 group sessions plus parenting-skills work — for men who use violence against partners. Its 2013–2014 project 'Geriau visiems' ('Better for All') trained specialists in NGOs in Vilnius, Šiauliai, Utena and Marijampolė (later also Raseiniai) to replicate the model, alongside two public-awareness campaigns linking domestic violence to alcohol use.
Over the project period, 57 people received individual consultations or group seminars, against a target of 50, and 177 specialists from NGOs and state institutions took part in 10 information-exchange meetings; a network of 13 regular volunteers exceeded its recruitment target of 10. Two policy resolutions were submitted to national authorities on funding NGO work with male perpetrators and on alcohol-related violence prevention.
Lithuania has since moved to institutionalise this work: the independent WAVE Network's country mapping records perpetrator-focused support as one of the services delivered by the roughly 90 municipal-level crisis-intervention providers now accredited nationally. The original project reported activity and reach rather than measured reductions in violence, so its outcome evidence is thinner than more established programmes elsewhere in Europe — a fair reflection of how young this field still is in Lithuania.

Read the full analysis: https://www.vyrukrc.lt/visiems-geriau/39-.html