The month of April was Sexual Assault Awareness Month. According to a study conducted in 2015 by the Association of American Universities, one in four women and one in sixteen men on a college campus will be sexually assaulted before graduating. Many organizations and companies are trying to provide ways to make college campuses and other institutions, such as the military, safer. Companies such as Capptivation are developing products and technology to help promote awareness.

Capptivation has created an app called “Reach Out Editions.” The app was launched last year and works to connect sexual assault survivors with support that exists around them. The main goal of the app is to spread awareness of sexual assault to help prevent it on college campuses. “Reach Out” is designed to help those who were victims and survivors of sexual assault become empowered. It offers students options for support both on and off their college campuses. The app is accessible by smartphone to make it easy to use. It also ensures that the users are anonymous and the information relates to his or her campus or institution. Best of all, the app is free.

The app was created in the fall of 2014 by three college graduate students, Racquel Giner, Jack Zandi and Billy Sadik-Khan, who work for the company Capptivation. The app focuses more for college students but also works for the military and the work place.

You can download the app in the App Store for iPhone Users or the Google Play Store for Android Users. Type in your school name or workplace and it will bring you to the home page (see first image). The home page has information on how sexual assault survivors can get help, how to preserve evidence, get access to medical care, to understand all the reporting options and how to begin healing.

The app serves as a great additional resource for the Iona College campus community. When entering Iona College as your school, it allows users to see what the options for reporting, advocacy and care are available on campus.

Cappitivation has devoted itself to promote safe college campus environments that makes it safe for all student, regardless of race, sexual or gender orientation, economic status or citizenship, according to their website mission statement.

The app provides you with different options, such as campus resources and medical care. For prevention and education, it provides users with links and subcategories such as “Sexual Health” and “Know the Facts.”

Reach Out also tells you how to contact resources such as the campus police, local law enforcement and the Title IX investigator on campus. The app includes 40,000 resources on over 2,500 campuses in total.

The app has generated a buzz in different college campuses newspapers and in magazines such as ELLE and Glamour. Glamour said that “the app puts control back into the survivors’ hands” by presenting them with different possible courses of action.