November 12, 2025 • 66 mins
How Trauma-Informed Tech Is Transforming Abuse & Harassment Reporting | Mary Lobson, REES Founder
What if reporting sexual violence, domestic abuse, harassment, or discrimination felt safe, clear, confidential, and survivor-centered?
In this episode of 1 in 3, Ingrid sits down with Mary Lobson, founder of REES (Respect, Educate, Empower Survivors), to explore how trauma-informed technology is reshaping reporting systems across college campuses, sports organizations, live music events, workplaces, and community spaces.
Mary shares her journey from frontline domestic violence advocacy to building a privacy-first, trauma-informed reporting platform trusted across North America. We break down what survivor-centered design really means in practice, including:
✅ Encrypted records even the platform can’t access
✅ Plain-language safety and data practices
✅ Ability to document once and decide later how or when to share
✅ Anonymous reporting with secure two-way communication
✅ Repeat perpetrator identification to help prevent continued harm
✅ Tools that reduce the trauma of retelling while identifying trends, red flags, and campus red-zone risk periods
Mary explains how REES empowers survivors without pressure, protects privacy and due process, and gives institutions clear, actionable insights to stop abuse, prevent retaliation, and build safer culture.
We also explore real-world implementations — from festivals replacing “info@” inboxes, to national sports programs addressing bullying and harassment, to tech companies building safety into workplace culture by design.
If you’re a survivor, advocate, administrator, HR leader, Title IX coordinator, campus safety professional, or anyone committed to ending interpersonal violence, this episode offers:
✨ Trauma-informed reporting strategies
✨ Actionable prevention models
✨ Survivor-support language and best practices
✨ Technology frameworks that protect safety, consent, and agency
If this conversation resonates, please subscribe, share, and leave a review — your support helps more people discover tools to build safer communities where we live, learn, work, and play.
Mary's Links:
https://www.reescommunity.com/
1 in 3 is intended for mature audiences. Episodes contain explicit content and may be triggering to some.
If you are in the United States and need help right now, call the national domestic violence hotline at 800-799-7233 or text the word “start” to 88788.
Contact 1 in 3:
- Send your emails to 1in3podcast@gmail.com
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- Check out the website https://www.1in3podcast.com/
Thank you for listening!
Cover art by Laura Swift Dahlke
Music by Tim Crowe
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:23):
Hi Warriors, welcome to One in Three.
I'm your host, Ingrid.
One theme I kept repeating overin my social media posts for
Domestic Violence AwarenessMonth here in the United States
was that awareness is just thebeginning, and that real action
takes all of us.
My guest today, Mary Lobson withReese, is living proof of that.
(00:48):
She and her organization are outthere turning awareness into
action.
Here's Mary.
Hi, Mary.
How are you?
I'm good, Ingrid.
How are you?
I'm great.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
Thanks for having me.
Okay, so before we get startedinto our conversation, could you
give just a little background sopeople can get to know you some?
SPEAKER_00 (01:10):
Sure.
So my name is Mary Lobson.
I have uh currently I'm thefounder of Reese, which we will
talk about later.
Um, but I'm someone who's workedin the gender-based violence
field for like 35 years.
It's been a long time that I'vebeen working in this field.
Um, and I've I've um hadopportunity really to be
(01:33):
involved in a lot of differentinitiatives.
When I started this work, andI'll I'll tell you how I kind of
fell into it.
Um, my husband at the time knewa man who needed to be
supervised in order to spendtime with his son.
And there were uh issues ofdomestic violence, and so they
needed a safe place or a safeperson around for his son.
(01:56):
Um and I said, Oh, I could dothat.
How how hard can that be?
You know, I I had worked insocial services and in the space
and um uh uh sent my resume tothe to his lawyer, which went to
the other lawyer, and then foundthat there was a real need for
(02:17):
that type of service forfamilies experiencing domestic
violence.
And that really led to whateventually was the um the first
uh supervised access center inCanada specifically for families
experiencing domestic violence.
So I am Canadian, um, I'm fromWinnipeg, but I also I say that
(02:38):
I um uh you know commute toBuffalo.
I am back and forth betweenWinnipeg and Buffalo frequently.
And that was really my startinto the gender-based violence
field.
Um I did that work for a longtime, working with families,
supporting families who wereexperiencing domestic violence,
(02:59):
they were in conflict, they werein crisis, and really ensuring
that children had safeopportunities to maintain
relationships with both of theirparents.
So this issue has been one thatI've I've worked in really my
whole, my whole adult life.
Um, in 2009, uh I was part of aconsortium of um domestic
(03:24):
violence organizations, and webrought in a woman named Cynthia
Fraser from uh the NationalNetwork to End Domestic Violence
in Washington.
Um NNEDV, as it's kind ofcommonly known, um, has a
program called the Safety NetProject.
And um, back then, uh,technology, technology and
(03:48):
gender-based violence,technology and domestic violence
was a really new thing thatpeople were talking about.
And so the Safety Net Projectwas really the leader in looking
at technology from atrauma-informed lens to think
about how technology could beused to, you know, used for
(04:10):
good, to support survivors, butthen also the harm that that the
harm and the ways technology canbe misused uh to perpetuate
harm.
Um, and so I was super fortunateto be one of two Canadians who
got invited down to what at thattime was called the training of
trainers.
(04:30):
And SafetyNet ran a program forall the state coalitions.
Um tech advocates, leaders atthe state level across the U.S.
would come together every yearand do training and then take
that back to theirorganizations.
Uh so me and a woman namedRihanna in NBC, we would come
back to Canada and we would getto do that training here.
(04:52):
So we would work with lawenforcement, anti-violence
organizations, school divisions,like judges, crowns, um, really
the folks who work to supportvictims and survivors in the
area of it was predominantlydomestic violence.
I think that that language haschanged a bit now, and it's
(05:12):
certainly more inclusive ofharm.
Um, but I got to do that for anumber of years.
And then um around 2018, uh2016, 2016, um, I saw the film
The Hunting Ground, which is afilm about uh sexual violence on
(05:35):
campus.
So colleges and universities.
Um it uh had had you know beenacclaimed at film festivals, um,
was very much in the media.
And um I reached out to two ofthe women that were in the film
saying, Would you come to thecity that we live in um and do a
(05:56):
screening of the film to launchSexual Assault Awareness Month?
So that's I that was 20, thatwas 2016 actually, that we that
we did that launch.
And meeting Annie and Andrea wasa it was just a really, you
know, you kind of look back andyou think of things in your life
that occurred that were, youknow, kind of levers or things
(06:17):
that maybe took you in adirection.
And um I I got exposed to theissue of campus sexual violence,
you know, both from the film,and certainly I knew knew about
it.
It it's not a new phenomenon,right?
No differently than when we werein school.
Um this issue, sadly, is one ofthe um only violent crimes
(06:41):
really not to have decreased inthe last 30 years.
And so my time with Annie andAndrea and thinking more about
the issue of um addressingsexual violence on campus led
eventually to the development ofReese, which stands for Respect,
Educate, Empower Survivors.
And it's an online platform forreporting um sexual violence uh
(07:03):
on campuses, where that's wherewe started.
Um, we wanted to create atrauma-informed platform, and I
can I can talk a bit more aboutit later, but a trauma-informed
space for survivors to be ableto tell their story, to document
that story, and then have agencyand options around how they
choose to share it.
Uh so that launched in 2020, andnow we are at colleges and
(07:25):
universities, but we're also inother spaces.
So we're working in musicfestivals, we work in sports, we
work in workplaces, we work inthe tech sector.
So really thinking about wherethe spaces that harm is
occurring, where survivors maybedon't have access to resources,
don't have access to uh clearreporting mechanisms, how do we
(07:48):
use technology to um enhancesupports for them?
And then also, how do we usetechnology to gather data that
can then be used to informprevention?
So that's kind of that where Istarted and where we are today.
SPEAKER_01 (08:05):
And that's an incredible, that's an incredible
resume.
And, you know, even though youit wasn't exactly the same path,
they're all so intertwined thatI'm sure it was easier to pivot
into those different roles.
Do you have a background in uhIT as well, or is that something
that you've learned as you'vegone along?
SPEAKER_00 (08:25):
Yeah, I am a what would what they would call a
non-technical founder.
Um I don't have an ITbackground.
My work has always been, youknow, frontline supporting
people, working directly withvictims, survivors, families.
Um, but I had a very clearvision of what the platform
(08:46):
should look like.
We did a lot of so working inthe field for so long, you know,
you you have some understandingof what people's needs are
because you hear that from them.
And then um the uh theprinciples of being trauma
informed, and I can talk aboutthose as well, but they really
guided what we wanted theplatform to look like and to
(09:07):
think about that.
And then I was so fortunate toto meet a man that I will shout
out on this call named ChrisDeRossi, who who uh was the
chief architect for the Macoperating system for Apple.
He was head of like this secretmission that if you Google it,
you if you Google Star TrekApple, you'll find that there
(09:30):
was this, you know, kind ofsecret mission back in the day
um uh related to technology.
And and so he he and I met.
He liked what we were doing andbecame an advisor to us.
Uh so he's been a technicaladvisor to our team for a number
of years, um, and really hasbeen able to help kind of take
(09:56):
the trauma-informed lens that wehave at the work and then build
technology that really honorsthat, that really, you know,
when we make design decisions,we think about how could this be
misused?
You know, how does this ensuresurvivor um safety?
You know, does it?
(10:17):
Are we compromising it anyway?
And so we've been reallythoughtful.
We have an amazing engineeringteam, Maria's our CTO, uh, you
know, just a great team that umhas really leaned into
trauma-informed design.
And I've come to know now, likemany of the things that we think
of as trauma-informed aren'tnecessarily aligned with how
(10:40):
technology typically would bemade.
Like thinking of creating umtechnology from a place of
consent and opting in or optingout and being really transparent
about the way technology uh theway information is gathered and
how that could be used or or notused.
(11:02):
Um, so it's been reallyinteresting to to learn.
I know way more today than I diduh five years ago, that's for
sure.
SPEAKER_01 (11:09):
It sounds so overwhelming to me because I am
so not a tech savvy person.
I so I'm really, really excitedto get into Reese and all those
details.
And I love that you have thoughtabout the integrity of the
victims and the survivors.
You know, it is it's scary toput your information out there,
not especially if you're fearfulof uh, you know, perpetrators
(11:32):
coming to retaliate or whatever.
Yeah.
And I'm super excited also thatyou've brought up trauma
informed because that is that isa something, a topic that's come
up quite a bit in some of myepisodes.
And I don't know that I'vereally gotten into it as far as
what does trauma-informed mean.
So do you mind just uh detailingthat a little bit?
SPEAKER_00 (11:55):
Trauma, you know, it it's kind of a bit of a buzzword
these days or more in recentyears.
And you know, you hear abouttrauma-informed workplaces, or
we talk about trauma-informedtechnology, we throw that
language around.
And I think uh uh it's a greatpoint because I think unless
you're in this space or you workin this space, you maybe can
(12:15):
have some idea kind of what thatmeans, but but not necessarily.
And I even think within thespace, there's not these are
what it actually is.
It's principles that inform theway people do their work.
So for us, the way we buildtechnology and the culture we
want to create, um, as I say,workplaces, other environments.
So thinking about um safety kindof as foundational to that, um,
(12:40):
being trustworthy and beingtransparent.
Um the, you know, um in tech, weI'll so I'll I'll say it, but
I'll also give some examples ofwhat these things are as well.
Like so for us, transparency ummeans that people understand
what happens with theirinformation, you know, where it
(13:02):
can go, where it can't go, thosekinds of things.
Um, agency, giving choice topeople so that they have
options, so that survivors haveoptions about, in our case, how
they want to document theirstory, how they want to share
that story.
Collaboration is a reallyimportant principle of being
trauma-informed.
You know, we we don't have allthe answers in this work.
(13:25):
Um, we don't, you know, we canthink about it and we can, you
know, use that experience tohelp guide us, but we also
really value the collaborationand contributions of the folks
in the different spaces that wework.
That's really um an importantbeing a part of being
(13:45):
trauma-informed.
You know, there's there's thatsaying sometimes that we hear,
you know, kind of nothing, um,nothing about us without us.
