dotzz

Numbers are sobering.  For these purposes GBV includes, but is not limited to  domestic violence (DV), female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), intimate partner violence (IPV), sexual assault, trafficking, and child marriage.  In the US, 40% of all US femicides are related because of domestic violence and nearly 500,000 women/girls area are impacted by female genital mutilation/cutting. 13.9 % of men and 23.2% of women in the US experience intimate partner violence.  The national average is 8 attempts before someone is able to leave a cycle of violence successfully.   In NY by example, in 2021 alone 600 cases of sex trafficking were reported, 65,000 women/girls are impacted by FGM/C, 1,000,000 domestic incident reports (DIR) were filed, and 4,500,000 acts of sexual assault were identified.  

Globally, these numbers multiply, affirming the pervasiveness of GBV. Worldwide there are 3,904,727,342 women and 1 in 3 of them have experienced DV and 1 in 6 of these women have experience sexual assault. Nearly 200 million women/girls have been impacted by FGM/C and 27.6 million individuals have become victim to sex trafficking. 

Within the anti-GBV sector, basic service delivery can complicate the cycle of violence. Service is transactional, elitist, un-inclusive, heteronormative, antiquated, xenophobic, elitist, biased, and culturally insensitive. Service providers often dictate a prescribed timeline to meet deliverables and the expectation of clients to behave in ways that don't evidence that trauma- a demand many can't regularly meet.  dotzz allows for survivors to start to amass what they need to break the cycle of violence in their own time and when they can assess its' safest for them to take those steps- regardless of what providers recommend, prefer, or anticipate.

Survivors also experience fear, confusion, isolation, and limited resources re: their rights/money/housing. Many also tackle property destruction, parental anxiety, mental/physical health needs, and systems overwhelm navigating pre-existing GBV-response mechanisms. These realities preserve the national average at 8 attempts. dotzz aims to reduce that number by offering a technology that provides real-time solutions that work to close all of the aforementioned gaps.

dotzz is an app. The dotzz approach was created by someone with 25 years of experience advocating on behalf of GBV survivors and listening to survivors' laments attempting to break the cycle of violence. After download, the dotzz widget becomes incognito on home screens so users can utilize the app covertly if still in the presence of perpetrators.  Using dotzz, beneficiaries receive real-time emergency housing/medical/law enforcement information on a map that may be available to them within a 5 mile radius of their current location.  Users can also share their location safely with trusted friends/family, store photos and identifying documents, create a safety plan and/or a DIR, and receive money through the app.  In addition, users can conduct untraceable text/phone communication that does not appear within the host phone history and record an incident in real-time all with the aid of an attached glossary of GBV industry-standard terms. dotzz is available in 8 languages- English, Yiddish, French, Haitian Creole, Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic and KiSwahili and will ALWAYS be free to users. dotzz will be able to aggregate data about the types of GBV occurring and where these acts occur to better assist service providers prioritizing limited resources and identifying policies that best serve GBV survivors.

Understanding the transient nature of this community seeking safety, if a user loses their phone (which happens often because a perpetrator may take, hide or destroy it), all the material is stored on the dotzz server, so upon receiving a new phone users can receive a new code to re-enter their pre-existing dashboard, in conjunction with their password,  where their materials will remain secure.

Three communities are immediately benefited via dotzz:  the GBV survivors, GBV-serving institutions, and GBV-policy/research institutions.

a) dotzz assists GBV survivors, including but not limited to those that experience DV, IPV, FGM/C, sexual assault, trafficking and/or child marriage.  For those brave enough to try and break the cycle of violence, many GBV survivors experience an antiquated, confusing, and overwhelming web of services and systems to try and seek safety.  Coupled with mental and physical health factors, language barriers, cultural differences, embarrassment, and credible fear, the uncertainty of the systems involved can sometimes outweigh the certainty of their current environments of violence- resigning them to stay with what they know.

dotzz allows survivors to take the steps to connect the 'dotzz' to their safety discreetly and at a pace set for themselves, by themselves. Offering dotzz in 8 languages and including fillable safety plans, DIRs and a glossary allows GBV survivors to inform themselves of aspects of the system/s unfamiliar to them in a trauma-informed and client-centered way. It allows survivors to start restoring some of the power and control previously eroded, one swipe at a time.

