The international IMPROVE project developed issues such as an AI-based service to help victims of domestic violence. The European Commission awarded the service as the best innovation of 2025.
Some victims of domestic violence do not fully recognise their own situation and do not report violence, or they do not know where to get help. It is also not clear to many victims where and how help is available.
The international IMPROVE (Improving Access to Services for Victims of Domestic Violence by Accelerating Change in Frontline Responder Organisations) project investigated in particular why victims of domestic violence do not always seek services and how the situation could be improved. Reporting violence and seeking help are affected by factors such as the victim’s age, disability, sexual orientation, and how serious the victims perceive various violent acts to be.
The objective was to develop, based on research data, methods that increase the opportunities of victims of domestic violence to seek help and improve the ability of the authorities to intervene in domestic violence.
Data bank and chatbot as channel for seeking help
One of the innovations developed within the project was the AinoAid™ service based on artificial intelligence: a data bank and chatbot that helps victims of domestic violence identify their situation and provides information and instructions in several languages. It also serves as an access channel to the service network and lowers the threshold for contacting the authorities.
“The service has an average of about 600 to 700 daily users. The total number of users has been close to 44,000 since the launch of the service in April 2024,” says Anna Juusela, CEO and founder of the company We Encourage, which was responsible for the development of the AinoAid™ service.
The service can be used by those who experience violence, perpetrators of violence when they seek help, people close to them, and professionals who in their work encounter clients affected by violence.
“The service is of the greatest benefit for those who are looking for more understanding of difficult situations taking place in their close personal relationships and for those who are not quite sure about whether the situations represent violence. Moreover, the service provides support in rebuilding one’s life after getting out of violent situations.”
The European Commission awarded the AinoAid™ service as the best innovation of 2025.
“We Encourage will continue to develop the service as part of the REACH project, in which the service will be expanded to support victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation,” Anna Juusela says.
The Police University College participated in the development of the AinoAid™ service by providing information on the factors that prevent victims from seeking services.
“Research results were used in the design of the content of the chatbot and data bank so that the service would respond as well as possible to the actual needs and situations of the victims,” says Jarmo Houtsonen, Senior Researcher at the Police University College.
Training for frontline responders
The project aimed to improve the ability of the authorities to respond better to domestic violence. The project produced a training platform that endeavours to strengthen the competence and readiness of different parties to encounter victims of violence, improve multi-professional co-operation and help identify the special needs of victims.
The training material developed is aimed especially at those who are in the front line in the fight against domestic violence, such as police officers, social workers, health care professionals, representatives of organisations, and legal experts. The training platform is available in several languages and serves both as an independent learning environment and as a material bank.
“The Police University College was responsible for the evaluation of the training platform and training modules. We gathered feedback on the content and functionality of the training platform from the frontline responders in the fight against domestic violence across Europe. We also participated in the production of training contents. The evaluation was used for drawing up a handbook that the trainers can use to build different courses, seminars or webinars from the material,” Jarmo Houtsonen says.
IMPROVE was a continuation of the IMPRODOVA project, the goal of which was to develop co-operation and exchange of information between the police and other frontline responders and thus enhance intervention in domestic violence.
“Combatting domestic violence also requires research on those who commit violence. Any future projects could study the backgrounds and motives of the perpetrators, develop preventive operating models, and build services and support programmes for the perpetrators,” Jarmo Houtsonen says.
The three-year IMPROVE project was funded by the EU’s Horizon 2021 programme.
