Bloom is a remote trauma support service from Chayn, a global charity supporting survivors of abuse across borders. We launched Bloom in 2020 as a response to the pandemic and the knowledge that not only were many survivors trapped inside with abusers, but those recovering from assault were left stranded from their usual therapeutic and other support systems. We also know that for many survivors, therapy or in-person support groups are not accessible, due to safety, cost, time, availability, or stigma.

Bloom offers online, trauma-informed mental health courses on topics relevant to survivors of gender-based violence. Last year, we ran 5 courses on healing from sexual trauma, recovering from toxic and abusive relationships, reclaiming resilience in your trauma story, managing anxiety, and creating boundaries, with more courses coming this year. During these courses (4-7 weeks in length) users received biweekly video sessions, daily message prompts, and the option to message facilitators directly for 1-on-1 support. Since 2020, Bloom has reached over 1000 survivors across the world.

https://www.bloom.chayn.co

• International

• Women
• The poor
• Migrants
• Refugees and internally displaced people
• Survivors of gender-based violence

Chayn is a sector-leading organisation with our approach to open-source projects and digital accessibility. All our code is open-source, and we actively encourage other organisations to use, re-use, re-work, and re-model our digitally innovative ICT projects. We have conducted training for other third-sector organisations on how to run their own version of Bloom, including sharing all project materials with them, and intend to expand upon our trainings this year, including offering ICT-focussed support for digitally-insecure third-sector organisations.

The information structure of Bloom’s new custom ICT platform has been built with multi-tenant occupancy, meaning we can take on new corporate clients, in addition to our public platform, which can further increase the sustainability of our long-term funding.

With all our services offered completely remotely, we allow for our users to access mental health services without the traditional resource expenditure associated with travel to and from in-person service points.

Everyone deserves to live a life free from abuse. The reality of many women and people of marginalised genders around the world is to be ushered through patriarchal and oppressive systems which limit their opportunity, and offer them a life of decreased emotional value and empowerment. This includes the patriarchal web, which blocks women from breaking out of oppressive systems. Many women still don’t have equal and affordable access to the internet, and women, non-binary, and people of colour still largely remain underrepresented on the web. Bloom offers survivors of gender-based violence a virtual, accessible, and inclusive space, all while retaining completely confidential and anonymous participation. By providing LGBTQIA+-inclusive, anti-colonial, anti-ableist, and intersectional materials, we have created a free, equal space for survivors to connect in solidarity over shared and different oppressions, and be validated. Through Bloom, survivors have the opportunity to be supported, included, and upheld by other survivors, no matter their sexual or gender identity, or ethnic, racial, geographical, sexual, gender, or other cultural background.