Anova, a non-profit agency in London Ont. that assists victims of sexual violence, has created a new online tool that will allow people to anonymously report if they’ve been sexually assaulted.
This is part of a larger initiative with London’s SafeCities Committee.
London City Hall has released the 2021-2024 Safe Cities Action Plan which examines the scope of sexual violence against women and strategies to eradicate it in public spaces.
MapMyExperience.ca allows victims to pinpoint where the incident occurred in London. However, according to Annalise Trudell, Anova's manager of prevention education and research, this information will not be shared with the public.
“We know why most survivors do not report to the police,” says Trudell. “90 percent don’t report.”
For the time being, the reporting tool will only be available to post-secondary students. But eventually, Anova plans to open the website up to the entire population of London.
How it works is a user can drop a pin on the map to show where the assault occurred. They also will answer a few questions about what happened and information about the person’s demographic.
The information collected by Anova will be used by their organization to see if there is an area in the city that is of concern.
“You’re not going to be able to go to the website and now see that a bunch of pins are on this bar and therefore there would be a conversation to be had as to whether we’re creating an instance where that bar can be accused without clout,” Trudell says. “So there's nothing to be gained by lying,”
Once enough data is collected by those involved in the SafeCities initiative, they will look for “hot spots” consisting of multiple pins at a specific location, which will get the attention of Anova.
Trudell told CTV News London they would keep this information private and approach the location where incidents were occurring to see if they can make some changes.
In September 2021, a number of students commented on various social media platforms and said up to 30 female students were allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted.
These allegations were made during the school’s orientation week, which prompted thousands of students to walk out of classes protesting what organizers said was a failure on behalf of the school to address their student’s concerns.
“The SafeCities Committee was wondering if was there a way that we could've held a platform where survivors could've gone to and say this did happen,” Trudell explains.
During the walk-out last year, London police were investigating allegations of sexual assault during the school's orientation week.
During that same period, London’s chief of police, along with the president of Western University, vowed to investigate all complaints of sexual violence.
— With files from CTV London’s Brent Lale