b) GBV-serving institutions, including but not limited to non-profit legal/mental health organizations, mental health organizations, shelters, hospitals, law enforcement, government agencies and airlines. These organizations are the dotzz customer and make the referrals to the GBV survivors.  Currently, many of the aforementioned organizations are overworked and required to respond to high demands with minimal resources.  In turn, much of their service delivery becomes transactional, without having the quality time to practice harm reduction and/or restorative justice approaches that allow them to meet GBV survivors where they are more often.  This approach only enhances GBV survivors reluctance to seek assistance.

dotzz works in partnership with GBV-serving institutions to make their work more transformative than transactional.  Once referred, GBV survivors can communicate with service providers discreetly via dotzz, share their locations if necessary in exigent circumstances and use dotzz to store and gather information/evidence that providers often need to advocate on their behalf administratively and/or legally. In high trauma environments, individuals can often be very forgetful, mis-remember/conflate facts, and misplace documents.  However, using dotzz allows survivors to retain information in real-time, reducing this possibility.

c) GBV-policy/research institutions, including but not limited to government agencies, colleges/universities, think tanks, law enforcement, and policy/research institutes. Policy and systems change is deeply fueled by data, but the covert nature of GBV, its' omnipresence and the speed at which instances occur muddy data, if gathered at all.  Inconclusive data, leads to slow or underdeveloped policy and service delivery strategies- reinforcing the status quo.

dotzz aggregates the real-time, first-person data that users provide by type of experience and location, providing analysts, legislators, and researchers with vital information they haven't had access to previously. dotzz partners with researchers to help inform policy and service delivery utilizing, GBV survivor input, closing the gap that often exists between procedures created and those they directly impact.

Survivors are my fundamental partners in this work. My job clears innovative pathways towards equity that are specifically designed to thrive in my absence and within the communities they are created to serve. Current methods are often non survivor-centered and communities composed of women, youth, immigrants, people of color (POC), and indigent survivors are repeatedly marginalized. As a member to some of those demographics, I know the impact of being on the fringe. All of my efforts work to shift this framework highlighting those at the margin- moving not only who sits at the proverbial table, but where the table actually exists. To that end, I anticipate getting real-time feedback from survivors about dotzz once we commence our 3-6 month pilot at Morrisania Women’s Health Center in the Bronx, NY late 2023.

dotzz is led and created by an African-American, queer-identified, cis-gendered woman that was reared in Flatbush, Brooklyn by Southern transplants from the Gullah Islands and North Carolina, respectively. Observing my parents and neighbors, I benefited from seeing the diversity, generosity, resilience, and vibrancy of its' residents. Their successes, struggles, and responses to the insecurity of poverty, inflation, drug abuse, racism, and crime were tempered by their ingenuity and collaboration. I watched and modeled my parents, and inherently incorporated these characteristics within the anti-GBV interventions l’ve created locally and globally over the past 20 years as a anti-GBV lawyer, professor, activist, artist, wellness practitioner, and entrepreneur.

The lead programmer at dotzz is a White, cis-gendered male reared in the South Pacific.  His commitment to this project has only been fostered by his own experiences as a child seeing his mother battle to break her own cycle of violence, which inherently became a struggle he carried as well.

Market Barriers: dotzz is a social enterprise designed to assist those that need it most - for free.  These combination of terms strike a death knell in tech and commercial spaces many times.  At dotzz, we want to be a model normalizing social enterprise ventures as viable monetized schemes that also put doing good on par with standard doing business practices. Guidance on how to centralize the helping of others as a legitimate business practice as opposed to just for optics and/or CSR objectives is central to our goals.

Financial Barriers: 

a) dotzz demands reliable, transparent, and non-discretionary fiscal support to make sure this technology is available 24/7 and at the most critical moments for GBV survivors.  For dotzz to become a safety fixture, its imperative to introduce dotzz to the appropriate grants, awards, angel investors, and venture capitalists that believe in the ideology that profits can be made at the intersection of purpose.  Funding would pay for programmers to work faster and would cure the security, compliance, trademarking, and personnel gaps currently present.  However, without direct fiscal support, connecting dotzz to partners in the following areas informs our desire to participate in Solve.

b) Technical Barriers: dotzz is currently being programmed by one part-time volunteer.  With such a comprehensive piece of technology, dotzz has many moving parts to program, in 8 languages.  The faster the backend programming is completed and available in both Android and Apple capacities, the faster dotzz will be available for download.  Connections to other socially-minded programmers is vital to an expedited dotzz release date.

c) Legal Barriers: prior to going live dotzz will have to endure an independent security review, compliance and trademarking. These very specific needs require connections to professionals that are expert in doing this work and/or to harness the funding to seek them out.  As a safety app, dotzz is required to take every precaution to ensure that the user experience is seamless, secure and reliable- the exact converse to the users' real-life experience. 

