The Community Safety and Mediation Center Foundation (CSMC), a Romanian non-governmental organisation, has completed a communication and advocacy project on the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combatting violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention). The project was implemented from April to December 2025.  The initiative was one of four projects selected under  the call for proposals and funded by the Council of Europe programme “Ending violence against women: multi-country programme”.

The project aimed to raise awareness of the values, aims and provisions of the Istanbul Convention using the methodology developed by the Council of Europe Gender Equality Division, Women Against Violence Europe Network (WAVE) and  UN Women.

Through its activities, CSMC:

• Produced 28 podcasts featuring interviews with 33 representatives of specialised services addressing violence against women, survivors of violence, non-governmental organisations and their networks, women’s rights activists and national equality bodies from 12 European countries.
• Organised two visibility events in Belgium and Romania, which brought together 60 participants to exchange good practices and discuss the impact of the Istanbul Convention.

Following the completion of the project, CSMC will continue to disseminate the project outputs, implement further awareness-raising activities using the materials developed, and produce short teaser videos for each podcast to enhance outreach, including among younger audiences.

According to Laura Albu, coordinator of the Power of Hope podcast series and President of the Community Safety and Mediation Center (Iași, Romania), “in one of the 28 podcast interviews produced under the project, we discussed the experience of the Gloria Counselling Center. The team explained how they support women victims of violence, starting with a risk assessment and an intervention plan, so that women know the next steps and available services. They also highlighted the importance of a safe, child-friendly space for children while their mothers take part in therapy. Sharing experiences like this through the podcast helps illustrate approaches related to the implementation of the Istanbul Convention.”