And I think this is this is agood example of that, where it's
important that the experiencesof survivors are um are heard,
are um considered, are I don'twant to say embedded, but
(14:10):
certainly they, they again,they're foundational to what
we're what we're doing and howwe're making it and how we're
thinking about it.
As you said earlier, you know,trust, trust is important.
And if we're putting a platformout in the world that we want
people to use, we have anobligation to safeguard their uh
(14:31):
PII, their personal identifyinginformation in our platform
that's encrypted, and weactually can't access it.
So if you were to come to theplatform and create a record,
let's say you're a student oryou're involved in one of the
spaces where we work, um, wecan't access your record.
I wouldn't be able to verifythat Ingrid has a record in the
system.
(14:52):
And that's really deliberatebecause we wanted to create that
safe space for people.
So, you know, choice, voice,empowerment, those are um kind
of principles of beingtrauma-informed.
So it's really thinking aboutwhat does the person who's
experienced harm, what do theyneed, where are they at?
(15:13):
Starting where they're at, notbringing, you know, kind of our
belief system or our assumptionsor presumptions about what that
might be, but meeting folkswhere where they're at.
And again, I think for us, theability to provide options
around how a survivor can useour platform, the different
(15:33):
spaces they can be in, thedifferent functionalities that
it has, um, hopefully for them,you know, provides that
trauma-informed space that theyfeel okay coming to and that
they feel okay using.
We've had a lot of feedback, youknow, from survivors, people
who've experienced harm thatsaid, Oh, I wish I had this when
(15:56):
I, you know, was going throughmy incident, or I wish I had
this just to document my storywhen it was going on.
Um, and that for me has beensuper meaningful because that's
why we, that's why we made it.
Um yeah, so that's a that wasmaybe a long answer to that
question.
SPEAKER_01 (16:13):
Yeah, but it's yeah, I think you included all the the
important pieces.
It's more it's you'reanticipating what the needs are,
but getting feedback to adjustis necessary.
For sure.
And then collaboration, I think,is huge.
Huge because recognizing whereyour limits are and being able
to get uh the organizations orthe individuals who are needed
(16:35):
to to step in and options is youknow, when when you are coming
from either sexual trauma,domestic violence, trauma
combination of the two or otherforms of trauma, you uh are
coming from a place where you'velost control.
And then to have options to notjust be narrowed down into you
(16:57):
can either do this or do that.
Um it's yeah, um, that's reallygreat.
SPEAKER_00 (17:02):
Yeah, for sure.
We to we talk about it umproviding agency and options for
people, you know, empoweringthem with choice.
That would be some of thelanguage that we use when we,
you know, because we work veryspecifically in the area of
reporting, um, often reportinglooks like a single-use
reporting form where you fill itout and click send.
(17:24):
And we know that um, again,there's kind of buzzwords, but
one of the phrases is healing isnot linear.
You know, it's not somethinghappened to me.
Now I'm gonna tell someone, thenI'm gonna seek support, and
then, you know, then I'm gonnado to do this.
Everybody's different.
And those experiences aredifferent.
And we need to recognize thatwhat you need and what I need.
(17:47):
They may be similar.
There may be overlap in that,but we may be need very
different things.
We might have very differentprocesses of coming to terms
with what happened in ourexperience.
So um they say for for us, thoseare those are really um
foundational to the work we doand really critical to it.
SPEAKER_01 (18:06):
Definitely.
And and healing not beinglinear, that's huge because you
don't want to discouragesomebody from continuing their
healing journey by thinking, oh,I'm not doing this the way I was
supposed to do it.
And you can make it be makingprogress and fall back, or you
know, something else surfaces.
SPEAKER_00 (18:25):
Yeah, for sure.
And and we hear so much or inour in our culture about um, you
know, well, a victim wouldn'thave done done that, or oh, that
doesn't seem like what a victimwould do, or you know, that kind
of language that we sometimeshear.
And it's like, you know, thereisn't there isn't a perfect way
(18:50):
to be someone who's experiencedharm.
Um, you know, I appreciate somepeople really resonate with the
language of victim and survivor,others really don't.
And so, so even language aroundhow people come to the platform
um can be alienating.
You know, if we talk about,well, we're only for survivors,
(19:11):
well, if I don't identify assurvivor, that's maybe not a
place for me.
Um, you know, if I identify as avictim, I'm gonna maybe feel
different.
We work, because we work inhigher ed, we work a lot with
international students.
And so their concept, construct,thinking about harm and um, you
(19:32):
know, interpersonal violence maybe very different from where
they're coming from.
So there's a real complexity inreporting that I think is um
maybe undervalued and probablymisunderstood in a lot of cases,
or not, or not even thoughtabout.
It's just kind of, oh, I've gota Google form.
You know, we've made a Googleform.
(19:53):
You know, Google's great, butthat's not the place for
reporting sexual violence, um,you know, or some other products
out there that um, you know,they weren't they weren't
created for those, for thosespaces and really recognizing
the critical um opportunitythat's provided to someone who's
(20:17):
experienced harm when theydecide to report.
Um, yeah, we hold that.
We hold that, we hold thattightly.
SPEAKER_01 (20:25):
Okay.
So it sounds like a very umpersonalized system that you
have.
So let's let's talk about it.
Let's find out like I'd love tofind out exactly what Reese is
and what you guys do.
SPEAKER_00 (20:36):
Okay.
And I'll I'll say that, youknow, I'm a non-technical
founder.
My my kids would laugh and belike, oh mom, like, you know,
can't even put Netflix on, oryou know, you can't even do
things on your phone.
Um, you know, and I think, as Isaid, it's the it's the way we
have thought about technology.
And so for us, that's aboutagency options choice.
(20:58):
So when we started in higher ed,we looked around to say, okay,
what's what's out there already?
What are the ways that, youknow, what are the good things
that we like that exist in theworld?
And then what are the ways thatwe feel they should be
different?
Um, first and foremost for usreally relates to privacy and
data security because that isyou know the essence of whatever
(21:23):
technology is created.
It's how does it, how does it umstore people's information, how
does it safeguard people'sinformation, um, who has access
to information, all of those uhprinciples we took time to
really think about.
And there's something calledprivacy by design.
(21:44):
And and privacy by design thinksabout privacy from the onset,
not kind of let's make somethingand then think about how do we
make it secure, but rather howdo we think about, you know, if
I'm a survivor, if I'm someonewho's experienced harm coming to
this platform, what are thethings that I'm gonna need?
If we're gonna work and partnerwith institutions, what are the
(22:05):
things they're gonna need it tobe on their side of things?
Um, so Reese simply is an onlineplatform for reporting at it at
its very basic level.
Um, Reese stands for respect,educate, empower survivors.
And starting in higher ed, wewanted to create a place that
(22:27):
predominantly was for students,but at pretty much all of our
partner schools, it's used forstudents, employees, you know,
faculty, staff, really everybodywithin the school community.
And um the platform, differentlythan single-use form, allows a,
I'll call them a user to, or astudent, to come to the platform
(22:48):
and create a record.
So that's their that's theirentry point to the platform.
The school has the URL sittingprobably on a sexual violence
page, uh on their website, um,on their learning management
system.
But the student can come, createthat record, and then they can
save it.
So they can hold that record.
Maybe they just want to use itas a journal space and something
(23:11):
happened, they write it down,they have it date, date, and
time stamped, and they don'tknow what they want to do.
And so they can take that timeto, you know, maybe step away
from it, maybe not think aboutit, maybe get triggered and
something happened and wantingto come back to it.
Um but they've got that recordthere.
(23:33):
Then they can choose fromoptions of how they want to
report.
So um we have anonymousreporting as a feature where
they can share a series ofmultiple choice questions and
answers with their school.
Um they can do um what we call aconnect to my campus, which goes
(23:53):
to, in most cases, someone who'sgonna give them support, like a
support.
It might be a sexual violenceoffice, it could be a shared
team, a care team, um, someoneon their school who, you know,
is a support um place.
Uh, we can do report to Title IXas a reporting pathway.
We can do formal complaint as areporting pathway.
(24:14):
We have schools that have reportto athletics.
So when Willie, when we made theplatform, again, we thought
about how the platform adapt inthe different operational
environments that we work.
So we started in higher ed, butas I've mentioned, we work in
other spaces.
So when we work in sport, inhigher ed, we might say I'm a
(24:37):
student faculty and staff orstaff.
In sport, it might be I'm anathlete or I'm a player, I'm a
coach, I'm a trainer, I'm aparent.
In festivals, it might be I'm anattendee, I'm an artist, I'm a
vendor, I'm a volunteer.
And so thinking about the wayharm occurs across the different
(25:00):
places that we exist in ourlives.
So we we use the language of youknow, reporting and supporting
people where people live, learn,work, and play.
So really all the spaces that weexist in.
So as a student, then I canmaybe today do an anonymous
report.
I'm maybe not sure what I wantto do with it.
(25:21):
And three weeks from now, Idecide I want support, I need
help, I want counseling.
I can then use that same recordto reach out directly for
support.
Maybe I have that meeting and Idecide a few weeks later, now I
want to do a formal complaint orI want to report to Title IX.
I can yet again use that samerecord to uh send and report
directly to my school.
(25:43):
And that saves the amount oftime or reduces the amount of
times that I need to retell thatstory.
It also allows the recipient tohave some understanding of the
story that I'm coming with.
So they can meet me and beprepared to meet me where I'm at
differently than me having toshow up and sit face to face
(26:06):
with someone and tell them whathappened.
You know, there can be so manybarriers to coming forward, and
that certainly can be one ofthem, you know, having to
recount um an incident of ofharm.
Um and so that's you know, thethat's the essence of the
(26:26):
platform.
As I say, it works, it works aversion of the same in the
different spaces that we workin.
So in festivals, we know thatmusic festivals there is, you
know, a high um drug and alcoholconsumption typically.
People are there to have fun,it's happening on a weekend,
(26:47):
there may be camping.
Um that's not the time typicallypeople are gonna report an
incident of harm.
They're gonna go home, they'regonna think about it, they're
gonna have their, you know,potentially the fog clear a
little bit, and it'll be like,oh wow, that you know, that was
(27:07):
my experience.
Most festivals have an info atas a, you know, as a contact.
Well, it can be really scary to,and we see infoats a lot, um, to
put your information in an emailto share that, to share that
back.
You know, email is not a secureform of transmittal.
(27:31):
You don't know who it's goingto, you don't know who's on the
other end.
Um yeah, that in and of itselfis a barrier, again, to coming
forward.
And so when we when we reachedout to festivals, we um, you
know, we talked about they arealready doing harm reduction in
a lot of cases initiatives.
They are thinking about how dothey reduce harm, you know,
(27:56):
often often thinking about itfrom a drug and alcohol
perspective, but we know thatharm is happening.
And so, how do we gather dataand information from survivor
stories that then can inform howto make the festival safer next
year?
So adapting what we used forhigher ed and making it
(28:17):
available to festivals.
So we have festival partnersacross North America.
Um, I can share now because bythe time this airs, it will be
public.
But we're in a partnership withthe Canadian Live Music
Association to um uh to expandour reach related to their
members and reporting and makesure that um, you know,
(28:39):
information is available aboutreporting, about the opportunity
reporting provides, you know,not just at festivals, but at
venues, at um, you know, forpromoters, um really across the
live music industry.
So it's exciting to see, youknow, higher ed recognizing that
(29:02):
they can do better in addressingsexual violence on campus.
And, you know, as we grow ourpartnerships in higher ed, it's
been amazing in live music andand events to see, again, this
collective will to we know thatthis is happening.
How do we create safer spaces?
Um, we another space we work inis uh sport.
(29:24):
We created something called theRespect Hockey Culture Center,
which has been um really anincredible project to lead, to
be a part of, but it is a NorthAmerica-wide reporting platform
for players, you know, athletes,billet families, um, parents,
(29:45):
volunteers, employees of eightleagues across North America.
So we've got the leagues of theCanadian Hockey League, we've
got leagues, the American HockeyLeague, the USHL, the ECHL, the
PWHL.
Um, they have all come togetherto create a space where where
folks in the leagues can createtheir record, save that record
(30:09):
if harm happens, and then choosefrom different reporting
options.
So within that, the eightleagues have 31 reporting
options amongst all of them.
And it, you know, it it speaksto the culture.
shift that is slow but is iscoming.
