Promise (PROMoting Safety in Emergencies) is an initiative started at St. Michael’s Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project modified an existing app to provide support for women experiencing intimate partner violence in the context of COVID-19 and will be used in future public health crises. The app will also give health service providers additional tools to help mitigate the social harms related to pandemics. It is designed to look like a game, to disguise its purpose from onlookers in the home, permitting safe online browsing. The app helps women assess and increase their safety when stay-at-home restrictions are in place.

Statistics have shown that intimate partner violence increases during times of crisis and in 2020, GROW contributed to the development costs of configuring the app to help women in these situations. (Ontario)