FJC VICTORY HILLS, Selfoss, Iceland, opening of the 3th FJC in Iceland

March 20, 2021

VICTORY HILLS is a centre for survivors of gender based violence in South Iceland, that opened its doors on March 20th 2021. It is located in Selfoss, South Iceland, and provides counselling and therapy for women in the region.

VICTORY HILLS, Sigurhæðir in Icelandic, was initiated by the Soroptimist Club of South Iceland and is inspired by their committment to gender equality, the empowerment of women and the struggle against gender based violence together with their will to render services to their communities locally. VICTORY HILLS operate in the whole region of South Iceland, that reaches from the capital area in the west to the tip of south east Iceland.

The main objectives of VICTORY HILLS are:

• To offer women located in Southern Iceland, who have suffered gender-based violence, a safe venue and professional aid to process the trauma rooted in the violence, whether sexual, mental, physical, or emotional.
• To enhance partnership and coordination between those who render services to survivors of gender-based violence in Southern Iceland.
• To enhance knowledge and provide education on gender-based violence among the public, professions and partners in the project.

Cooperation model of VICTORY HILLS

Implicit in the cooperation model of VICTORY HILLS is the participation of the social services of all local county governments in South Iceland, the Police of South Iceland, The Medical Centre of South Iceland / psychiatric department, the Women’s Legal Counsel, The Human Rights Centre of Iceland and various NGOs that operate in the field of gender violence, such as shelters and counselling agencies.

VICTORY HILLS provides the first platform of cooperation and coordination of these various agencies operating in South Iceland and offers direct services such as trauma therapies ( a.o. emdr treatment) to victims. It is worthy of note that VICTORY HILLS is the first and hitherto only service providers in this field in Iceland that offer these extensive trauma therapies.

Regular work processes

Representatives of the local governments (14 in total), of the Police in South Iceland, The Medical Centre of South Iceland, the Women’s Legal Counseling, the Humans Rights Centre of Iceland and the Soroptimist Club of South Iceland form the management team for the project. These partners have right from the opening of VICTORY HILLS made extensive use of their services and have mainstreamed VICTORY HILLS into their regular work processes.