OTTAWA, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With the shared vision of creating technology that makes campuses and communities safer, RallyEngine Inc. today announced plans to partner with US-based nonprofit Callisto to bring its ground-breaking sexual assault reporting service to Canada.
“We envision a world where sexual assault is rare and survivors receive the support they need,” said Callisto founder and CEO Jessica Ladd, whose 2016 TED Talk has been watched millions of times. “RallyEngine embraced our survivor-centred system and we are thrilled that their innovative package will help advance this mission across Canada.”
Powered by Callisto, RallyEngine SafeSpace™ is a secure, third-party information escrow service that provides a documentation and reporting tool with three options for survivors: to record sexual assault, to report electronically to authorities, and to only report if the perpetrator is identified by another user.
It is estimated that between 15% to 25% of North American college and university-aged women will experience some form of sexual assault during their academic career. And the reporting rate for sexual violence in Canada is lower than any other crime, ranging between 3 to 8 per cent. “The incidents are there but the reporting needs to catch up,” said Debra Tomlinson, CEO of the Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services. “Dispelling the myths around sexual violence will help encourage more women to speak out, and providing a safe space to do it will hopefully increase those low numbers.”
End-users will be able to access SafeSpace online and as part of their campus’s RallyEngine-powered mobile safety app for real-time alerting/rallying, tipline, work/study-alone, and more.
“This is a top priority on North American campuses right now,” said Ladd. “Secure, trauma-informed reporting tools are an important complement to the modern policies universities are implementing.”
SafeSpace deployments will begin this summer. For more information, visit: http://www.rallyengine.com/safespace.
“Unfortunately, sexual violence is still a big problem – on campus, in the workplace, and in society generally. And there is still much that organizations – from universities to law enforcement – can do to handle it better,” said RallyEngine president Steve Hardy. “But let's start by empowering the survivors. Let's provide them a self-managed space to draft, edit, and confidentially submit incident reports at their own pace. And let's identify aggregate organizational trends that can prevent repeat perpetrators from hurting others.”
SafeSpace was made possible in part by an R&D grant from the National Research Council.
Representatives from RallyEngine will be at the Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUBO) conference at the Westin Ottawa on June 12th and 13th.
About RallyEngine®
RallyEngine is a nimble platform for alerting groups, rallying teams, and enhancing community capacity – for smart, safe campuses, companies, and cities. RallyEngine is a pre-qualified innovation under the federal Build in Canada Innovation Program and originated as the mobile rapid-response network powering the Missing Children Society of Canada’s ground-breaking, police-endorsed CodeSearch program.
Ready. Rally. Resiliency. rallyengine.com
About Callisto
Callisto is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that creates technology to combat sexual assault, empower survivors, and advance justice. Its online, trauma-informed platform allows students to create records of sexual assault, report directly to authorities, or notify schools of repeat offenders. Callisto partners include Stanford, the University of San Francisco, Pomona College and others.
For more information, visit: projectcallisto.org
