The Goal
I took on The Callisto Survivor’s Guide as my first big project at the organization. We had a six-week turnaround with a goal of creating a comprehensive, public-facing resource to support survivors of sexual assault, rape, and professional sexual coercion. It had to be simple, easy-to-read, inclusive of all identities, and, above-all, focused on survivors.
Callisto was set to launch a new repeat perpetrator detection platform to members of the founder community, and The Survivor’s Guide had to be ready for inclusion in the launch.
I had the good fortune to work with a talented team of professionals, and we made something terrific.
A Survivor Centric Approach
Our team included a social worker graduate student/survivor advocate , Miriam Joelson, who built our initial content outline. We then tested the proposed content internally with other staff members at Callisto. Many of the Callisto team are survivors themselves, and their feedback was invaluable as we decided which information was most essential to include in a minimum viable product before launch.
We decided to focus on the following sections:
Understanding the Language
Practicing Self-Care
Getting Emotional Help
Reporting the Incident
Navigating Professional Sexual Coercion
How Callisto Can Help
Stef Angeles, Director of Product Design at Callisto, used her training in Forensic Experiential Trauma Interview (FETI) to build a product with complete focus on the user experience every step of the way. Each decision we made about the look and feel of the guide passed her rigorous review for trauma-informed design and seamless user experience.
Our legal team, Eve Charand and Ellie Dehghan, offered invaluable advice on legal definitions and options for survivors moving forward, which rounded out the content.
Before handing a final version off to the engineering team, we conducted an audit to ensure that all language and external resource links were inclusive of all genders and identities, with resources especially targeted toward marginalized groups. We tested iterations of the draft with volunteers in-person, and via user-testing sites, and we revised areas that were unclear or incomplete.
The Final Product
The final product was ready to go in time for launch. We included a version of the content behind the login for survivors who create accounts with Callisto. We also made a PDF version that is available to anyone who needs it. I look forward to collecting user feedback for improved future expanded versions of the guide, so that we can support even more survivors.