You know, the the evolution ofthese spaces and an openness or
(30:33):
willingness to recognize thatharm is occurring.
And so how do we how do we getin front not get in front of it
but see the blind spots right?
How do we how do we encouragethat speak up culture so that
people can feel okay aboutcoming forward so that they can
(30:56):
feel comfortable sharing theirstory, documenting firstly their
story, then sharing their story.
And so that they can then havethose stories to inform
prevention initiatives,strategy, policy, and how they
can make safer spaces.
SPEAKER_01 (31:13):
Okay, that's amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (31:15):
So I have a couple questions.
Sure.
You mentioned Title IX.
What does that mean?
Title IX.
So Title IX is legislation uh inthe US um protected statuses.
So um it relates to gen well I II want to say Title IX Title IX
historically has been about prprotected statuses, things like
(31:39):
race, gender, um uh religion,those protected statuses.
Title IX legislation umcontinues to evolve um under
administration.
So I would I would be inclinedto say to folks, you know, if
you are living in the States andinterested in Title IX, kind of
look to see how how thelegislation looks today and how
(32:04):
that's relevant for you,especially if someone is, you
know, looking at this todayversus six months out or a year
out if someone comes back tothat.
It is something that is um it'sabout the protected statuses,
but the reality is thoseprotections have changed under
different leadership anddifferent administrations.
So I'd encourage folks to tocheck that for themselves.
(32:27):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (32:27):
And that was a very diplomatic way to say that.
SPEAKER_00 (32:31):
Well and I don't I don't want to say the wrong
thing, right?
Like I don't want someone tolisten to me and go, oh well
she's Mary said that's what itis and that's what it is.
Because I I do I I think we'veseen that it's been an it's in
an all an evolving conversation.
It changes with eachadministration and how they
prioritize different things.
(32:53):
So it's yeah I would really justencourage folks to check that
out for themselves.
Okay.
And see how it's relevant.
SPEAKER_01 (33:00):
And then my second question is is this is uh a
platform or um technology toreport harm.
Now is harm specific to sexualviolence or sexual assaults?
SPEAKER_00 (33:11):
Not necessarily um when we so we we partner with
organizations.
We um I was going to say wedon't throw it out into the
world but I'll I'll actuallycome back to that because we we
do as well but we mostly partnerwith organizations so that the
(33:32):
principles of accountability andtransparency can also factor
into this.
Because if we just createreporting for the sake of
reporting um where does thatwhere does that information
really go to inform change?
So we we value our partnershipswhere we work with schools, we
(33:52):
partner with organizations, youknow, we're partnered in sport,
festivals, where then that thathost organization if you will
gets the data that then they canuse to make change within their
organization.
Okay I totally forgot yourquestion.
SPEAKER_01 (34:08):
That's okay because actually that triggered another
question for me.
Okay.
Where was I going?
It was uh harm versus is itspecific sexual assault sexual
violence.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (34:17):
Yes.
So so because we work in so manyspaces they, you know, they have
different needs that getidentified different things they
want to prioritize.
So some of our partners use usfor um and even the language is
different.
Some use us to address sexualviolence on campus.
Others want to use us forunwanted sexualized behaviors.
(34:39):
Some talk about disclosures andreports some talk about reports.
So even the language within asector isn't consistent across
there's nuances.
When we work in sportpredominantly we are working or
looking at um or providingreporting for bullying abuse
harassment discrimination sokind of broader ranges of harm
(35:02):
that can occur.
Festivals again we've got someum bullying abuse harassment
discrimination as an acronym isbad.
So we would say reporting forbad in some cases um some only
do sexual violence or morespecifically sexual violence.
So it really depends on howthings are prioritized.
(35:34):
We can use the platform forwhistleblowing we can use the
platform for you know kind ofthe the typical types of worse
workplace misconduct of you knowtheft and you know financial
malfeasance and those kinds ofthings um and where we do it
still provides that traumainformed pathways regardless of
(35:57):
the the type of harm that'sbeing reported and you know harm
harm is very subjective andlanguage is not necessarily um
language is not necessarilycommonly understood.
So you know if if I if I saythat some you know if I had an
(36:23):
experience that experience foryou might not be traumatic.
That might not be something thatyou would feel the need to share
or come forward about.
So we really encourage people tothink about you know what is
their experience do do they feelthey were harmed by it you know
things like cat calling thingslike jokes and uh comments um
(36:46):
one might view them if we wereto look at harm kind of on a
spectrum which we don't um butif one were to you know they
would see them probably at oneside and then much more
egregious harm on the theopposite side but really you
know if if there's anenvironment where let's say
there's jokes or you knowcomments being made that are of
(37:09):
sexual nature or inappropriateor discriminatory or racist or
whatever in a behavior or pardonme in an environment, that
behavior is going to impact thatculture, right?
Like we can we can talk aboutpsych um physical safety um but
we can also talk aboutpsychological safety and the
importance of creating safepsychological spaces for people.
(37:31):
And so really the ability tocome forward and share whatever
whatever that experience for anindividual individual is is
what's important, I think, okayto that.
SPEAKER_01 (37:45):
Yeah.
So um as a victim or a survivorhowever they you know prefer to
refer to themselves as, um ifthey experienced something that
they felt was traumatic to themor harmful to them and it didn't
necessarily meet exactly whatthe vendor's um preference was
for reporting, are they stillable to go ahead and use the
(38:07):
system and report and receiveassistance if needed?
SPEAKER_00 (38:10):
Yeah yeah I think too in this work um we use the
language of intersectionality oran intersectional approach to
the work which recognizes thatum you know not everything fits
tidy into a box.
And you know if I am aracialized person who is also
(38:34):
queer who has a disability whoexperiences sexual assault that
may be you know a lot of layeredexperiences in that that um
maybe you know maybe they needdifferent supports specialized
(38:55):
supports um you know maybe againfor for the person who is on the
receiving who's going to supportthem understanding those layered
pieces um you know often youknow a sexual an incident can be
something uh but it can alsorelate to gender it can relate
(39:19):
to these other components and orother identity factors whatever
language you want to use and soI think everybody we work with
would say you know what comeforward you know write it down
make report let us know and thenwe can work we can work to
support you in the way that youneed support you know we work in
(39:40):
a lot of um rural schools so uhor rural environments where
there may not be a lot ofresources so you know when we
think about sexual assaultcenters for instance um there
are not there are not typicallyas many sexual assault centers
or rape crisis centers as thereare domestic violence shelters
(40:03):
or domestic type organizationsand so we you know we can think
of dual use kind of services umand so yeah so supports um often
are made available for reallysupporting folks when they come
forward just where they're at sois there any expiration date say
(40:27):
somebody goes to a a festivaland then realizes that this is
this traumatic event's beensitting with them for a month
and then they haven't saidanything or is there any
timeline?
No, no and it it can be uh partof the part of the interesting
opportunity with festivals isyou know often they let's say
(40:47):
the festivals in the summer theygear up probably starting in
January for the festival youknow super busy festival happens
in July probably have a littlebit of downtime you know they
start kind of getting back intoit again um and then it really
ramps up.
But there may be gaps in whenfestival employees are working,
when they're around you knowsometimes they are volunteer
(41:09):
board of directors putting on afestival so in in in those cases
um if you were to email themsomeone might not even you know
kind of in the other way someonemight not even get it or it
would just go into a you knowyou'd get a reply saying we're
out of office until X amount anduh so we again wanted the space
(41:32):
for people to have agency andoptions.
They can really choose to comeand report at whatever timeframe
they want um we didn't create anexpiration on it and in fact we
um uh gave users the ability toum not only create and edit and
(41:54):
all those things a record butthey can also delete their
account they can delete theirrecords so in in many platforms
and you know when we think aboutthe privacy and the the
differences on the privacy anddata side in many cases they
need to reach out to the vendorto the platform to say can you
please um uh you know cancel myaccount or or remove my account
(42:19):
and we just gave that thatopportunity to them you know I
might have come forward with anentry in the platform I'm
graduating I'm a student youknow I'm graduating and I want
to put that behind me we knowthat there are different um
policies with respect to how,you know, will a school still
(42:41):
support me if I'm no longer astudent.
You know, like there's justdifferent policies in different
the different operationalenvironments that we work that
we work with, but we didn't wantto really put parameters around
how long how long a system orhow long a record can stay in
the system.
We also know that people who'veexperienced harm may take a long
(43:06):
time before they decide whatthey want to do with it.
And so you know we've we canthink of you know historical
examples where you know in inpop culture in the media that we
hear about that happened a longtime ago and they didn't come
forward.
And maybe something somethinghappens more recently that they
(43:26):
go, yeah, okay, now I'm ready tocome forward.
And so we wanted to we wanted toagain honor that create space
for that we had a an individualwe launched with a school and uh
it was in the media it waspublic and they came forward
about an incident that hadoccurred in the 90s and they had
(43:48):
never told their school and sowhen they heard about this in
the news they actually went tothe platform and created a
record and sent it to theirschool um which for me you know
it for me that was reallymeaningful that we could be the
place that that person chose toto finally come forward.
You know and I think oh they'vebeen holding that for all of
(44:12):
these years.
So that was really meaningfulfor me.
You know, a lot of the work isreally meaningful for me but
that that was just like wow youknow that person finally had the
space to be able to come forwardfor that.
SPEAKER_01 (44:24):
Yeah I like there was no expiration date because
you know people like you saidthey can sit with it.
Sometimes they repress it anddon't even necessarily I mean
they know what happened but it'sit's kind of filed away.
Yeah um yeah it's really great.
SPEAKER_00 (44:37):
Yeah.
One of the things I'll justmention too and I it's funny
because I I I talk about it abit as an after as an
afterthought and it's not anafterthought at all.
One of the features of theplatform uh two of the features
that I want to mention justabout the platform because I
talked about anonymous reportingand and we often hear you know
kind of what's the point ofanonymous reporting?
(44:58):
What like why bother doing ananonymous report or what what
difference does it make?
And when someone does ananonymous report it can share
back to the organizationinstitution like details about
when and where harm ishappening, the kinds of harm
that are happening it can helpidentify patterns, trends,
(45:19):
hotspots, time of year like wehave seen in higher ed February
there's often harm happening andit's like you know kind of
what's going on in February?
Well it's Valentine's Day, it'sreading week, you know, like
there's stuff going on or springbreaks start in February.
The red zone is the first uhkind of six to eight weeks of
school starting back in the fallwhere we know that there's much
(45:43):
higher rates.
And uh so it can help anonymousreporting can really help inform
those things.
We also uh had heard from folkswho support or who provide
supports that you know whatanonymous reporting really is a
challenge for us because wecan't go back to those
(46:04):
individuals.
So we created a a what we call abi-directional communication
chat feature within the platformso that if let's say you're uh
you're a workplace or you're afestival or whatever and I'm I'm
a user, I can send an anonymousreport you're gonna get it and
you can follow up with me.
So you can say hey I got youranonymous report how can I help
(46:26):
what do you need how can I stillsupport you and we really wanted
to bridge the gap for folks whoaren't ready to come forward but
still may need supports andresources.
That that was really importantand and and that goes back to
collaboration that goes back tohearing from we call it the
Reese community but hearing fromthe folks that we work with that
(46:49):
you know that that this would bethat having this feature would
both enable ongoing support forsurvivors not ready to come
forward or people who've beenharmed and then also enable
organizations to be able tocontinue to support them.
So that's been that's been animportant collaboration.
Another thing that the featureor pardon me that the that the
(47:12):
platform provides is a featurethat we call repeat perpetrator
identification.
And this is a I'll call it amatching feature but it allows
within an operationalenvironment so within a school
or within a workplace or withina potentially festival festivals
don't use it so much justbecause they're broader kind of
(47:35):
spaces um but often we know likeon campuses the statistics are
very high that someone is goingto know the person that harmed
them.
Same with sports.
So there's definitely there'sdefinitely places where we work
where the likelihood you know ifyou in a in a school you're
gonna know who that person is orsomehow be connected to them.
(47:58):
And so the repeat perpetratorfeature allows me to put in some
identifiers for the person thatharmed me.
Let's say you and I go to thesame school or in the same
sport, you go in and put inthose same identifiers, it's
gonna trigger a match and theorganization is going to be
notified.
