Facility Dogs Europe (FYDO) – Using Facility Dogs to Enable Victims to Access Safe Justice
In January 2021, a consortium led by Victim Support Europe (VSE) came together to create a multi-national pilot project with the aim of providing support to vulnerable victims of crime in Belgium, France and Italy. Building on the existing efforts by pioneers in the USA, and elsewhere in Europe, the project aimed to look into the ways dogs – trained by certified organisations and handled by victim support professionals – can be employed to mitigate the trauma suffered by victims of crime. The outcome was the FYDO – an acronym for FacilitY Dog – project, whose mission was to improve how victims of crime viewed their overall experience by providing them with a FYDO dog, to support them on their journey to justice.
Download FYDO Policy Paper – Canine Support for Victims of Crime