Support for domestic abuse victims in the area ran through phone lines, printed leaflets and in-person appointments. There was no single private place a victim could go on her own phone to find safety information, reach a support worker or see what was on locally, and anything sent by email or post could be seen by the person she was escaping from.
What we built
We built a private, invitation-only web app for victims, with a full staff admin behind it, for the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner and run day to day by the charity’s own team. On the member side there is guidance written plainly and phone first, anchored on the real local services alongside the national helpline, one to one chat with the support team, group rooms and a local events calendar. On the staff side, the charity edits every page, manages members, runs events and answers messages from shared support rooms, with two factor sign in, a single point of control over access, and an audit trail.
The safeguarding is the point
The decisions that protect a victim are enforced by the software, not left to someone remembering them. One key press exits the app to a weather site and clears the history. Members are never emailed about messages, and notifications carry no content. There is deliberately no two factor sign in for members, because a code sent to a phone the abuser controls protects nobody and a lockout could cut her off at the worst moment, so a short session timeout does that job instead. Refuge addresses appear nowhere in the app.
Built to keep running
The charity owns the content and the conversations without needing a developer, and we put a proper release process behind it so updates ship safely. The result is a service that is live and in use, run by the people closest to the work.