And so that can really helpidentify early on when someone
(48:19):
is you know causing harm,potentially causing harm in the
in the community and it can helpwith early identification of
risk.
And I think again we can look toexamples certainly in higher ed
there are certainly in sportthere are those things often
(48:39):
overlapping but there wherethere are you know hundreds of
victims and um it is tough tocome forward.
It is tough to come forward itis tough to tell anybody but
there's the ability to createthat entry you know and
potentially contribute to thatto identifying that match and
(49:02):
when we build hockey and againhockey is really unparalleled to
unparalleled the respect hockeyculture center in terms of its
scope but if you are a playerwho experiences um you know
you're on a a team in Canada andyou have an incident of harm
let's say it's a coach and thatcoach now goes to coach in a
(49:25):
different league in the UnitedStates we have the ability to
match across jurisdictions,across organizations and that is
huge.
SPEAKER_01 (49:34):
It is really it is you know it's really it's really
exciting to be able to um helpmake the connection and and
connect help make the connectionconnect the dots in in those
spaces well and I know youmentioned that uh people
question why anonymous but Ithink the anonymous portion is
(49:56):
so key because sometimes justtelling your story you just need
that like narrative therapy ofjust putting it out there.
I just want to put it outexactly I want someone else to
know.
Yeah and then the fact that theycan receive support in doing so
on top of that is really cool.
I think it also helps with thatobligation that that there's not
(50:18):
a true obligation, but like thesocietal obligation that they
put on victims and survivors oflike well you've been
traumatized by this individualit's your not not the duty of
the perpetrator to stop causingharm.
But it's the obligation of thevictim or the survivor to it's
their responsibility to stopthat from happening again, which
(50:40):
it's it's not but um you knowpeople may feel that obligation
and that that ability to reportanonymously and still you know
put that out there to havesomebody else take care of is is
huge.
Yeah.
So do when you enter in theinformation do you have the
(51:01):
option to actually identify umthe perpetrator like I know it's
Jim Smith.
Sorry if there's a real JimSmith out there but sorry Jim
which probably is I'm surethere's a lot of that's actually
why I came up with a name it's avery popular name.
SPEAKER_00 (51:16):
Yeah so and that and that's a good that's an
excellent point.
We actually are not gonna we'rewe're not gonna match on Jim
Smith exactly for that reason.
There could be a whole pile ofJim Smiths that exist that would
be you know wrongfully um uhidentified as a person causing
harm.
So what we look at are what wecall unique identifiers.
(51:39):
So they're things that only oneperson can hold.
So things like social mediahandles, phone number, email
address, um, you know the repeatperpetrator or we call it RPI
feature isn't going to workreally in public spaces.
It's not like oh the guy in thered hoodie with the brown hair
did it like it's not about that.
It's about um more typicallyidentifying you know someone
(52:04):
that is known or known withinthe within the community.
And it also I want to mention ifwe don't have it used
anonymously in our platform.
And and again you know we we aremindful of the sensitivity in
this space.
(52:25):
We are aware that you knowallegations related to a
perpetrator are are just thatand creating a space where
someone can just anonymouslythrow out people's identifiers,
you know, create some own itcreates some other challenges
with it.
So again, you know it's a spacewhere if you and I put in
(52:46):
identifiers, we've also put inour name if that goes to the
school or the league or whateverorganization we're reporting
back to, they're gonna get thatinformation and then they're
gonna decide okay what are wegoing to do with it?
They may follow up with us.
They may say oh you know whatwe've heard this name brought to
us in other different ways oryou know we've had in-person
(53:08):
reports about this.
So they're gonna assess that umfrom a risk management
perspective.
But it was important that from ayou know just again from
thinking about the platform,wanting to not kind of
compromise that by have it justbeing an anonymous place to just
throw somebody's name in.
SPEAKER_01 (53:28):
Okay.
And I just realized I actuallyam friends with the Jim Smith.
So I'm so sorry Jimmy so sorry Ithrew your name out there.
But we're gonna stick with Jimso let's say I create a profile
and I throw in uh Jim's socialmedia all of that and I'm okay
with not being anonymous andit's it's me but I don't
(53:51):
necessarily want to take anykind of legal action toward Jim
is and we're at the school sosay is the school able to
approach Jim and you knowwithout saying Ingrid's made
these allegations?
SPEAKER_00 (54:07):
Well in order for there to be a match you, Ingrid
and someone, so let's say it'sme, um would have to do that and
they would get the match um theschool's really gonna or
whatever the organization is,they're really gonna weigh how
they want to proceed dependingyou know are we minors that
might be a different scenariothan whether we're adults um is
(54:31):
this person already known tothem?
Is this person already has ahistory?
Do they already has this personalready been warned or been you
know um talked to or somethingso it's really going to depend
case by case.
I don't think there's anecessarily a if this happens
then this is going to happen.
It would be very much a a caseby case scenario and kind of
(54:53):
weighing out what occurred youknow I think trauma informed
thinking about what theirresponse would be might
hopefully lend them to thinkingwell if if I just go now to Jim
and talk to him and if he's onlyharmed you and I, he's probably
going to know it was you and Ithat came forward and created
(55:13):
the match, right?
So um so I think there's athere's a level of consideration
and caution and again hopefullytrauma informed response on the
side of the organization who isreceiving uh receiving RPI
matches.
SPEAKER_01 (55:31):
Okay.
And then I just I want toemphasize again you said all of
this information is encrypted.
So if for the organizationsschools or uh festivals if they
want to collect the data and useit to make changes they're not
collecting Ingrid's informationand they're um good question
they are collecting what yougive them.
SPEAKER_00 (55:53):
So if you do anonymous report then you're not
providing your name we call themanonymous reports and named
reports.
So so there are variousreporting pathways that you can
put your name on them.
So RPI being one of them if youreport to Title IX that's got
your name typically and becausethe intention is then that they
(56:14):
will follow up with you.
So there's kind of a there's theanonymous option and then
there's the other options whereyou know you are doing a formal
complaint.
Most environments don't allowfor a formal complaint, an
anonymous formal complaintprocess.
And so then you would provideyour information.
(56:36):
So it's really it's your choiceabout how much information you
want to share and that will helpguide kind of the different
paths that you use.
SPEAKER_01 (56:45):
Okay that makes sense.
And then also I think it'simportant to understand that
while you guys may not have anexpiration date, if someone did
want to pursue legal recoursethere could be a statute of
limitations and that would varydepending on where they are and
what the allegations are.
SPEAKER_00 (57:03):
Yeah defin definitely that's that's for
sure a true statement and againwould encourage folks to you
know look within you know kindof think of the context that
it's occurring um you know ifit's within an organization are
there timeframes there?
Because certainly there can beespecially in schools there can
be um and then within your youryou know your state your
(57:26):
province wherever you're livingum what other legal
considerations there are.
Okay and you mentioned yourreach is your Canada you you
said Buffalo I feel like Buffalois kind of part of Canada so far
up there and the various hockeyleagues but we're we're exactly
(57:47):
in the United States part ofNorth America so we we work in
California um we have festivalin California we have school in
California uh we have a festivalin Iowa um we and then mostly in
sport we work we work with a umuh we work in the hospitality
(58:12):
sector supporting conferencesthat support the sector and so
those conferences are occurringwithin the US uh in the yeah in
hospitality and in restaurantsuh restaurant and hospitality
sector so we kind of work indifferent ways with different
organizations um we uh I can'treally talk about it right now
(58:36):
we have a pretty significant umlaunch coming in the new year
that will have us reallypermeating throughout the United
States um in a particular areaum but really permeating the
entire US um so yeah we're justwe're kind of in different
different spaces in differentways and it's continuing to
(58:58):
evolve like it's continuing toto grow and expand and evolve
and then in Canada we are likelots of schools across the
country we're coast to coast tocoast in festivals um in Alberta
we are working uh and Manitobaworking in the technology
sectors so we actually havereporting for uh harm that's
(59:21):
occurring across the entire techsector because we know that
female founders founders of uhlike LGBTQ BIPOC they experience
higher rates of harassmentmisconduct and so created these
these spaces um at theprovincial level um yeah so
(59:41):
we're doing some some uh reallykind of interesting and
innovative work in Alberta aswell we're launching across the
province with a a safe space umfor folks to be able to document
their stories of sexual violenceso there's lots of lots of
important work happening thereis and I'm so excited to hear
(01:00:04):
this because it's it's so easyfor a lot of us to sit and say
so many things need to be doneand nobody's doing anything but
this is a prime example of ofdoing so how do people get in
touch with you do they get likedo if I were wanting to
personally report something umand
SPEAKER_01 (01:00:23):
And I attended this festival.
Is there a separate way to getin touch with Reese versus I'm a
vendor and I want to collaboratewith you?
Sure.
SPEAKER_00 (01:00:33):
So yeah, great question.
So if you're wanting to reachout and say hi or connect as a
as a vendor, reach out to us athello at Reese Community.com.
If you are someone who iswanting to report, it would be
check with that organization,check the website, or reach out
(01:00:54):
to them to say, you know, areyou a partner with Reese?
And do you have reportingplatform?
And then they would reportdirectly into the platform that
way.
We did a partnership, we createda partnership almost a year ago
with the um with Take Back theNight, which is the sexual
(01:01:14):
assault, uh, they host thesexual assault legal uh
helpline.
Or pardon me.
Yeah, the sexual assault legalhelpline.
And we actually created a spaceum that allows uh it's really
just open space in the US.
We don't have it in Canada, um,for someone to go there, create
(01:01:36):
their record, and um save that.
So they can use it as a safejournal space.
And if they want, they can sendthat directly to the sexual
assault legal helpline and beconnected with legal counsel to
decide or explore kind of nextsteps for them.
Um yeah, so it's kind of it kindof depends.
(01:01:57):
You know, reaching out, reachingout to us as a vendor is one
thing, but then really lookingin the different spaces.
Certainly, if you're an athlete.
Um in Canada, we work with agroup called Athletes Empowered.
And so we've opened up, I keepcalling it reporting.
It's not necessarily reportingin those spaces, but that safe
journal space for folks to beable to document their story and
keep that till they decide whatto do with that.
(01:02:19):
That's available across Canadafor uh athletes at all levels of
play.
Um so it kind of depends whereyou where you are in terms of
how you would access theplatform.
Do you have any social media atall?
Oh, yeah, we're at uh ReeseCommunity.
So at Reese Community, um, youknow, Instagram, Facebook,
(01:02:39):
LinkedIn, uh, we're on LinkedIn.
Not so much on X.
Not so much on X.
Might find some old stuff orlike intermittent stuff there,
um, but not so much there.
But certainly Instagram wouldprobably be the place that we
are, we are often found.
SPEAKER_01 (01:02:55):
Okay, perfect.
And is there any words ofencouragement or wisdom you
would like to leave withlisteners?
SPEAKER_00 (01:03:04):
So so I want to I want to acknowledge that we are
recording right now in DomesticViolence Awareness Month.
And we've we've had a this hasbeen a great conversation.
I appreciate the conversation.
Um but I want to honor thatwe're here in October and that
um that this is gonna air inNovember, which in Canada it's
(01:03:27):
it's so in the US it's October.
In Canada, it's typicallyNovember.
If you're in Australia, it's inMay.
Um But I I yeah, I want to honorthat people for people who
experience harm, there is hope.
There are supports available andpeople at the end of a phone, an
(01:03:52):
anonymous chat, or you know,whatever it might be who want to
help you.
Um and that they're yeah, Ithink I think that you know,
there's there's the we believeyou and those those sentiments.
Um and those are those areabsolutely important.
But I think, you know, just thatthere's hope, that there's hope
(01:04:14):
and there's help out there.
There are lots of amazingorganizations, and it can be
tough to get help sometimes orfeel like you can reach out for
help sometimes.
Um can be scary to do that,there can be lots of barriers to
do that.
Um but just know that you're notalone, that there are people who
(01:04:36):
have walked in your shoes andcome out the other side, and um
it's okay not to be okay.
Healing's not linear, kind ofthe the phrases that we use, and
we use the phrases becausethey're just true.
Um, so those would be just somekind of parting, parting words
that I would have.
SPEAKER_01 (01:04:57):
Um, thank you.