Social Barriers: social entrepreneurship is a lonely space and the dotzz final product will only be enhanced by being in community with other Solve team members.  We want to produce the absolute best version of dotzz possible and while we don't have all the answers, techniques, or methods in tow, we hope to gain insight, support and contribution from Solve team members and the greater MIT Solve family.  It's welcomed, and if any of our prior experience can be helpful to others' ventures, we're keen to share it because dotzz was built to fill a void and subsequently, all of our approaches to its' inception are anchored in abundance.

dotzz is at the forefront of the market intersecting social justice and technology. Due to its’ highly integrated level of survivor-centered GBV responsiveness, dotzz is a model of how technology can become a valuable partner with government and organizations across disciplines, while maintaining organizational autonomy and elevating the safety and integrity of GBV survivors.  No other technology exists in this way within the sector!

dotzz will be a foundational tool within the GBV sector and cross-marketed throughout all anti-GBV service channels.  Service providers will incorporate dotzz as part of their safety plans, changing the scope and effectiveness of safety planning as we now know it.

During its' short inception, dotzz has already garnered recognition receiving the Innovation Impact Award in June 2022 from Communitas Americas!

While dotzz isn't the only safety app on the market, it is the most comprehensive, affordable, discreet, inclusive and accessible. Among some of the competition, RUSafe App is a free app that allows users to journal incidents and to upload photos.  However, the icon denotes the apps purpose, making it easy to spot by a perpetrator. dotzz is distinguished in that users can complete an entire DIR and/or create a safety plan instead of just journaling. Users can phone and text in the app in addition to uploading images and other important documents (ie, an Order of Protection) and can use a glossary to enhance the credibility of documents created.  Moreover, the dotzz icon is incognito and discreet in title.

VictimsVoice PWA allows users to document incidents of abuse on a progressive web app (PWA). However, that's the extent of this apps features at a cost of $39.95, making it prohibitive for many indigent GBV survivors. Meanwhile, dotzz allows documentation via DIR and/or safety plan and by audio request at no cost at all to the user, while retaining a comparable degree of security and anonymity. 

Rev Voice Recorder and Memos app allows recording of the sounds around the user, but it only works on Apple devices (iPhone and iPad) and the user must have the third-party platform Dropbox (some versions come at a fee). dotzz can accomplish the same goals for any user-Apple or Android- and the user doesn't need a third-party platform to save data.

dotzz is a truly unique asset to the greater GBV community.

By 2028:

dotzz will be an integral tool used worldwide among anti-GBV spaces. Achieved by hiring culturally and linguistically appropriate sales partners (with GBV/women's rights backgrounds) to secure the customer-organization partnerships within the anti-GBV sectors. They are required to also manage, monitor, troubleshoot and evaluate the use of the app and to nurture the quality of the customer relationships.

dotzz will be translated into up to 16 languages to increase its' accessibility. Achieved by re-evaluating the quality of the initial 8 languages dotzz is available in, by polling users to ascertain what linguistic groups are remiss, and by utilizing sales agents to project the most appropriate markets that require added language access. Thorough R&D and a series of pilots are also required.

dotzz will include a second tier of features that connect GBV survivors to a cadre of wellness modalities geo-located and trauma-informed.  This tier is available to users once immediate violence has been eliminated. Achieved by hiring a new team of programmers and sales agents to assess the scope of restorative justice customers targeted and appropriate based on locale.  Some of those fundamental customers will be in the healing spaces like acupuncturists, yoga teachers, massage therapists, and therapists.  In order to achieve incorporation of this tier of customers, it'll also be necessary to do thorough R&D, including HIPPA compliance, additional external security checks, and at least three pilots.

dotzz will be instrumental in reshaping the principles of anti-GBV safety planning. Achieved by the frequent and regular inclusion of dotzz in the safety planning process and by incentivizing customer-organizations to have their staff use dotzz at this critical client intervention stage.  Incentivization looks like hiring a HIPPA and policy specialists to hospitals, for example, to identify which codes hospitals can use via Medicaid and Medicare to bill for based on the service delivery accomplished by using dotzz. 

