CrowdGuard Impact Report Beta Phase
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The CrowdGuard impact report evaluates the beta phase of a community safety initiative aimed at addressing sexual and gender-based violence in public spaces through education and technology. It highlights the involvement of 2,137 participants, including college students and young professionals, and outlines findings regarding safety perceptions, the effectiveness of workshops and the app, and overall community engagement. Key outcomes suggest improved personal safety perceptions, increased capacity for social intervention, and a roadmap for expanding the program across India and beyond by 2025.
CrowdGuard Impact Report Beta Phase
- 1. Impact report beta phase Summary
- 2. Mission and approach Theory of change v1 Mission statement CrowdGuard is a values-based community of trusted individuals and helpers nearby We perceive sexual and gender based violence as an everyday and everywhere issue We aim to educate and connect humans to make the world safer We follow a community approach and try to include everyone as a change maker Our theory of change builds on a socio-ecological model with the aim to initiate changes on the individual, peer, community, and societal levels. Thereby we promote a greater awareness about gender-based violence in public spaces, deliver education, and create connection among humans towards active citizenship, civil courage and solidarity
- 3. Contribution in service delivery Co-design and development Crowdsourced civil responder network Beneficiaries inclusion Youth Ambassadors act as workshop facilitators and volunteers in campaign execution Students and Young Professionals participate in field tests, focus group discussions, and user interviews CrowdGuard app users at the core of the service ’trusted helpers nearby’
- 4. Workshops Campaign Community app event engagement —> 50k youth reached 54 college sessions —> 5k students educated —> 500 beta app users weekly test sessions Activities street art bubbles in and around campuses 25 facilitators trained 30 app iterations
- 5. Background Participants & samples Scope & purpose Methodology & caveats The impact report beta phase focuses on the period from 1. Jan 2015 — 31. May 2016 during which the CrowdGuard workshop programme was executed in colleges in Delhi NCR and local lead users tested beta versions of the CrowdGuard community app Purpose of the report is the measurement and assessment of our beta activities, the improvement of programme components, the measurement of the current safety and solidarity perceptions and experiences of our participants, and the potential effect of the programme towards the objectives of establishing baseline data for future comparison, to learn what aspects affect which participant segments, to refine our theory of change, and to improve the overall programme During the beta phase we treated two participant samples, and surveyed a selection of both samples (N=2137): a) full-time college students in Delhi NCR which participated in the classroom and workshop sessions (N=2037) ! b) a selection of sample (a) students, selected by Youth Ambassadors from their respective colleges, and young professionals sources from six local communities which participated in an orientation session, app simulation activities, focus group discussions and personal interviews. Sample (b) consists of students in young professionals in equal parts (N=200) Both samples filled pre- and post- programme surveys with ordinal, multiple choice and free text Additionally, sample (b) participated focus group discussions accompanying the app test, and selected users from sample (b) and other community app users were interviewed personally in the context of simulation exercises and by phone based on their app usage. This qualitative data is complemented with app-usage data Although we followed a pretest - post-test design, due to the lack of a control group the findings serve primarily to assess and improve the programme, and to establish baseline data towards comparing future impacts. Other caveats are possible influence due to external factors, different user funnels, session participation sizes, and different intensity of the treatments !
- 6. Situation Sexual harassment attitudes & experiences Safety assessment Tech availability and previous usage Do you feel safe in public spaces in Delhi? 51% feel it depends where you go 34% say Delhi has become much less safe Long-term women residents feel particularly unsafe Is Delhi safe for women? Less than 4% of women participants say it’s safe Has Delhi safety changed in the last 5 years? Almost 40% say it has become less safe Less than 6% say Delhi has become safer Is sexual harassment a serious problem? 51% say it is an extremely serious problem, and over 30% say it is very serious How do you define sexual harassment? Majority of participants don’t know that acts such as staring, groping and whistling constitute sexual harassment by Indian Penal Law Have you been sexually assaulted in public space in Delhi? Over 1/3 of women participants say they have been harassed as compared to 1/4 of men Have you helped someone who was harassed in public space in Delhi? 62% say they have never helped anyone Do you own a smartphone? 67.2% of student participants own one as compared to 100% of young professionals Which operating system do you run? Almost 80% use the Android system Do you use mobile data? 56.5% of students use mobile data as compared to 100% of young professionals. 1/3 of students limit data to WIFI zones Have you previously used a safety app? 10.4% of all participants have tried one, yet none has satisfied the participants ! !