I think that's lovely, and Ithink those are all great
reminders to everyone.
So I appreciate your time.
I appreciate your lifelong workthat you've dedicated to.
Thank you, Ingrid.
SPEAKER_00 (01:05:12):
And and yours, right?
Like we're all like we're allwe're all rowing in the same
direction.
We are yeah, we are supportingone another and helping to raise
profiles.
So I appreciate you, you know,inviting me on and including me
in your conversation.
Um, because it's uh it's animportant one.
So thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (01:05:33):
Thank you.
Thank you again, Mary, forjoining me today.
And thank you, Warriors, forlistening.
I have included all of Mary'slinks, including her one in
three profile, in the shownotes.
I will be back next week withanother episode for you.
Until then, stay strong.
And always remember, whereveryou are in your journey, you are
(01:05:55):
not alone.
Find more information, registeras a guest, or leave a review by
going to the websiteonein3podcast.com.
That's the number one the numberthree podcast.com.
Follow one in three onInstagram, Facebook, and Twitter
at one and three podcast.
(01:06:16):
To help me out, please rememberto rate review and subscribe.
One in three is a.5 Panoiproduction.
Music written and performed byTim Crow.
Hi Warriors, welcome to One in Three.
I'm your host, Ingrid.
One theme I kept repeating overin my social media posts for
Domestic Violence AwarenessMonth here in the United States
was that awareness is just thebeginning, and that real action
takes all of us.
My guest today, Mary Lobson withReese, is living proof of that.
(00:48):
She and her organization are outthere turning awareness into
action.
Here's Mary.
Hi, Mary.
How are you?
I'm good, Ingrid.
How are you?
I'm great.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
Thanks for having me.
Okay, so before we get startedinto our conversation, could you
give just a little background sopeople can get to know you some?
SPEAKER_00 (01:10):
Sure.
So my name is Mary Lobson.
I have uh currently I'm thefounder of Reese, which we will
talk about later.
Um, but I'm someone who's workedin the gender-based violence
field for like 35 years.
It's been a long time that I'vebeen working in this field.
Um, and I've I've um hadopportunity really to be
(01:33):
involved in a lot of differentinitiatives.
When I started this work, andI'll I'll tell you how I kind of
fell into it.
Um, my husband at the time knewa man who needed to be
supervised in order to spendtime with his son.
And there were uh issues ofdomestic violence, and so they
needed a safe place or a safeperson around for his son.
(01:56):
Um and I said, Oh, I could dothat.
How how hard can that be?
You know, I I had worked insocial services and in the space
and um uh uh sent my resume tothe to his lawyer, which went to
the other lawyer, and then foundthat there was a real need for
(02:17):
that type of service forfamilies experiencing domestic
violence.
And that really led to whateventually was the um the first
uh supervised access center inCanada specifically for families
experiencing domestic violence.
So I am Canadian, um, I'm fromWinnipeg, but I also I say that
(02:38):
I um uh you know commute toBuffalo.
I am back and forth betweenWinnipeg and Buffalo frequently.
And that was really my startinto the gender-based violence
field.
Um I did that work for a longtime, working with families,
supporting families who wereexperiencing domestic violence,
(02:59):
they were in conflict, they werein crisis, and really ensuring
that children had safeopportunities to maintain
relationships with both of theirparents.
So this issue has been one thatI've I've worked in really my
whole, my whole adult life.
Um, in 2009, uh I was part of aconsortium of um domestic
(03:24):
violence organizations, and webrought in a woman named Cynthia
Fraser from uh the NationalNetwork to End Domestic Violence
in Washington.
Um NNEDV, as it's kind ofcommonly known, um, has a
program called the Safety NetProject.
And um, back then, uh,technology, technology and
(03:48):
gender-based violence,technology and domestic violence
was a really new thing thatpeople were talking about.
And so the Safety Net Projectwas really the leader in looking
at technology from atrauma-informed lens to think
about how technology could beused to, you know, used for
(04:10):
good, to support survivors, butthen also the harm that that the
harm and the ways technology canbe misused uh to perpetuate
harm.
Um, and so I was super fortunateto be one of two Canadians who
got invited down to what at thattime was called the training of
trainers.
(04:30):
And SafetyNet ran a program forall the state coalitions.
Um tech advocates, leaders atthe state level across the U.S.
would come together every yearand do training and then take
that back to theirorganizations.
Uh so me and a woman namedRihanna in NBC, we would come
back to Canada and we would getto do that training here.
(04:52):
So we would work with lawenforcement, anti-violence
organizations, school divisions,like judges, crowns, um, really
the folks who work to supportvictims and survivors in the
area of it was predominantlydomestic violence.
I think that that language haschanged a bit now, and it's
(05:12):
certainly more inclusive ofharm.
Um, but I got to do that for anumber of years.
And then um around 2018, uh2016, 2016, um, I saw the film
The Hunting Ground, which is afilm about uh sexual violence on
(05:35):
campus.
So colleges and universities.
Um it uh had had you know beenacclaimed at film festivals, um,
was very much in the media.
And um I reached out to two ofthe women that were in the film
saying, Would you come to thecity that we live in um and do a
(05:56):
screening of the film to launchSexual Assault Awareness Month?
So that's I that was 20, thatwas 2016 actually, that we that
we did that launch.
And meeting Annie and Andrea wasa it was just a really, you
know, you kind of look back andyou think of things in your life
that occurred that were, youknow, kind of levers or things
(06:17):
that maybe took you in adirection.
And um I I got exposed to theissue of campus sexual violence,
you know, both from the film,and certainly I knew knew about
it.
It it's not a new phenomenon,right?
No differently than when we werein school.
Um this issue, sadly, is one ofthe um only violent crimes
(06:41):
really not to have decreased inthe last 30 years.
And so my time with Annie andAndrea and thinking more about
the issue of um addressingsexual violence on campus led
eventually to the development ofReese, which stands for Respect,
Educate, Empower Survivors.
And it's an online platform forreporting um sexual violence uh
(07:03):
on campuses, where that's wherewe started.
Um, we wanted to create atrauma-informed platform, and I
can I can talk a bit more aboutit later, but a trauma-informed
space for survivors to be ableto tell their story, to document
that story, and then have agencyand options around how they
choose to share it.
Uh so that launched in 2020, andnow we are at colleges and
(07:25):
universities, but we're also inother spaces.
So we're working in musicfestivals, we work in sports, we
work in workplaces, we work inthe tech sector.
So really thinking about wherethe spaces that harm is
occurring, where survivors maybedon't have access to resources,
don't have access to uh clearreporting mechanisms, how do we
(07:48):
use technology to um enhancesupports for them?
And then also, how do we usetechnology to gather data that
can then be used to informprevention?
So that's kind of that where Istarted and where we are today.
SPEAKER_01 (08:05):
And that's an incredible, that's an incredible
resume.
And, you know, even though youit wasn't exactly the same path,
they're all so intertwined thatI'm sure it was easier to pivot
into those different roles.
Do you have a background in uhIT as well, or is that something
that you've learned as you'vegone along?
SPEAKER_00 (08:25):
Yeah, I am a what would what they would call a
non-technical founder.
Um I don't have an ITbackground.
My work has always been, youknow, frontline supporting
people, working directly withvictims, survivors, families.
Um, but I had a very clearvision of what the platform
(08:46):
should look like.
We did a lot of so working inthe field for so long, you know,
you you have some understandingof what people's needs are
because you hear that from them.
And then um the uh theprinciples of being trauma
informed, and I can talk aboutthose as well, but they really
guided what we wanted theplatform to look like and to
(09:07):
think about that.
And then I was so fortunate toto meet a man that I will shout
out on this call named ChrisDeRossi, who who uh was the
chief architect for the Macoperating system for Apple.
He was head of like this secretmission that if you Google it,
you if you Google Star TrekApple, you'll find that there
(09:30):
was this, you know, kind ofsecret mission back in the day
um uh related to technology.
And and so he he and I met.
He liked what we were doing andbecame an advisor to us.
Uh so he's been a technicaladvisor to our team for a number
of years, um, and really hasbeen able to help kind of take
(09:56):
the trauma-informed lens that wehave at the work and then build
technology that really honorsthat, that really, you know,
when we make design decisions,we think about how could this be
misused?
You know, how does this ensuresurvivor um safety?
You know, does it?
(10:17):
Are we compromising it anyway?
And so we've been reallythoughtful.
We have an amazing engineeringteam, Maria's our CTO, uh, you
know, just a great team that umhas really leaned into
trauma-informed design.
And I've come to know now, likemany of the things that we think
of as trauma-informed aren'tnecessarily aligned with how
(10:40):
technology typically would bemade.
Like thinking of creating umtechnology from a place of
consent and opting in or optingout and being really transparent
about the way technology uh theway information is gathered and
how that could be used or or notused.
(11:02):
Um, so it's been reallyinteresting to to learn.
I know way more today than I diduh five years ago, that's for
sure.
SPEAKER_01 (11:09):
It sounds so overwhelming to me because I am
so not a tech savvy person.
I so I'm really, really excitedto get into Reese and all those
details.
And I love that you have thoughtabout the integrity of the
victims and the survivors.
You know, it is it's scary toput your information out there,
not especially if you're fearfulof uh, you know, perpetrators
(11:32):
coming to retaliate or whatever.
Yeah.
And I'm super excited also thatyou've brought up trauma
informed because that is that isa something, a topic that's come
up quite a bit in some of myepisodes.
And I don't know that I'vereally gotten into it as far as
what does trauma-informed mean.
So do you mind just uh detailingthat a little bit?
SPEAKER_00 (11:55):
Trauma, you know, it it's kind of a bit of a buzzword
these days or more in recentyears.
And you know, you hear abouttrauma-informed workplaces, or
we talk about trauma-informedtechnology, we throw that
language around.
And I think uh uh it's a greatpoint because I think unless
you're in this space or you workin this space, you maybe can
(12:15):
have some idea kind of what thatmeans, but but not necessarily.
And I even think within thespace, there's not these are
what it actually is.
It's principles that inform theway people do their work.
So for us, the way we buildtechnology and the culture we
want to create, um, as I say,workplaces, other environments.
So thinking about um safety kindof as foundational to that, um,
(12:40):
being trustworthy and beingtransparent.
Um the, you know, um in tech, weI'll so I'll I'll say it, but
I'll also give some examples ofwhat these things are as well.
Like so for us, transparency ummeans that people understand
what happens with theirinformation, you know, where it
(13:02):
can go, where it can't go, thosekinds of things.
Um, agency, giving choice topeople so that they have
options, so that survivors haveoptions about, in our case, how
they want to document theirstory, how they want to share
that story.
Collaboration is a reallyimportant principle of being
trauma-informed.
You know, we we don't have allthe answers in this work.
(13:25):
Um, we don't, you know, we canthink about it and we can, you
know, use that experience tohelp guide us, but we also
really value the collaborationand contributions of the folks
in the different spaces that wework.
That's really um an importantbeing a part of being
(13:45):
trauma-informed.
You know, there's there's thatsaying sometimes that we hear,
you know, kind of nothing, um,nothing about us without us.
And I think this is this is agood example of that, where it's
important that the experiencesof survivors are um are heard,
are um considered, are I don'twant to say embedded, but
(14:10):
certainly they, they again,they're foundational to what
we're what we're doing and howwe're making it and how we're
thinking about it.
As you said earlier, you know,trust, trust is important.
And if we're putting a platformout in the world that we want
people to use, we have anobligation to safeguard their uh
(14:31):
PII, their personal identifyinginformation in our platform
that's encrypted, and weactually can't access it.
So if you were to come to theplatform and create a record,
let's say you're a student oryou're involved in one of the
spaces where we work, um, wecan't access your record.
I wouldn't be able to verifythat Ingrid has a record in the
system.
(14:52):
And that's really deliberatebecause we wanted to create that
safe space for people.
So, you know, choice, voice,empowerment, those are um kind
of principles of beingtrauma-informed.
So it's really thinking aboutwhat does the person who's
experienced harm, what do theyneed, where are they at?
(15:13):
Starting where they're at, notbringing, you know, kind of our
belief system or our assumptionsor presumptions about what that
might be, but meeting folkswhere where they're at.