I. Good Health and Well-Being: 

Indicators-

1.1 By 2030 reduce the global femicide rate and it's particular links to GBV by to 20%.

1.2 Strengthen the awareness of and prevention of GBV.

1.3 Promote safety and well-being of all regardless of gender.

Targets-

1.1 Femicide mortality ratio

1.2 Number of female deaths in proportion to GBV involvement

1.3 Rate of media/social media coverage of GBV pervasiveness

1.3 Divorce rate, rate of shelter calls, rate of DIRs filed, rate of sexual assault cases filed, rate of FGM/C cases tolled, rate trafficking cases calculated

II. Gender Equality:

Indicators- Eliminate and/or reduce all harmful practices to individuals based on gender

Targets- 

2.1 Proportion of dotzz users

2.2 Rate of shelter calls, rate of DIRs filed, rate of sexual assault cases filed, rate of FGM/C cases tolled, rate trafficking cases calculated

III. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure:

Indicators-Promote inclusive, accessible and sustainable innovation

Targets-

3.1 Proportion of areas covered by digital networks, particularly former digital deserts

3.2 Rate of low-medium tech value added 

IV. Reduced Inequalities:

Indicators-Promote the social, economic, cultural and political inclusion of all in the development of GBV safety protocols

Targets-

4.1 Number of anti-GBV laws, treaties, and protocols enacted

4.2 Number of insular, traditional, rural and non-Western practices are adopted as part of the anti-GBV framework

4.3 Rate of survivor-led and/or survivor-centric initiatives are funded 

V. Sustainable Cities and Communities:

Indicators-

5.1 By 2030 ensure safe and livable short-term and long-term housing for GBV survivors, regardless of gender identification and/or family unit

5.2 Enhance law enforcement responsiveness and GBV knowledge base

5.3 Enhance medical personnel GBV knowledge base

Targets-

5.1 Proportion of GBV population living with perpetrators

5.1 Proportion of GBV population living in slums/inadequate housing

5.2 Proportion of law enforcement trained in GBV responsiveness techniques

5.3 Proportion of licensed medical professionals trained in GBV responsiveness techniques

VI. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions:

Indicators-Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related deaths everywhere

Targets-

6.1 Number of homicides based on age, gender, and race per 100,000

6.2 Proportion of population subjected to a) physical violence b)psychological violence, c) sexual violence in the past 12 months

Activities:

Outputs:

Implied Causality:

Short-term Change:

Long-term Change:

survivors know their experience and can take the steps to safety in a non-linear way

reframing empowerment

bolstering currently strained human service, government, non-profit and helping institutions; developing a new central partnership; enhancing the safety plan model

providing a creative and secure way to get obscure, but vital data; fostering new partnership models; redefining ways to inform policy and social practice

The core technology powering dotzz is by using creating an app.

Safety and not race is at the bedrock of dotzz' impact. While GBV exists in every community, higher numbers dominate people of color (POC) communities. Many factors contribute to these anomalies including race, class, and the undermining of survivors’ capacity within the non-profit sector. In NYC alone, nearly 70% of non-profit executive leadership is by people of whiteness (POW), despite a 68% POC constituent base. This fact alone is critical to examine in creating long-term solutions that do more than perpetuate GBV harms that reinforce poverty pushing phenomena riddled with racial and classist undertones. These inequities must be addressed within the gender equity space in the creation of tactful GBV solutions- dotzz is one tangible example. 

It is for these reasons, and many more, that dotzz is led by an African-American, queer-identified, cis-gendered woman that has not only led national work on DEIB in educational and non-profit spaces; but has also been victim to the very bias I train against.  Hence, having had these intimate relationships with harm, they have informed and entrenched my leadership approaches and the ways that I work deeply to integrate equity at every level of my work.  

In practice that looks like working with both Phd engineers through Cornell Tech, while simultaneously working with NYC-based high school/early college programmers from Title 1 schools through American on Tech.  My practice is informed by disrupting dishonest diversity when present and working from a place of accountability, collaboration, patience, consideration, and curiosity- all factors that rattle the foundations of white supremacy culture.  

In practice, I'm comfortable as a leader having team members that shine bright, that question authority to make our end product better, that are willing to contribute to the bottom line regardless of their title and I encourage my team to all be the "tallest poppy" because there's always enough sunlight for every flower to grow. 

The same safety we're working to achieve for the dotzz user, is necessary for the dotzz team to have as well. There's an unspoken amount of fear in American workplaces, only heightened by the US' current dollar devaluation and growing inflation.  Innovation dies in those environments and those environments aren't integral to a space in alignment with the core principles of DEIB; therefore, in order to create safety for the dotzz user, I'm equally responsible to foster a safe environment for the dotzz development team.

