Victim support is changing across Europe.
Behind that change are the people who work directly with victims — and the systems that bring police, justice, health services, NGOs, policymakers and other actors together.
NextGen Victim Support tells their stories, shares what works and explores how better support can become a reality for every victim.
About
NextGen Victim Support
Making Change Happen for Every Victim
What does effective victim support look like in practice?
It starts with people: professionals who meet victims at some of the most difficult moments of their lives.
But effective support cannot stop there.
Victims need systems that work together, rights that are implemented in practice, and services that are accessible, coordinated and responsive to their needs.
NextGen Victim Support is a months-long advocacy and storytelling campaign exploring how victim support is evolving across Europe and what it takes to make that change happen.
Through two podcast series, in-depth conversations, short videos and practical resources, the campaign brings together the people, practices and partnerships shaping the next generation of victim support.
Two perspectives. One ambition.
The Frontliners
Focuses on the people delivering victim support on the ground — their experiences, challenges, innovations and solutions.
Beyond the Frontline
Looks at the wider system — and at how different sectors can work together to create more coherent, sustainable and victim-centred support.
Together, they tell one story:
Every victim deserves support that works — wherever they are and whoever they encounter.
The Frontliners
Implementing victims’ rights where they matter most: on the ground.
Victims’ rights become meaningful when they can be experienced in real life.
The Frontliners puts the spotlight on the people who make victim support happen every day.
From first contact after a crime to navigating justice systems, accessing all-crime and specialist services and finding a path towards recovery, frontline professionals are often the first people victims turn to.
This series explores what it takes to provide effective, human-centred support — and how frontline practice can help transform systems.
What you’ll
discover
- The people behind victim support services.
- The challenges frontline professionals face.
- Practical tools, approaches and innovations.
- Stories of change from across Europe and beyond.
- Best practices that can inspire stronger national victim support systems.
- Lessons from the implementation of victims’ rights.
- The human stories behind systemic change.
The story behind the support
Some of today’s victim support systems began with individuals who saw that something was missing — and decided that it could not remain that way.
From pioneering services to new technologies, training approaches and national strategies, The Frontliners explores how today’s systems were built and how they can continue to evolve.
Featured stories
Geraldine Hanna
From Victim Support Frontline to Commissioner for Victims of Crime Office
What happens when a frontline career leads to national leadership?
A conversation about changing roles, changing systems — and keeping the same purpose.
Listen to the episode
Read the In Conversation
Nela Kalpic
From Harm to Rights: A Journey from Victim of Crime to State Director of Marsy’s Law for Wisconsin
A personal and professional journey from experiencing harm to helping shape victims’ rights.
Listen to the episode
Read the In Conversation
Amanda Herron-Quan
Supporting the Supporters: Wellbeing First in Victim Support Services in New Zealand
The people supporting victims need support too.
This conversation explores wellbeing, resilience and sustainable victim support services.
Listen to the episode
Watch the Video
Sofia Barlind
One Door for Help: Centralising Victim Referrals in Sweden
How police and victim support can work together to make pathways to help simpler and more connected.
Listen to the episode
Read the In Conversation
Carmen Rasquete
Innovation in Practice: A New Case Management System
How technology and new approaches can support better, more connected and victim-centred services.
Listen to the episode
Read the In Conversation
Franck Wagemakers
Changing the Public Narrative Around Victims
Why the way we talk about victims matters — and how communication can contribute to change.
Listen to the episode
Beyond the Frontline
Victim support works best when the system works together.
A victim should not have to understand how a system is organised in order to receive the support they need.
Yet effective victim support often depends on many different actors: police, courts, prosecutors, health services, NGOs, social services, specialist organisations, researchers and policymakers.
Beyond the Frontline explores what happens when those actors work together.
Each episode meets a professional from a different part of the victim support system and asks one central question:
What is your role in supporting victims of crime, and how do you work with other services to ensure victims receive the support they need?
From individual services to connected systems
The series explores how coordination can:
- Reduce fragmentation.
- Improve referrals.
- Make support easier to access.
