Réunion's Pilot of France's 'Pack Nouveau Départ' for Domestic-Violence Victims

La Réunion records 14.6 domestic-violence cases per 1,000 residents — the second-highest rate of any French territory — according to the island's Observatoire Réunionnais des Violences faites aux Femmes (ORViFF). In 2024, 4,501 people reported family violence, an average of about 12 reports a day. Associations estimate that a victim deciding to leave an abusive partner typically has to make around seven separate round trips between different agencies (police, courts, housing, social services), a fragmented process that itself discourages victims from following through.

The 'Pack Nouveau Départ' aims to centralise psychological support, legal assistance, emergency housing and social-service coordination into a single, faster pathway, removing the fragmented multi-agency process that keeps victims from leaving abusive situations.

In June 2024, France's Minister Delegate for Equality between Women and Men presented the 'Pack Nouveau Départ' in Réunion, making it one of the first French territories to test the scheme after an initial mainland pilot. It builds on existing island infrastructure: 55 domestic/intrafamily-violence referents in gendarmerie zones and 8 in police zones, 13 specialised social workers embedded in police stations and gendarmeries, a 'Maison de la protection de la famille' in Saint-Denis, a pre-complaint intake point at Saint-Benoît hospital, and shopping-centre drop-in counters that received more than 3,000 women in 2022. National rollout across all of France was planned to follow by the end of 2025.

Because the Réunion pilot only began in 2024, no independent outcome evaluation — reduction in repeat violence, time-to-safety, case-completion rates — has yet been published; current documentation covers programme design and rollout, not measured impact.