Strengthening Prevention in Europe: The Role of 2PS Network for Child Sexual Abuse

Polish Platform for Homeland Security was delighted to be invited to the launch event of the EU Prevention Network for Child Sexual Abuse and to contribute in our capacity as coordinator of the EU-funded 2PS — Prevent and Protect Through Support project.

Over recent years, 2PS has contributed to European learning and exchange around perpetrator prevention, helping strengthen practical understanding of how earlier, ethical, evidence-based and accessible support pathways can play a role in preventing child sexual abuse. In particular, StepTo.Support, developed through 2PS, has helped the wider prevention field by cataloguing existing services and interventions and making them visible in a structured way. This has helped to illustrate the diversity of approaches emerging across Europe, as well as gaps that still require attention. In parallel, 2PS research has reviewed ways of encouraging broader engagement with prevention services, including questions of accessibility, trust, referral routes, and how professionals can support earlier help-seeking.

2PS has also explored the enabling landscape surrounding prevention, including a legal review of national and European contexts, especially around mandatory reporting and the implications this can have for prevention practice, client engagement, and service design.

In addition, 2PS training and capacity-building activities have aimed to support a more consistent cross-sector understanding that prevention is child protection, and that supportive prevention services must be understood as part of safeguarding. Both training and communication efforts connected with 2PS have likewise supported this framing across professional audiences.

These efforts sit alongside many other EU initiatives contributing to the prevention landscape, including the broader ecosystem of actions visible via Sparks in the Dark, each adding value and experience to the wider European effort.

At the same time, it is clear – and very welcome – that the EU Prevention Network encompasses a much broader scope than EU-funded projects alone. Its ambition reflects a wider prevention ecosystem, bringing together frontline services, researchers, practitioners, policy actors, civil society and others to exchange experience and strengthen what works.

PPHS would also like to warmly congratulate key partners who will contribute prominently to the Network. In particular, we recognise Empowering Children Foundation (Poland) as a key player in the Polish prevention domain, and we are very pleased to see them engaged and helping ensure strong Polish input into the Network’s work.

Likewise, it was a pleasure to see colleagues closely linked to the 2PS ecosystem playing such significant roles, including 2PS formal partners Charité (Germany), UWE Bristol (University of the West of England), Protect Children Finland, and NUDZ (Czech Republic), as well as our 2PS Advisory Board member, the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse. We congratulate and thank Prof. Klaus Beier, Prof. Kieran McCartan, Nina Vaaranen-Valkonen, Katerina Klapilová and Elizabeth Letourneau for their leadership and contributions. Although not formally part of the Network, it was also a pleasure to see Deborah Denis from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation present, a key member of the prevention landscape in the UK and an organisation that provided a lot of valuable contributions through 2PS's Advisory Board.

PPHS looks forward to continuing to support this collective European momentum, and to contributing to the EU Prevention Network’s development as an important platform for cooperation, learning and impact.