- Strengthen communication between professionals.
- Build trust in institutions.
- Improve continuity of support.
- Create more sustainable victim support systems.
Featured conversations
Coming Soon
Map of Impact
See the Impact Across Europe
Explore the VSE 2026 Map of Impact
Stories show us what change looks like.
The VSE 2026 Map of Impact shows where that impact is happening and what is helping to strengthen victim support across Europe.
Explore an interactive overview of initiatives, tools, services, training and national developments helping to create stronger victim support systems.
Discover
- National victims’ rights strategies and developments.
- Victim support services mapped across 6 EU countries.
- Individual and organisational assessment pilots in eight countries.
- Training initiatives with police, social services and other key actors.
- VSE tools, products and innovations.
- Country-level examples of impact and implementation.
Explore. Connect. Contribute.
EXPLORE
Discover what is happening across Europe and see how victim support is evolving.
CONNECT
Find approaches, organisations and initiatives that could inspire collaboration or adaptation in your own country.
CONTRIBUTE
Help strengthen and expand effective approaches by sharing knowledge, replicating successful initiatives and connecting with others working for better victim support.
Your country. Your opportunity to learn.
Explore the map to discover what is happening in different countries, identify promising approaches and see where VSE and its partners are contributing to better victim support.
See the impact we’re making across Europe.
Explore the map of impact
Call to Action
Change Doesn’t Happen Alone
For policymakers
Use evidence and practical examples to strengthen victims’ rights and national victim support frameworks.
Explore the map of impact
For practicioners
Discover practical approaches, tools and innovations that can strengthen victim support in practice.
Explore tools and practices on the map of impact
For organisations
Is your organisation making a difference in victim support? Share with us your nextgen story, initiative or promising practice and help inspire others. Selected stories may be featured in the 2027 NextGen Victim Support campaign.
Share your story
For Everyone
Listen to the stories, discover what is changing and help make victims’ rights visible.
Listen and share
See what is working. Learn from it. Connect. Take action.
Resources
Research & Evidence
Research, analysis and evidence informing better victim support.
Campaign Materials
Podcast
Listen. Learn. Share.
Two podcast series. Twelve conversations. One ambition:
To understand what it takes to build victim support systems that work.
The Frontliners
6 episodes exploring the people delivering victim support, the challenges they face and the innovations changing practice.
EXPLORE THE FRONTLINERS
Beyond the Frontline
6 episodes exploring how different sectors connect to create coordinated, victim-centred support.
EXPLORE BEYOND THE FRONTLINE
Every episode takes you further
The podcasts are accompanied by:
- In-depth In Conversation articles.
- Short-form video clips.
- Quotes and shareable social content.
- Practical insights and examples.
- Links to relevant resources.
- Connections to the VSE 2026 Map of Impact.
The Frontliners
From Frontline to Commissioner
Language: English
Description
What happens when you move from helping one victim at a time to challenging the system that serves thousands? In this episode, we meet Geraldine Hanna, Commissioner Designate for Victims of Crime in Northern Ireland, and trace the unexpected path that brought her from frontline victim support to a role with the power—and responsibility—to reshape the system.
Against the backdrop of Northern Ireland’s newly adopted Victims and Witnesses Strategy, Geraldine opens up about what meaningful change looks like beyond policy documents: where the system works, where the pieces still don’t quite fit, and what a Commissioner can actually do when it fails.
From Belfast to Paris, this is a conversation about power, persistence, and putting victims at the centre of the system—and what Northern Ireland might teach the rest of Europe.
Host: Francesco Cimino, VSE
Guest: Geraldine Hanna, Commissioner Designate for Victims of Crime in Northern Ireland
Podcast director: Sara Maino Multimedia Artist
Script: Marina Kazakova, VSE
Music attribution: Sara Maino
Transcript
Beyond the Perfect Victim
Language: English
Description
What makes someone a “real” victim? In this episode, Franck Wagemakers, Strategic Policy Adviser from Slachtofferhulp Nederland, challenges the stereotypes that shape how victims are judged, believed and supported. From the myth of the “perfect victim” to snap judgments on social media, we explore how public attitudes can either help survivors recover—or make their experience even harder.