And again, I think for us, theability to provide options
around how a survivor can useour platform, the different
(15:33):
spaces they can be in, thedifferent functionalities that
it has, um, hopefully for them,you know, provides that
trauma-informed space that theyfeel okay coming to and that
they feel okay using.
We've had a lot of feedback, youknow, from survivors, people
who've experienced harm thatsaid, Oh, I wish I had this when
(15:56):
I, you know, was going throughmy incident, or I wish I had
this just to document my storywhen it was going on.
Um, and that for me has beensuper meaningful because that's
why we, that's why we made it.
Um yeah, so that's a that wasmaybe a long answer to that
question.
SPEAKER_01 (16:13):
Yeah, but it's yeah, I think you included all the the
important pieces.
It's more it's you'reanticipating what the needs are,
but getting feedback to adjustis necessary.
For sure.
And then collaboration, I think,is huge.
Huge because recognizing whereyour limits are and being able
to get uh the organizations orthe individuals who are needed
(16:35):
to to step in and options is youknow, when when you are coming
from either sexual trauma,domestic violence, trauma
combination of the two or otherforms of trauma, you uh are
coming from a place where you'velost control.
And then to have options to notjust be narrowed down into you
(16:57):
can either do this or do that.
Um it's yeah, um, that's reallygreat.
SPEAKER_00 (17:02):
Yeah, for sure.
We to we talk about it umproviding agency and options for
people, you know, empoweringthem with choice.
That would be some of thelanguage that we use when we,
you know, because we work veryspecifically in the area of
reporting, um, often reportinglooks like a single-use
reporting form where you fill itout and click send.
(17:24):
And we know that um, again,there's kind of buzzwords, but
one of the phrases is healing isnot linear.
You know, it's not somethinghappened to me.
Now I'm gonna tell someone, thenI'm gonna seek support, and
then, you know, then I'm gonnado to do this.
Everybody's different.
And those experiences aredifferent.
And we need to recognize thatwhat you need and what I need.
(17:47):
They may be similar.
There may be overlap in that,but we may be need very
different things.
We might have very differentprocesses of coming to terms
with what happened in ourexperience.
So um they say for for us, thoseare those are really um
foundational to the work we doand really critical to it.
SPEAKER_01 (18:06):
Definitely.
And and healing not beinglinear, that's huge because you
don't want to discouragesomebody from continuing their
healing journey by thinking, oh,I'm not doing this the way I was
supposed to do it.
And you can make it be makingprogress and fall back, or you
know, something else surfaces.
SPEAKER_00 (18:25):
Yeah, for sure.
And and we hear so much or inour in our culture about um, you
know, well, a victim wouldn'thave done done that, or oh, that
doesn't seem like what a victimwould do, or you know, that kind
of language that we sometimeshear.
And it's like, you know, thereisn't there isn't a perfect way
(18:50):
to be someone who's experiencedharm.
Um, you know, I appreciate somepeople really resonate with the
language of victim and survivor,others really don't.
And so, so even language aroundhow people come to the platform
um can be alienating.
You know, if we talk about,well, we're only for survivors,
(19:11):
well, if I don't identify assurvivor, that's maybe not a
place for me.
Um, you know, if I identify as avictim, I'm gonna maybe feel
different.
We work, because we work inhigher ed, we work a lot with
international students.
And so their concept, construct,thinking about harm and um, you
(19:32):
know, interpersonal violence maybe very different from where
they're coming from.
So there's a real complexity inreporting that I think is um
maybe undervalued and probablymisunderstood in a lot of cases,
or not, or not even thoughtabout.
It's just kind of, oh, I've gota Google form.
You know, we've made a Googleform.
(19:53):
You know, Google's great, butthat's not the place for
reporting sexual violence, um,you know, or some other products
out there that um, you know,they weren't they weren't
created for those, for thosespaces and really recognizing
the critical um opportunitythat's provided to someone who's
(20:17):
experienced harm when theydecide to report.
Um, yeah, we hold that.
We hold that, we hold thattightly.
SPEAKER_01 (20:25):
Okay.
So it sounds like a very umpersonalized system that you
have.
So let's let's talk about it.
Let's find out like I'd love tofind out exactly what Reese is
and what you guys do.
SPEAKER_00 (20:36):
Okay.
And I'll I'll say that, youknow, I'm a non-technical
founder.
My my kids would laugh and belike, oh mom, like, you know,
can't even put Netflix on, oryou know, you can't even do
things on your phone.
Um, you know, and I think, as Isaid, it's the it's the way we
have thought about technology.
And so for us, that's aboutagency options choice.
(20:58):
So when we started in higher ed,we looked around to say, okay,
what's what's out there already?
What are the ways that, youknow, what are the good things
that we like that exist in theworld?
And then what are the ways thatwe feel they should be
different?
Um, first and foremost for usreally relates to privacy and
data security because that isyou know the essence of whatever
(21:23):
technology is created.
It's how does it, how does it umstore people's information, how
does it safeguard people'sinformation, um, who has access
to information, all of those uhprinciples we took time to
really think about.
And there's something calledprivacy by design.
(21:44):
And and privacy by design thinksabout privacy from the onset,
not kind of let's make somethingand then think about how do we
make it secure, but rather howdo we think about, you know, if
I'm a survivor, if I'm someonewho's experienced harm coming to
this platform, what are thethings that I'm gonna need?
If we're gonna work and partnerwith institutions, what are the
(22:05):
things they're gonna need it tobe on their side of things?
Um, so Reese simply is an onlineplatform for reporting at it at
its very basic level.
Um, Reese stands for respect,educate, empower survivors.
And starting in higher ed, wewanted to create a place that
(22:27):
predominantly was for students,but at pretty much all of our
partner schools, it's used forstudents, employees, you know,
faculty, staff, really everybodywithin the school community.
And um the platform, differentlythan single-use form, allows a,
I'll call them a user to, or astudent, to come to the platform
(22:48):
and create a record.
So that's their that's theirentry point to the platform.
The school has the URL sittingprobably on a sexual violence
page, uh on their website, um,on their learning management
system.
But the student can come, createthat record, and then they can
save it.
So they can hold that record.
Maybe they just want to use itas a journal space and something
(23:11):
happened, they write it down,they have it date, date, and
time stamped, and they don'tknow what they want to do.
And so they can take that timeto, you know, maybe step away
from it, maybe not think aboutit, maybe get triggered and
something happened and wantingto come back to it.
Um but they've got that recordthere.
(23:33):
Then they can choose fromoptions of how they want to
report.
So um we have anonymousreporting as a feature where
they can share a series ofmultiple choice questions and
answers with their school.
Um they can do um what we call aconnect to my campus, which goes
(23:53):
to, in most cases, someone who'sgonna give them support, like a
support.
It might be a sexual violenceoffice, it could be a shared
team, a care team, um, someoneon their school who, you know,
is a support um place.
Uh, we can do report to Title IXas a reporting pathway.
We can do formal complaint as areporting pathway.
(24:14):
We have schools that have reportto athletics.
So when Willie, when we made theplatform, again, we thought
about how the platform adapt inthe different operational
environments that we work.
So we started in higher ed, butas I've mentioned, we work in
other spaces.
So when we work in sport, inhigher ed, we might say I'm a
(24:37):
student faculty and staff orstaff.
In sport, it might be I'm anathlete or I'm a player, I'm a
coach, I'm a trainer, I'm aparent.
In festivals, it might be I'm anattendee, I'm an artist, I'm a
vendor, I'm a volunteer.
And so thinking about the wayharm occurs across the different
(25:00):
places that we exist in ourlives.
So we we use the language of youknow, reporting and supporting
people where people live, learn,work, and play.
So really all the spaces that weexist in.
So as a student, then I canmaybe today do an anonymous
report.
I'm maybe not sure what I wantto do with it.
(25:21):
And three weeks from now, Idecide I want support, I need
help, I want counseling.
I can then use that same recordto reach out directly for
support.
Maybe I have that meeting and Idecide a few weeks later, now I
want to do a formal complaint orI want to report to Title IX.
I can yet again use that samerecord to uh send and report
directly to my school.
(25:43):
And that saves the amount oftime or reduces the amount of
times that I need to retell thatstory.
It also allows the recipient tohave some understanding of the
story that I'm coming with.
So they can meet me and beprepared to meet me where I'm at
differently than me having toshow up and sit face to face
(26:06):
with someone and tell them whathappened.
You know, there can be so manybarriers to coming forward, and
that certainly can be one ofthem, you know, having to
recount um an incident of ofharm.
Um and so that's you know, thethat's the essence of the
(26:26):
platform.
As I say, it works, it works aversion of the same in the
different spaces that we workin.
So in festivals, we know thatmusic festivals there is, you
know, a high um drug and alcoholconsumption typically.
People are there to have fun,it's happening on a weekend,
(26:47):
there may be camping.
Um that's not the time typicallypeople are gonna report an
incident of harm.
They're gonna go home, they'regonna think about it, they're
gonna have their, you know,potentially the fog clear a
little bit, and it'll be like,oh wow, that you know, that was
(27:07):
my experience.
Most festivals have an info atas a, you know, as a contact.
Well, it can be really scary to,and we see infoats a lot, um, to
put your information in an emailto share that, to share that
back.
You know, email is not a secureform of transmittal.
(27:31):
You don't know who it's goingto, you don't know who's on the
other end.
Um yeah, that in and of itselfis a barrier, again, to coming
forward.
And so when we when we reachedout to festivals, we um, you
know, we talked about they arealready doing harm reduction in
a lot of cases initiatives.
They are thinking about how dothey reduce harm, you know,
(27:56):
often often thinking about itfrom a drug and alcohol
perspective, but we know thatharm is happening.
And so, how do we gather dataand information from survivor
stories that then can inform howto make the festival safer next
year?
So adapting what we used forhigher ed and making it
(28:17):
available to festivals.
So we have festival partnersacross North America.
Um, I can share now because bythe time this airs, it will be
public.
But we're in a partnership withthe Canadian Live Music
Association to um uh to expandour reach related to their
members and reporting and makesure that um, you know,
(28:39):
information is available aboutreporting, about the opportunity
reporting provides, you know,not just at festivals, but at
venues, at um, you know, forpromoters, um really across the
live music industry.
So it's exciting to see, youknow, higher ed recognizing that
(29:02):
they can do better in addressingsexual violence on campus.
And, you know, as we grow ourpartnerships in higher ed, it's
been amazing in live music andand events to see, again, this
collective will to we know thatthis is happening.
How do we create safer spaces?
Um, we another space we work inis uh sport.
(29:24):
We created something called theRespect Hockey Culture Center,
which has been um really anincredible project to lead, to
be a part of, but it is a NorthAmerica-wide reporting platform
for players, you know, athletes,billet families, um, parents,
(29:45):
volunteers, employees of eightleagues across North America.
So we've got the leagues of theCanadian Hockey League, we've
got leagues, the American HockeyLeague, the USHL, the ECHL, the
PWHL.
Um, they have all come togetherto create a space where where
folks in the leagues can createtheir record, save that record
(30:09):
if harm happens, and then choosefrom different reporting
options.
So within that, the eightleagues have 31 reporting
options amongst all of them.
And it, you know, it it speaksto the culture.
shift that is slow but is iscoming.
You know, the the evolution ofthese spaces and an openness or
(30:33):
willingness to recognize thatharm is occurring.
And so how do we how do we getin front not get in front of it
but see the blind spots right?
How do we how do we encouragethat speak up culture so that
people can feel okay aboutcoming forward so that they can
(30:56):
feel comfortable sharing theirstory, documenting firstly their
story, then sharing their story.
And so that they can then havethose stories to inform
prevention initiatives,strategy, policy, and how they
can make safer spaces.
SPEAKER_01 (31:13):
Okay, that's amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (31:15):
So I have a couple questions.
Sure.
You mentioned Title IX.
What does that mean?
Title IX.
So Title IX is legislation uh inthe US um protected statuses.
So um it relates to gen well I II want to say Title IX Title IX
historically has been about prprotected statuses, things like
(31:39):
race, gender, um uh religion,those protected statuses.
Title IX legislation umcontinues to evolve um under
administration.
So I would I would be inclinedto say to folks, you know, if
you are living in the States andinterested in Title IX, kind of
look to see how how thelegislation looks today and how
(32:04):
that's relevant for you,especially if someone is, you
know, looking at this todayversus six months out or a year
out if someone comes back tothat.