- 7. Workshop output assessment Assessment Output Feedback General feedback No participant assessed the workshop as less useful or useless Content appeal Almost 80% say the content was informative and easy to understand Participation Over 70% say the workshop was participative Facilitation Almost 80% say the facilitators were effective Relevance Over 80% say the workshop is relevant Utility 80% say the workshop is useful Educated over 5000 participants in 54 colleges of Delhi NCR General Appeal Participation Facilitation Relevance Utility 1 2 3 4 5 Trained 25 Youth Ambassadors to facilitate bystander activation workshops
- 8. Technology output assessment Assessment Output Feedback General feedback No participant assessed the app as less useful or useless Appeal Over 53% say the app is appealing or very appealing. None rated it as not appealing Ease of use 46.5% say the app is easy or very easy to use Reliability Over 80% say the app is reliable or very reliable. No one as less or not reliable Relevance 86.5% say the app is relevant or very relevant. None rated the app as irrelevant Utility Almost 90% assess the app as useful or very useful. No participant rated the app as less or not useful 200 beta test users in Q1/16 participated in 9 simulations and focus group discussions General Appeal Ease of use Reliability Relevance Utility 1 2 3 4 5 By the end of Q1 2016 we reached a community-wide minimal app user density of 1 active user within 4 km in the campus area North Delhi, campus and residential areas in South Delhi on a daily basis and the number of active users has been increasing steadily. Over 500 active users in Q2 distributed pan- India:
- 9. Programme outcomes Personal safety Outcomes .. 45.9% of all participants say the program improved their personal safety perception Although this variable ranks lowest among the outcomes as the programme was designed to reflect reality which for most participants is still unsafe, this variable has the highest inter treatment group difference what points to a particular safety perception improvement of the community app users 0 1 2 3 4 5 All participants Only workshop Workshop + app Participants were asked whether they feel safer after the programme participation We measured the outcome with regards to improved personal safety perception, empowerment to enact social change in general and capacity to help in particular, and the commitment to apply the learned skills 2137 treated and surveyed participants consisting of the 2037 workshop participants and the 200 beta app testing participants
- 10. Programme outcomes Social change Capable to help Almost 70% say the programme has empowered them to social change Almost 60% say the programme has improved their capability to help others 0 1 2 3 4 5 All participants Only workshop Workshop + app 0 1 2 3 4 5 Participants were asked whether the programme empowered them to contribute to social change Participants were asked whether the programme improved their capability to help others as first responders
- 11. Programme outcomes Apply my skills Over 70% say that they plan to apply the transferred skills in their daily life 0 1 2 3 4 5 All participants Only workshop Workshop + app Participants were asked if they plan to apply the programme inputs in their daily life During simulated incidences, almost 65% of alert recipients confirmed to help. Less than 10% denied help and 26.5% did not notice the incoming alert. Helpers reached the simulated incidents within 3 to 10 minutes
- 12. Expanding the programme beyond India with CrowdGuard Germany in accession Spreading awareness about bystander intervention at media forums Knowledge provision on bystander intervention to self defence schools Reaching out to people across different socio economic backgrounds Dispatch center and process consulting with government and security providers Exchange with peace building community on value and limits of tech contributions Wider impacts
- 13. Lessons learned Campaigns Situation Workshops Participants safety assessment is differentiated and the majority states that safety strongly depends on specific times and locations within the city Experience of receiving help from strangers is relatively low and differs significantly between genders and duration of residence in Delhi Participants lack knowledge about what acts consist of sexual harassment per IPC Women are specifically at risk of being assaulted although men also report being assaulted which is rarely acknowledged Participants have low experience helping strangers. Helper role is strongly gendered and social norms are not conducive Low awareness of importance of post- incident contributions and survivor support systems Women empowerment campaigns seem to be the trend of the hour with hardly any brand willing to miss out on