The Governing Board has today approved the new management contract for the 24-Hour Gender Violence Victim Support Service (SAVG24h), which will streamline assistance to female victims in urgent or crisis situations thanks to the reinforcement of staff and the new benefits included in the specifications. The service will be endowed with a budget of 2.4 million euros, representing a 25% increase from the current contract, and will continue to provide an immediate response to users with the addition of six new professionals and the extension of the mobile unit’s operating hours.
The SAVG24h is the reference center of the Gender Violence Victim Support Network in the context of intimate partner violence. It provides assistance to female victims in emergency situations, offering them social, psychological, legal, and educational support through a personalized intervention itinerary with the ultimate goal of ensuring their protection so they can overcome the situation and achieve maximum autonomy. Additionally, the service evaluates and coordinates access to protected housing for female victims of gender-based violence and their children.
The Madrid City Council has focused on the specialization of the 24-Hour Gender Violence Victim Support Service in handling urgent cases and crisis situations. This ensures that other network resources, also being strengthened with additional personnel, will take on the long-term assistance to women. To guarantee a faster initial response and improved specialized intervention, a social triage system will be implemented, which is already efficiently functioning in other regions.
New Social Workers and Accessibility Measures
Regarding personnel, the new contract plans to add six new professionals: five social workers and one social services assistant. These workers will join the team expanded by four more professionals in March 2024: two social workers, a psychologist, and a legal advisor.
Furthermore, the new contract includes a significant extension of the mobile unit’s operating hours. The Madrid City Council introduced this pioneering service in 2021 to be able to provide on-site assistance in emergency situations and bring support closer to female victims of gender violence who have difficulties traveling to the SAVG24h premises on their own, such as individuals with disabilities or elderly individuals. Previously operational from Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 15:00, the unit will now operate from Monday to Sunday from 9:00 to 21:00 starting in 2025.
Moreover, improvements in accessibility will be implemented to ensure adequate support for women with intellectual and auditory disabilities. Specifically, the SVisual system will be introduced to facilitate access for deaf and sign language users, all regulations and documentation will be adapted for easy reading, and spaces will be marked with pictograms. Additionally, the contact options with SAVG24h will be expanded to include communication via WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS, and email.
The contract’s execution period will commence on October 1, 2025, and extend until September 30, 2026, with the possibility of a 12-month extension. This continuity ensures the provision of an essential service that attended to 1,867 cases in 2024. The mobile unit, on the other hand, assisted 79 women through 107 interventions that same year.
Spain’s Most Comprehensive Network
The Gender Violence Victim Support Network of the Madrid City Council is the most comprehensive in Spain. In 2024, over 14 million euros were allocated to resources and programs for the prevention, detection, assistance, and reparation of gender-based violence, double the amount from 2018. Moreover, the budget allocation for this area in 2025 has increased by 12%, reaching 16 million euros.
Since 2019, 79 new professionals have joined the network, with seven of them added in the months of 2025, in addition to the six new workers included in the new SAVG24h contract before the year’s end. Over the past six years, the 24-Hour Gender Violence Victim Support Service has expanded, and its mobile unit has been established, the number of protected housing spaces in emergency centers has increased (five new spaces), and new facilities like the Municipal Point of the Regional Violence Observatory (PMORVG) have been opened, along with 26 new spaces in semi-autonomous housing, a crisis center for victims of sexual violence (Pilar Estébanez), a center for victims of sexual violence and their families (Benita Pastrana), and an emergency center for victims of trafficking with 15 spaces. /
