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“With the launch of this mobile app, we add a powerful 21st-century technique,” said YWCA CEO Helen Archontou, who officially introduced the innovation Tuesday at YWCA Bergen County’s healingSPACE in Hackensack. “We know that our current generation interacts with technology in ways that are profoundly different from previous generations, and require a new approach to accessing services,”
Archontou was joined by, among others, Acting Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir Grewal, state Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, members of the prosecutor's Sexual Assault Response Team and Special Victims Unit and a sexual assault nurse examiner.
The healingSPACE App includes:
- The ability to make immediate, emergency, contact with a confidential sexual violence advocate hotline;
- What to do if you are sexual assaulted;
- General information regarding the dynamics of sexual violence;
- Allow users to connect with friends through pre-programmed text messages.
It's available for free from the App Store and Google Play.
“It will have the capability to store up to five contacts and two different saved messages to send to listed friends during tight or uncomfortable situations,” HealingSPACE program manager Mariam Gerges said.
The pre-typed messages can include something like "come get me" or "call me now".
“The app also provides information on healingSPACE and the services we provide and what a person can do if they have been sexually assaulted or abused,” Gerges said.
The app includes information on local and national resources -- including a list of Bergen County's SART hospitals (which provide evidence collection kits) as well as the ability to directly connect to the 24-hour healingSPACE hotline number.
YWCA Bergen County’s healingSPACE confidential 24-hour hotline: (201) 487-2227.
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