WE ARE OK APP LAUNCHED TO SUPPORT MALE VICTIMS/SURVIVORS

Greater Manchester based We Are Survivors join the digital revolution!

As We Are Survivors launch the latest edition of their Beyond the Silence magazine, the Greater Manchester based charity are also proudly launching their brand-new App that they hope will increase the access to support offered to male victims/survivors of sexual harms.

The App, WE ARE OK, which is now live is based on the widely popular OK+ platform but has been specifically tailored to meet the unique needs of male victims/survivors, informed directly by the men that have used We Are Survivors services.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer of We Are Survivors, now the largest male survivor organisation in the UK, Duncan Craig OBE said:

“It feels like such a full circle moment in launching this app. When I first spoke out about the sexual abuse I experienced, there was no support here in Greater Manchester for men and so I found my support online. Then when I started, We Are Survivors (known then as Survivors Manchester), I started with a website and an email address and the first people to ask for help were via digital means.

So, 16 years later, now as the biggest male survivor organisation in the UK seeing over 2,500 men face to face every year, launching this App feels like the origins of my own healing and the organisation return to the present day”

The App launches at the same time the organisation publishes the latest edition of its quarterly magazine, Beyond the Silence, which this time is an AI special. Many of the images and the text published in the magazine have been generated by AI but the team have ensured that readers understand which sections are by using a badge to identify what part is digital and what is created by humans.

Editor and Senior Design and Communications Co-Ordinator for We Are Survivors, Grahame Robertson, said:

“It’s been really strange working on this edition of the magazine. I’ve been a designer and involved in communications for over 25 years and it really does feel like AI and technology supported design is revolutionising the industry.

It wasn’t until Duncan and I started pulling all of the content together that we realised just how much tech and AI is here in our world of sexual harms, both for good and for bad reasons”.

The magazine features news on the NHS and its drive to go from analogue to digital and raises awareness of Greater Manchester being the place where the first person to be convicted of possession of indecent images that are AI generated is. There is a feature on We Are Survivors Ambassador and Hollyoaks actor, James Sutton, foray into AI and tech; the final part of the 4-part series on the history of We Are Survivors for its 16^th Anniversary; and news and features of online support from this award-winning charity.

The charity encouraging all male victims/survivors to go to the App Store or Google Play and search We Are OK to download now.