I. Beneficiary segments: 

Survivors of gender-based violence, include but not limited to those experiencing domestic violence, female genital mutilation/cutting, intimate partner violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and child marriage.

Customers are mental health organizations, government agencies, law enforcement, hospitals, shelters, GBV-serving organizations, research institutions, policy makers, legal organizations, airlines, think tanks, colleges/universities, The greater anti-GBV community.

II. Social and Customer Value Proposition:

GBV Survivor- real-time information of shelters (homeless), hospitals, police stations, GBV-mental and legal organizations, a GBV glossary, a DIR template, a safety plan template, an incognito widget, discreet voice and text capacity, money transfer capacity, and automatic audio recording capacity. Using all of these features at their convenience and in one of 8 languages. This allows the GBV survivors to show up as their best self and addressing their safety from a trauma-informed approach. 

GBV-serving Organization-real-time client information assisting completion of their legal, mental health, medical and/or case management needs.  A virtual partner in the safety planning process.  A discreet tool increasing their ability to connect to vulnerable clientele.  A tool making their work product more competent and increasing efficiency.

GBV-serving Research/Policy Organization-real-time data to inform GBV perpetrator behaviors and the policies and procedures necessary to reduce and eliminate them.  Data that aids in informing anti-GBV industry techniques directly from populations rarely polled and formerly highly inaccessible.

III. Impact Measures:

Impact is measured by the number of orders of protections filed with support from information saved via the dotzz app, number of users that learned about customer-organizations via dotzz, and the time it takes beneficiaries to leave a cycle of violence once they begin using dotzz. 

Customer-beneficiaries will receive a survey at the end of every purchase cycle to document the impact on their service delivery and beneficiary-experience using dotzz. Surveys will review efficiency of safety plans and case administration execution via using dotzz. Examining case quality via dotzz data and the ability to contact clients, without a compromise to their safety.

Periodic surveys will be prompted on the app for beneficiary-users to document the impact of using dotzz as they navigate the many organizational and government systems available to GBV survivors.

dotzz social/environmental impact is to reduce the national average from 8 attempts.

Other metrics are the number of DIRs filed via and the number of Order of Protections filed via customer-organizations using information gathered via dotzz and the number of referrals made via customer-organizations.

IV. Surplus: 

Profits will be used to pay for personnel, particularly a full-time programmer, sales manager, social media manager, and director.

Profits will be used to pay for security of the app, backend cost of maintaining and upgrading the app, compliance, legal and ongoing R & D.

Profits will be used to scale out the development of dotzz, which will focus on long-term wellness, including direct links to mental health, yoga, acupuncture, retreats, and other wellness and restorative justice modalities. These create another revenue-stream and tier to the app, once safety and extraction from immediate violence has been achieved.  

Customers pay on a sliding scale model. They pay for user codes in bulk (similar to a user code received from a ride-share company). The user codes are then given to their clients as part of their safety planning/service delivery models. The sliding scale per code is based on the size and revenue of the customer-organization; codes cost $5, $10, or $15, per code depending on where a customer-organization aligns on the sliding scale.

Customer-organizations can also purchase the premium model for $30 a code and this package includes a month of free advertising space on the app and an enhanced feature on the safety map so that their group is more easily identifiable. Their upgraded purchase also creates a match of 6 free user codes to ensure that every possible user, even those independent of a customer-organization, are able to access dotzz for free. Guaranteeing that everyone that needs this service, receives it- regardless of income.

For research based customer-organizations, they can purchase aggregated (no personal information) dotzz data at $100 per 100 points of data. Data collected via dotzz is real-time and information that can help inform policy development and service delivery to enhance services and protocols for GBV survivors.

Customer-organizations and research based-customer organizations can also purchase ad space on dotzz for $20 a month. Their ads can be geo-located and their organizations will also benefit from the enhanced mapping feature.

dotzz was the recipient of a $5,000 grant from Communitas Americas.  

dotzz has also garnered significant traction from public and private institutions alike.  dotzz is the benefactor of space donation from The Town Hall, a high-end performance space, for our October fundraiser/demonstration.  The estimated market value of this end-kind donation of space, in conjunction with the cash stipend they are providing for event details, totals approximately $10,000.

dotzz has received approximately $15,000 to date.