It is something that is um it'sabout the protected statuses,
but the reality is thoseprotections have changed under
different leadership anddifferent administrations.
So I'd encourage folks to tocheck that for themselves.
(32:27):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (32:27):
And that was a very diplomatic way to say that.
SPEAKER_00 (32:31):
Well and I don't I don't want to say the wrong
thing, right?
Like I don't want someone tolisten to me and go, oh well
she's Mary said that's what itis and that's what it is.
Because I I do I I think we'veseen that it's been an it's in
an all an evolving conversation.
It changes with eachadministration and how they
prioritize different things.
(32:53):
So it's yeah I would really justencourage folks to check that
out for themselves.
Okay.
And see how it's relevant.
SPEAKER_01 (33:00):
And then my second question is is this is uh a
platform or um technology toreport harm.
Now is harm specific to sexualviolence or sexual assaults?
SPEAKER_00 (33:11):
Not necessarily um when we so we we partner with
organizations.
We um I was going to say wedon't throw it out into the
world but I'll I'll actuallycome back to that because we we
do as well but we mostly partnerwith organizations so that the
(33:32):
principles of accountability andtransparency can also factor
into this.
Because if we just createreporting for the sake of
reporting um where does thatwhere does that information
really go to inform change?
So we we value our partnershipswhere we work with schools, we
(33:52):
partner with organizations, youknow, we're partnered in sport,
festivals, where then that thathost organization if you will
gets the data that then they canuse to make change within their
organization.
Okay I totally forgot yourquestion.
SPEAKER_01 (34:08):
That's okay because actually that triggered another
question for me.
Okay.
Where was I going?
It was uh harm versus is itspecific sexual assault sexual
violence.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (34:17):
Yes.
So so because we work in so manyspaces they, you know, they have
different needs that getidentified different things they
want to prioritize.
So some of our partners use usfor um and even the language is
different.
Some use us to address sexualviolence on campus.
Others want to use us forunwanted sexualized behaviors.
(34:39):
Some talk about disclosures andreports some talk about reports.
So even the language within asector isn't consistent across
there's nuances.
When we work in sportpredominantly we are working or
looking at um or providingreporting for bullying abuse
harassment discrimination sokind of broader ranges of harm
(35:02):
that can occur.
Festivals again we've got someum bullying abuse harassment
discrimination as an acronym isbad.
So we would say reporting forbad in some cases um some only
do sexual violence or morespecifically sexual violence.
So it really depends on howthings are prioritized.
(35:34):
We can use the platform forwhistleblowing we can use the
platform for you know kind ofthe the typical types of worse
workplace misconduct of you knowtheft and you know financial
malfeasance and those kinds ofthings um and where we do it
still provides that traumainformed pathways regardless of
(35:57):
the the type of harm that'sbeing reported and you know harm
harm is very subjective andlanguage is not necessarily um
language is not necessarilycommonly understood.
So you know if if I if I saythat some you know if I had an
(36:23):
experience that experience foryou might not be traumatic.
That might not be something thatyou would feel the need to share
or come forward about.
So we really encourage people tothink about you know what is
their experience do do they feelthey were harmed by it you know
things like cat calling thingslike jokes and uh comments um
(36:46):
one might view them if we wereto look at harm kind of on a
spectrum which we don't um butif one were to you know they
would see them probably at oneside and then much more
egregious harm on the theopposite side but really you
know if if there's anenvironment where let's say
there's jokes or you knowcomments being made that are of
(37:09):
sexual nature or inappropriateor discriminatory or racist or
whatever in a behavior or pardonme in an environment, that
behavior is going to impact thatculture, right?
Like we can we can talk aboutpsych um physical safety um but
we can also talk aboutpsychological safety and the
importance of creating safepsychological spaces for people.
(37:31):
And so really the ability tocome forward and share whatever
whatever that experience for anindividual individual is is
what's important, I think, okayto that.
SPEAKER_01 (37:45):
Yeah.
So um as a victim or a survivorhowever they you know prefer to
refer to themselves as, um ifthey experienced something that
they felt was traumatic to themor harmful to them and it didn't
necessarily meet exactly whatthe vendor's um preference was
for reporting, are they stillable to go ahead and use the
(38:07):
system and report and receiveassistance if needed?
SPEAKER_00 (38:10):
Yeah yeah I think too in this work um we use the
language of intersectionality oran intersectional approach to
the work which recognizes thatum you know not everything fits
tidy into a box.
And you know if I am aracialized person who is also
(38:34):
queer who has a disability whoexperiences sexual assault that
may be you know a lot of layeredexperiences in that that um
maybe you know maybe they needdifferent supports specialized
(38:55):
supports um you know maybe againfor for the person who is on the
receiving who's going to supportthem understanding those layered
pieces um you know often youknow a sexual an incident can be
something uh but it can alsorelate to gender it can relate
(39:19):
to these other components and orother identity factors whatever
language you want to use and soI think everybody we work with
would say you know what comeforward you know write it down
make report let us know and thenwe can work we can work to
support you in the way that youneed support you know we work in
(39:40):
a lot of um rural schools so uhor rural environments where
there may not be a lot ofresources so you know when we
think about sexual assaultcenters for instance um there
are not there are not typicallyas many sexual assault centers
or rape crisis centers as thereare domestic violence shelters
(40:03):
or domestic type organizationsand so we you know we can think
of dual use kind of services umand so yeah so supports um often
are made available for reallysupporting folks when they come
forward just where they're at sois there any expiration date say
(40:27):
somebody goes to a a festivaland then realizes that this is
this traumatic event's beensitting with them for a month
and then they haven't saidanything or is there any
timeline?
No, no and it it can be uh partof the part of the interesting
opportunity with festivals isyou know often they let's say
(40:47):
the festivals in the summer theygear up probably starting in
January for the festival youknow super busy festival happens
in July probably have a littlebit of downtime you know they
start kind of getting back intoit again um and then it really
ramps up.
But there may be gaps in whenfestival employees are working,
when they're around you knowsometimes they are volunteer
(41:09):
board of directors putting on afestival so in in in those cases
um if you were to email themsomeone might not even you know
kind of in the other way someonemight not even get it or it
would just go into a you knowyou'd get a reply saying we're
out of office until X amount anduh so we again wanted the space
(41:32):
for people to have agency andoptions.
They can really choose to comeand report at whatever timeframe
they want um we didn't create anexpiration on it and in fact we
um uh gave users the ability toum not only create and edit and
(41:54):
all those things a record butthey can also delete their
account they can delete theirrecords so in in many platforms
and you know when we think aboutthe privacy and the the
differences on the privacy anddata side in many cases they
need to reach out to the vendorto the platform to say can you
please um uh you know cancel myaccount or or remove my account
(42:19):
and we just gave that thatopportunity to them you know I
might have come forward with anentry in the platform I'm
graduating I'm a student youknow I'm graduating and I want
to put that behind me we knowthat there are different um
policies with respect to how,you know, will a school still
(42:41):
support me if I'm no longer astudent.
You know, like there's justdifferent policies in different
the different operationalenvironments that we work that
we work with, but we didn't wantto really put parameters around
how long how long a system orhow long a record can stay in
the system.
We also know that people who'veexperienced harm may take a long
(43:06):
time before they decide whatthey want to do with it.
And so you know we've we canthink of you know historical
examples where you know in inpop culture in the media that we
hear about that happened a longtime ago and they didn't come
forward.
And maybe something somethinghappens more recently that they
(43:26):
go, yeah, okay, now I'm ready tocome forward.
And so we wanted to we wanted toagain honor that create space
for that we had a an individualwe launched with a school and uh
it was in the media it waspublic and they came forward
about an incident that hadoccurred in the 90s and they had
(43:48):
never told their school and sowhen they heard about this in
the news they actually went tothe platform and created a
record and sent it to theirschool um which for me you know
it for me that was reallymeaningful that we could be the
place that that person chose toto finally come forward.
You know and I think oh they'vebeen holding that for all of
(44:12):
these years.
So that was really meaningfulfor me.
You know, a lot of the work isreally meaningful for me but
that that was just like wow youknow that person finally had the
space to be able to come forwardfor that.
SPEAKER_01 (44:24):
Yeah I like there was no expiration date because
you know people like you saidthey can sit with it.
Sometimes they repress it anddon't even necessarily I mean
they know what happened but it'sit's kind of filed away.
Yeah um yeah it's really great.
SPEAKER_00 (44:37):
Yeah.
One of the things I'll justmention too and I it's funny
because I I I talk about it abit as an after as an
afterthought and it's not anafterthought at all.
One of the features of theplatform uh two of the features
that I want to mention justabout the platform because I
talked about anonymous reportingand and we often hear you know
kind of what's the point ofanonymous reporting?
(44:58):
What like why bother doing ananonymous report or what what
difference does it make?
And when someone does ananonymous report it can share
back to the organizationinstitution like details about
when and where harm ishappening, the kinds of harm
that are happening it can helpidentify patterns, trends,
(45:19):
hotspots, time of year like wehave seen in higher ed February
there's often harm happening andit's like you know kind of
what's going on in February?
Well it's Valentine's Day, it'sreading week, you know, like
there's stuff going on or springbreaks start in February.
The red zone is the first uhkind of six to eight weeks of
school starting back in the fallwhere we know that there's much
(45:43):
higher rates.
And uh so it can help anonymousreporting can really help inform
those things.
We also uh had heard from folkswho support or who provide
supports that you know whatanonymous reporting really is a
challenge for us because wecan't go back to those
(46:04):
individuals.
So we created a a what we call abi-directional communication
chat feature within the platformso that if let's say you're uh
you're a workplace or you're afestival or whatever and I'm I'm
a user, I can send an anonymousreport you're gonna get it and
you can follow up with me.
So you can say hey I got youranonymous report how can I help
(46:26):
what do you need how can I stillsupport you and we really wanted
to bridge the gap for folks whoaren't ready to come forward but
still may need supports andresources.
That that was really importantand and and that goes back to
collaboration that goes back tohearing from we call it the
Reese community but hearing fromthe folks that we work with that
(46:49):
you know that that this would bethat having this feature would
both enable ongoing support forsurvivors not ready to come
forward or people who've beenharmed and then also enable
organizations to be able tocontinue to support them.
So that's been that's been animportant collaboration.
Another thing that the featureor pardon me that the that the
(47:12):
platform provides is a featurethat we call repeat perpetrator
identification.
And this is a I'll call it amatching feature but it allows
within an operationalenvironment so within a school
or within a workplace or withina potentially festival festivals
don't use it so much justbecause they're broader kind of
(47:35):
spaces um but often we know likeon campuses the statistics are
very high that someone is goingto know the person that harmed
them.
Same with sports.
So there's definitely there'sdefinitely places where we work
where the likelihood you know ifyou in a in a school you're
gonna know who that person is orsomehow be connected to them.
(47:58):
And so the repeat perpetratorfeature allows me to put in some
identifiers for the person thatharmed me.
Let's say you and I go to thesame school or in the same
sport, you go in and put inthose same identifiers, it's
gonna trigger a match and theorganization is going to be
notified.
And so that can really helpidentify early on when someone
(48:19):
is you know causing harm,potentially causing harm in the
in the community and it can helpwith early identification of
risk.
And I think again we can look toexamples certainly in higher ed
there are certainly in sportthere are those things often
(48:39):
overlapping but there wherethere are you know hundreds of
victims and um it is tough tocome forward.
It is tough to come forward itis tough to tell anybody but
there's the ability to createthat entry you know and
potentially contribute to thatto identifying that match and
(49:02):
when we build hockey and againhockey is really unparalleled to
unparalleled the respect hockeyculture center in terms of its
scope but if you are a playerwho experiences um you know
you're on a a team in Canada andyou have an incident of harm
let's say it's a coach and thatcoach now goes to coach in a
(49:25):
different league in the UnitedStates we have the ability to
match across jurisdictions,across organizations and that is
huge.
SPEAKER_01 (49:34):
It is really it is you know it's really it's really
exciting to be able to um helpmake the connection and and
connect help make the connectionconnect the dots in in those
spaces well and I know youmentioned that uh people
question why anonymous but Ithink the anonymous portion is
(49:56):
so key because sometimes justtelling your story you just need
that like narrative therapy ofjust putting it out there.
