SafeWord Creators
The following are students attending McMaster University for Communication Studies. After observing the dangers of online dating, these students have come together to create a safe and inclusive dating application.
Danielle Collado & Courtney Hincks: Public Relations Coordinators
Danielle Collado and Courtney Hincks are Public Relations Coordinators for SafeWord. They are in charge of creating written content such as news releases and articles in order to attract the attention of the press. They also regulate the information that is posted on SafeWord’s various social media platforms and released to the media.
Vyshnavi Kumarasingham: Information Specialist
Vyshnavi Kumarasingham is the Information Specialist for SafeWord. She is in charge of creating policies, procedures, and safety protocols for the application. She is also in charge of regulating the information that is produced regarding the application.
Elizabeth Naylor: Graphics Coordinator
Elizabeth Naylor is in charge of all of the graphics for our website and social media platforms. She has also designed the multiple different interfaces, logos for the application, and other graphic treatments such as business cards, advertisements, and event posters.
Affiliate Staff
Leon Zhang: SafeWord Emergency Response Coordinator
Contact: swhat@msu.mcmaster.ca
Leon Zhang is a McMaster University student and the head coordinator of SWHAT.¹ Leon Zhang hires McMaster volunteers for SWHAT, helps in the planning of SWHAT events, and answers inquiries in regards to volunteering. Zhang is a SafeWord coordinator due to his position at SWHAT as well as SWHAT’s affiliation with McMaster security. Zhang is the Emergency Response Coordinator for SafeWord and supplies SafeWord users in dangerous positions with fast, discreet volunteers to remove them from the situation and walk them home.
Meaghan Ross: SafeWord Sexual Violence Response Coordinator on McMaster Campus
Contact: rossm4@mcmaster.ca
Meaghan Ross is a Social Work professor at McMaster University as well as a Sexual Violence Response Coordinator for SACHA at McMaster. Ross applies a survivor-centred response protocol to survivors of sexual assault and gender based violence.² Ross is appointed as SafeWord’s on campus Response Coordinator for students who require help involving sexual harassment and assault from the application.
Lenore Lukasik-Foss: SafeWord Contact
Contact: lenore@sacha.ca
Lenore Lukasik-Foss is the Executive Director of SACHA and President of the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres.³ She has been deeply invested in the safety of women in Hamilton since she was very young and began volunteering at women’s shelters in high school. As the director of SACHA, Lukasik-Foss helps plan schedules, procedures, policies, programs, and events for SACHA, develops and maintains affiliations with separate agencies, tracks the centre’s progress through progress reports and presentations, and obtains and redistributes the centre’s funding. Lukasik is a primary contact for SafeWord users who come into contact with sexual harassment and/or assault within the application.
Erin Crickett: SafeWord Education Coordinator
Contact: erin@sacha.ca
Erin Crickett works at SACHA as a Public Educator and Education Coordinator. Crickett is an intersectional feminist who has been a part of the gender justice movement for over ten years.⁴ Crickett helps create and run the various sexual assault education programs at SACHA. She is also an advocate of sexual assault education through SACHA’s social media platforms. Crickett is an educational coordinator for the application SafeWord. Through her background in teaching and advocating for sexual assault survivors, she was able to pinpoint various issues in dating culture that provided the background for much of the features within the application.
Joshua Segeren: SafeWord Application Developer
Contact: appdev@mcmaster.ca
Joshua Segeren is the head coordinator for McMaster App Development. He helps students with the creation and innovation of software applications.⁵ Segeren is the lead app developer for SafeWord, following the safety and inclusion needs by implementing safety features within the application.
References
IWC Team (2015). Q & A With SACHA’s Erin Crickett. Unpack Magazine. Retrieved from http://iwchamilton.ca/unpack/q-a-with-sachas-erin-crickett/
McMaster hires sexual violence response coordinator Meaghan Ross. (2015). McMaster Daily News. Retrieved from http://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/article/mcmaster-hires-sexual-violence-response-coordinator-meaghan-ross/
Zhang, L. (2016). Student Walk Home Attendant Team (SWHAT). MSU McMaster. Retrieved from https://www.msumcmaster.ca/services-directory/3-student-walk-home-attendant-team-swhat
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