With more than 1,000 people engaging in a recent conversation on the issue, the appetite for change is clear. But can victim support move beyond responding to harm and start changing the culture around it? Franck shares why challenging perceptions may be one of the most important frontiers in next-generation victim support.
The host: Francesco Cimino, VSE
Guest: Franck Wegemakers (Strategic Policy Adviser, Victim Support Netherlands)
Podcast director: Sara Maino Multimedia Artist
Script: Marina Kazakova, VSE
Music attribution: Sara Maino
Transcript
What’s Next for Victim Support? Inside APAV’s New Case Management System
Language: English
Description
APAV has come a long way from the days of paper mountains and files that could disappear at the worst possible moment. In this episode, Carmen Rasquete looks at APAV’s latest case management innovation—and how smarter technology is helping an already advanced victim support service work even better.
The narrator:
Francesco Cimino, VSE
Guests:
Carmen Rasquete (Executive Director, APAV)
Podcast director: Sara Maino Multimedia Artist
Script: Marina Kazakova, VSE
Music attribution: Sara Maino
Transcript
From Survivor to Change-Maker: Turning Victims’ Rights into Real Change
Language: English
Description
Nela Kalpic, State Director for Marsy’s Law for Wisconsin and an internationally recognised advocate for victim-centred justice, brings a unique perspective to the conversation—as both a survivor and a leader. Drawing on her experience across different countries, she explores the gap between victims’ rights and strategies that look clear on paper and what victims actually experience on the ground—and what it takes to turn those rights into real change.
The narrator: Francesco Cimino, VSE
Guests: Nela Kalpic, State Director for Marsy’s Law for Wisconsin
Podcast director: Sara Maino Multimedia Artist
Script: Marina Kazakova, VSE
Podcast director: Sara Maino Multimedia Artist
Script: Marina Kazakova, VSE
Music attribution: Sara Maino
Transcript
Sweden’s Big Shift: How Police and Victim Support Are Connecting Every Victim to Help
Language: English
Description
Sweden has made a major change in how victims of crime are connected to support. We look at how Victim Support Sweden and the police have built a nationwide system linking more than 58 organisations, making it easier for victims to access help quickly and ensuring support is no longer a matter of where you live.
Transcript
NextGen Victim Support: Caring for the People Behind the Frontline
Language: English
Description
Victim support workers carry some of the hardest stories every day—but who supports the people supporting victims? Amanda Herron-Quan of Victim Support New Zealand explores how staff wellbeing has evolved in New Zealand, what organisations can do to prevent burnout, and why looking after frontline workers is ultimately part of delivering better support to victims.
Transcript
Beyond the Frontliners
Coming Soon
In conversation with
Some stories need more than 30 minutes.
In Conversation features take the ideas raised in the podcasts further, providing deeper context, analysis and practical insight for professionals, policymakers and anyone interested in victim support.
Explore conversations about:
- Leadership and system change.
- Frontline practice.
- Victim wellbeing.
- Innovation.
- Cross-sector cooperation.
- National strategies.
- Communication and public narratives.
- Implementation of victims’ rights.
Contact
Be Part of the Change
Do you have a practice worth sharing?
An innovation that could inspire others?
An experience that can help strengthen victim support?
We want to hear from people working to make victim support better.
SHARE YOUR STORY:
Share a good practice
Tell us about an approach, service or innovation that could inspire others.
Suggest a podcast guest
Recommend someone with a story or perspective that deserves to be heard.
Explore collaboration
Connect with VSE and others working to strengthen victim support.
Ask about campaign resources
Find out how you can use and share campaign content.
For press inquiries, please contact:
Marina Kazakova
Junior Communications Manager
m.kazakova@victimsupporteurope.eu
0032(0)23 46 04 55
For general enquiries, please contact:
Francesco Cimino
Communications Intern
vseintern@victimsupporteurope.eu
0032(0)23 46 04 55