I just want to put it outexactly I want someone else to
know.
Yeah and then the fact that theycan receive support in doing so
on top of that is really cool.
I think it also helps with thatobligation that that there's not
(50:18):
a true obligation, but like thesocietal obligation that they
put on victims and survivors oflike well you've been
traumatized by this individualit's your not not the duty of
the perpetrator to stop causingharm.
But it's the obligation of thevictim or the survivor to it's
their responsibility to stopthat from happening again, which
(50:40):
it's it's not but um you knowpeople may feel that obligation
and that that ability to reportanonymously and still you know
put that out there to havesomebody else take care of is is
huge.
Yeah.
So do when you enter in theinformation do you have the
(51:01):
option to actually identify umthe perpetrator like I know it's
Jim Smith.
Sorry if there's a real JimSmith out there but sorry Jim
which probably is I'm surethere's a lot of that's actually
why I came up with a name it's avery popular name.
SPEAKER_00 (51:16):
Yeah so and that and that's a good that's an
excellent point.
We actually are not gonna we'rewe're not gonna match on Jim
Smith exactly for that reason.
There could be a whole pile ofJim Smiths that exist that would
be you know wrongfully um uhidentified as a person causing
harm.
So what we look at are what wecall unique identifiers.
(51:39):
So they're things that only oneperson can hold.
So things like social mediahandles, phone number, email
address, um, you know the repeatperpetrator or we call it RPI
feature isn't going to workreally in public spaces.
It's not like oh the guy in thered hoodie with the brown hair
did it like it's not about that.
It's about um more typicallyidentifying you know someone
(52:04):
that is known or known withinthe within the community.
And it also I want to mention ifwe don't have it used
anonymously in our platform.
And and again you know we we aremindful of the sensitivity in
this space.
(52:25):
We are aware that you knowallegations related to a
perpetrator are are just thatand creating a space where
someone can just anonymouslythrow out people's identifiers,
you know, create some own itcreates some other challenges
with it.
So again, you know it's a spacewhere if you and I put in
(52:46):
identifiers, we've also put inour name if that goes to the
school or the league or whateverorganization we're reporting
back to, they're gonna get thatinformation and then they're
gonna decide okay what are wegoing to do with it?
They may follow up with us.
They may say oh you know whatwe've heard this name brought to
us in other different ways oryou know we've had in-person
(53:08):
reports about this.
So they're gonna assess that umfrom a risk management
perspective.
But it was important that from ayou know just again from
thinking about the platform,wanting to not kind of
compromise that by have it justbeing an anonymous place to just
throw somebody's name in.
SPEAKER_01 (53:28):
Okay.
And I just realized I actuallyam friends with the Jim Smith.
So I'm so sorry Jimmy so sorry Ithrew your name out there.
But we're gonna stick with Jimso let's say I create a profile
and I throw in uh Jim's socialmedia all of that and I'm okay
with not being anonymous andit's it's me but I don't
(53:51):
necessarily want to take anykind of legal action toward Jim
is and we're at the school sosay is the school able to
approach Jim and you knowwithout saying Ingrid's made
these allegations?
SPEAKER_00 (54:07):
Well in order for there to be a match you, Ingrid
and someone, so let's say it'sme, um would have to do that and
they would get the match um theschool's really gonna or
whatever the organization is,they're really gonna weigh how
they want to proceed dependingyou know are we minors that
might be a different scenariothan whether we're adults um is
(54:31):
this person already known tothem?
Is this person already has ahistory?
Do they already has this personalready been warned or been you
know um talked to or somethingso it's really going to depend
case by case.
I don't think there's anecessarily a if this happens
then this is going to happen.
It would be very much a a caseby case scenario and kind of
(54:53):
weighing out what occurred youknow I think trauma informed
thinking about what theirresponse would be might
hopefully lend them to thinkingwell if if I just go now to Jim
and talk to him and if he's onlyharmed you and I, he's probably
going to know it was you and Ithat came forward and created
(55:13):
the match, right?
So um so I think there's athere's a level of consideration
and caution and again hopefullytrauma informed response on the
side of the organization who isreceiving uh receiving RPI
matches.
SPEAKER_01 (55:31):
Okay.
And then I just I want toemphasize again you said all of
this information is encrypted.
So if for the organizationsschools or uh festivals if they
want to collect the data and useit to make changes they're not
collecting Ingrid's informationand they're um good question
they are collecting what yougive them.
SPEAKER_00 (55:53):
So if you do anonymous report then you're not
providing your name we call themanonymous reports and named
reports.
So so there are variousreporting pathways that you can
put your name on them.
So RPI being one of them if youreport to Title IX that's got
your name typically and becausethe intention is then that they
(56:14):
will follow up with you.
So there's kind of a there's theanonymous option and then
there's the other options whereyou know you are doing a formal
complaint.
Most environments don't allowfor a formal complaint, an
anonymous formal complaintprocess.
And so then you would provideyour information.
(56:36):
So it's really it's your choiceabout how much information you
want to share and that will helpguide kind of the different
paths that you use.
SPEAKER_01 (56:45):
Okay that makes sense.
And then also I think it'simportant to understand that
while you guys may not have anexpiration date, if someone did
want to pursue legal recoursethere could be a statute of
limitations and that would varydepending on where they are and
what the allegations are.
SPEAKER_00 (57:03):
Yeah defin definitely that's that's for
sure a true statement and againwould encourage folks to you
know look within you know kindof think of the context that
it's occurring um you know ifit's within an organization are
there timeframes there?
Because certainly there can beespecially in schools there can
be um and then within your youryou know your state your
(57:26):
province wherever you're livingum what other legal
considerations there are.
Okay and you mentioned yourreach is your Canada you you
said Buffalo I feel like Buffalois kind of part of Canada so far
up there and the various hockeyleagues but we're we're exactly
(57:47):
in the United States part ofNorth America so we we work in
California um we have festivalin California we have school in
California uh we have a festivalin Iowa um we and then mostly in
sport we work we work with a umuh we work in the hospitality
(58:12):
sector supporting conferencesthat support the sector and so
those conferences are occurringwithin the US uh in the yeah in
hospitality and in restaurantsuh restaurant and hospitality
sector so we kind of work indifferent ways with different
organizations um we uh I can'treally talk about it right now
(58:36):
we have a pretty significant umlaunch coming in the new year
that will have us reallypermeating throughout the United
States um in a particular areaum but really permeating the
entire US um so yeah we're justwe're kind of in different
different spaces in differentways and it's continuing to
(58:58):
evolve like it's continuing toto grow and expand and evolve
and then in Canada we are likelots of schools across the
country we're coast to coast tocoast in festivals um in Alberta
we are working uh and Manitobaworking in the technology
sectors so we actually havereporting for uh harm that's
(59:21):
occurring across the entire techsector because we know that
female founders founders of uhlike LGBTQ BIPOC they experience
higher rates of harassmentmisconduct and so created these
these spaces um at theprovincial level um yeah so
(59:41):
we're doing some some uh reallykind of interesting and
innovative work in Alberta aswell we're launching across the
province with a a safe space umfor folks to be able to document
their stories of sexual violenceso there's lots of lots of
important work happening thereis and I'm so excited to hear
(01:00:04):
this because it's it's so easyfor a lot of us to sit and say
so many things need to be doneand nobody's doing anything but
this is a prime example of ofdoing so how do people get in
touch with you do they get likedo if I were wanting to
personally report something umand
SPEAKER_01 (01:00:23):
And I attended this festival.
Is there a separate way to getin touch with Reese versus I'm a
vendor and I want to collaboratewith you?
Sure.
SPEAKER_00 (01:00:33):
So yeah, great question.
So if you're wanting to reachout and say hi or connect as a
as a vendor, reach out to us athello at Reese Community.com.
If you are someone who iswanting to report, it would be
check with that organization,check the website, or reach out
(01:00:54):
to them to say, you know, areyou a partner with Reese?
And do you have reportingplatform?
And then they would reportdirectly into the platform that
way.
We did a partnership, we createda partnership almost a year ago
with the um with Take Back theNight, which is the sexual
(01:01:14):
assault, uh, they host thesexual assault legal uh
helpline.
Or pardon me.
Yeah, the sexual assault legalhelpline.
And we actually created a spaceum that allows uh it's really
just open space in the US.
We don't have it in Canada, um,for someone to go there, create
(01:01:36):
their record, and um save that.
So they can use it as a safejournal space.
And if they want, they can sendthat directly to the sexual
assault legal helpline and beconnected with legal counsel to
decide or explore kind of nextsteps for them.
Um yeah, so it's kind of it kindof depends.
(01:01:57):
You know, reaching out, reachingout to us as a vendor is one
thing, but then really lookingin the different spaces.
Certainly, if you're an athlete.
Um in Canada, we work with agroup called Athletes Empowered.
And so we've opened up, I keepcalling it reporting.
It's not necessarily reportingin those spaces, but that safe
journal space for folks to beable to document their story and
keep that till they decide whatto do with that.
(01:02:19):
That's available across Canadafor uh athletes at all levels of
play.
Um so it kind of depends whereyou where you are in terms of
how you would access theplatform.
Do you have any social media atall?
Oh, yeah, we're at uh ReeseCommunity.
So at Reese Community, um, youknow, Instagram, Facebook,
(01:02:39):
LinkedIn, uh, we're on LinkedIn.
Not so much on X.
Not so much on X.
Might find some old stuff orlike intermittent stuff there,
um, but not so much there.
But certainly Instagram wouldprobably be the place that we
are, we are often found.
SPEAKER_01 (01:02:55):
Okay, perfect.
And is there any words ofencouragement or wisdom you
would like to leave withlisteners?
SPEAKER_00 (01:03:04):
So so I want to I want to acknowledge that we are
recording right now in DomesticViolence Awareness Month.
And we've we've had a this hasbeen a great conversation.
I appreciate the conversation.
Um but I want to honor thatwe're here in October and that
um that this is gonna air inNovember, which in Canada it's
(01:03:27):
it's so in the US it's October.
In Canada, it's typicallyNovember.
If you're in Australia, it's inMay.
Um But I I yeah, I want to honorthat people for people who
experience harm, there is hope.
There are supports available andpeople at the end of a phone, an
(01:03:52):
anonymous chat, or you know,whatever it might be who want to
help you.
Um and that they're yeah, Ithink I think that you know,
there's there's the we believeyou and those those sentiments.
Um and those are those areabsolutely important.
But I think, you know, just thatthere's hope, that there's hope
(01:04:14):
and there's help out there.
There are lots of amazingorganizations, and it can be
tough to get help sometimes orfeel like you can reach out for
help sometimes.
Um can be scary to do that,there can be lots of barriers to
do that.
Um but just know that you're notalone, that there are people who
(01:04:36):
have walked in your shoes andcome out the other side, and um
it's okay not to be okay.
Healing's not linear, kind ofthe the phrases that we use, and
we use the phrases becausethey're just true.
Um, so those would be just somekind of parting, parting words
that I would have.
SPEAKER_01 (01:04:57):
Um, thank you.
I think that's lovely, and Ithink those are all great
reminders to everyone.
So I appreciate your time.
I appreciate your lifelong workthat you've dedicated to.
Thank you, Ingrid.
SPEAKER_00 (01:05:12):
And and yours, right?
Like we're all like we're allwe're all rowing in the same
direction.
We are yeah, we are supportingone another and helping to raise
profiles.
So I appreciate you, you know,inviting me on and including me
in your conversation.
Um, because it's uh it's animportant one.
So thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (01:05:33):
Thank you.
Thank you again, Mary, forjoining me today.
And thank you, Warriors, forlistening.
I have included all of Mary'slinks, including her one in
three profile, in the shownotes.
I will be back next week withanother episode for you.
Until then, stay strong.
And always remember, whereveryou are in your journey, you are
(01:05:55):
not alone.
Find more information, registeras a guest, or leave a review by
going to the websiteonein3podcast.com.
That's the number one the numberthree podcast.com.
Follow one in three onInstagram, Facebook, and Twitter
at one and three podcast.
(01:06:16):
To help me out, please rememberto rate review and subscribe.
One in three is a.5 Panoiproduction.
Music written and performed byTim Crow.
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