the attention given by the audience, yet campaigns are little invested towards providing means towards sustainable change What constitutes women safety is a highly contested issue with constant threat of agenda highjacking from patriarchal as well as opportunistic actors Bystander activation campaigns with community appeal are rare. Participants wish mass media reported positive bystander stories Domestic media coverage and social media outreach is resource intensive, although our street art and speech bubble campaigns have shown that many untapped offline and niche spaces remain available Participant’s workshop assessment confirmed the need for skill-based bystander education and awareness about gender violence Education contents need to be adjusted not only for regional differences but also for the level of awareness and socio-economic background of participants Participants want to learn by experience, and wish for more situation simulations, street theatre/play, and other forms of experience sharing Constructive and safe bystander intervention requires heightened awareness to prevent vigilantism Social taboos limit exposure to sex-ed which creates new threats in the age of cyber bullying and sextexting
- 14. Lessons learned Community app Theory of change v2 Connected civil first responders is a quasi new service which requires appropriate communicative efforts Cultural and institutional aspects such as low interpersonal trust and fear of mistreatment by the police create additional barriers towards bystander intervention Further barriers to the app usage are low usage of mobile data services by students, lack of experience navigating with online maps, and personal mobility such as with women students residing in hostels with discriminatory 8 pm curfews A big usability issue with any SOS app is the unconscious suppression of incoming alerts if the phone is on silent mode Participants wish app design updates, evidence recording mechanisms, and an iOS version To bridge the interpersonal trust gap we’ve segmented the helper communities by network degree and community membership Partnering with existing local communities supports the helper network expansion and allows at the same time to promote rule-based physical safe spaces. Community partners host additional bystander activation workshops, and receive support in implementing a comprehensive anti-harassment policy and complaint committee structure and processes. In return they trust vet their members towards the community app Approval by external institutions and brands would be helpful in establishing bystander intervention as new social norm The community-segmentation on the mobile app, and the Code of Conduct initiative to embed local communities in the change process have been learning outcomes during the pilot phase and have been iteratively build and added Subsequently we have updated our theory of change to incorporate the learnings from the beta phase:
- 15. Next steps Roadmap 2016-19 Outlook 2025 Currently we raise funds and establish corporate partnerships for 2017, on-board additional early adopter community partnerships and create one localisation (Maharati), complete training materials for Super Ambassadors and District Managers, and prepare for the roll out the Youth Ambassador training programme both in Delhi and Mumbai Before the public launch 2017 in India we plan to complete the registration of CrowdGuard India as Section 8 Non-Profit Entity, upgrade the Android app and build an iOS version. In parallel, a team in Germany pilot-tests a modified version of the CrowdGuard app and co-designs skill- building activities with local partners and beneficiaries Post-launch in New Delhi we plan to expand the CrowdGuard community and workshop program to other cities in India, followed by rural areas and emerging countries beyond India Our core activities are supported by local campaigns, with the focus on introducing additional contents for self-study and mainstream the safe community label in 2017, extend the partner network into rural habitats, and introduce a safe travel network for women in 2018, extend the education programme to school-going pupils in proximity to established CrowdGuard partner communities and active users in 2019 In 2025, by operating our programme scaling mechanisms, we have trained 10m Youth Ambassadors, 1,3m Super Ambassadors, and 1690 District Managers (by 2022 we will cover every District and evolve the District Manager role towards deepening local engagement and geographical expansion beyond India) With this team of change agents we will support 5m organisations in the implementation and maintenance of a comprehensive Code of Conduct, establish and promote over 10m safe learning, working and leisure spaces, and educate 1b Indians to be active bystanders