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Good practice Imported

SPAVO — Cyprus's National Hotline, Shelter and Counselling Network Against Domestic and Gender-Based Violence

Cyprus · Nicosia · See the Cyprus profile · See the Nicosia profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 68% 52/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Founded in 1990 and based in Nicosia, SPAVO runs Cyprus's 1440 national helpline and Women's House shelter; in 2025 it received 5,728 helpline calls and the shelter recorded 374 cases, 153 of them new.

5728 calls
Calls to the 1440 helpline (2025)
374 cases
Women's House shelter cases (2025)
153 cases
New shelter cases (2025)
81 cases
New counselling cases (2025)
98.8 %
Victims who are women (2025)
63 %
Reported abuse type: physical violence (2025)
23 %
Reported abuse type: economic abuse (2025)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Association for the Prevention and Handling of Violence in the Family (SPAVO)
Period
1990–present
Keywords
gender-based violence response, one-stop services, domestic violence, hotline, shelter

Context

SPAVO has run Cyprus's domestic-violence support network from Nicosia since 1990, now operating 17 services anchored by the free 24/7 national helpline 1440 and the Women's House shelter, and is a member of the pan-European WAVE network.

Results

In 2025, SPAVO recorded 5,728 calls to the 1440 helpline and 374 Women's House cases (153 of them new), while its counselling service opened 81 new cases; women accounted for 98.8% of victims served, with physical violence (63%) and economic abuse (23%) the most commonly reported abuse types. These figures measure service usage rather than outcomes — there is no independent evaluation of whether contact with SPAVO reduces survivors' risk of repeat victimisation.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Psychologists and social workers staffing the 24/7 1440 national helpline, Women's House shelter staff providing safe accommodation and support

Conditions for success

  • National recognition and embedding as Cyprus's domestic-violence support architecture
  • Membership in pan-European networks (WAVE, Victim Support Europe) for standards and peer support

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes CERV — Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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