This project is part of our WITHWomen suite of apps
About the Project
One in three women will experience physical, sexual and/ or psychological violence from an intimate partner in her lifetime. We have seen reports of increased violence against women throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
We know there are often challenges to screening for these incidences within health care settings, and with stay at home orders during the pandemic, women’s access to screening and safety planning may be further impacted. While the creation of our WITHWomen suite of English language screening and safety planning web-apps offer many advantages – such as allowing accessible support at the time, place, and pace determined by the woman – they were only available in English, until now. Using an iterative user research methodology, we will culturally and linguistically adapt the WITHWomen suite of apps to French and Spanish speaking populations.
Why this is Important
This research builds on past work which shows one in three women will experience intimate partner violence in her timeline. Women often realize too late they are in an unsafe relationship. We hope through these culturally and linguistically tailored web-apps, French and Spanish speaking women are able to recognize sooner the warning signs in their relationship and get support to create an action plan around safety.
Impact
We have developed a set of screening and two safety planning web-apps – Pathways, and PROMiSE, which is specifically designed for use during a public health emergency. By incorporating technology we are creating increased access to IPV screening for women. We have consistently heard from partners and practitioners that having these resources available in other languages would increase access and allow for more widespread use of the tools.
