About us

the story behind ally

ila was created end of 2018 in London to tackle the issue of gender-based violence and support anyone facing or having faced it regardless of their identity and gender. We started working with leading non-profits and purpose led companies in the UK and India to create opportunities for survivors of gender-based violence coming from lower economic backgrounds but, when Covid hit we had to pivot and repurpose the work we had done.

During the pandemic, domestic abuse rates have skyrocketed worldwide. In the UK alone, calls to helplines increased by 120% in the first 4 weeks. But how do you provide efficient help in these weird times? Actually, how do you even support someone facing abuse in the streets or struggling when it’s needed the most ?

Fun fact: Did you know that trained bystanders are 87% more likely to intervene? Think about it, if you saw someone being abused in public you would probably want to help them somehow…but how? With ALLY, we’re providing real-time training for real-time impact.

Currently, there are 327 gender-based violence applications out there. 47% of those have a ‘SOS’ button as their main feature and 0 are focused on equipping bystanders: the first people around when help is needed. That’s where we come in. ALLY is the first application to upskill bystanders and harness them as a support system to help those being abused. But we won’t stop there. Our aim is to turn your local stores employees into allies too. So that stores also become safe spaces.

Basically, we use our expertise in designing and providing training to turn local stores into safe spaces and bystanders into active Allies so that you can both get help or provide it when needed.

Growing the ALLY community: our vision

Together we can make a difference to people facing abuse and create safer cities.

We’re launching ALLY in the UK with Allyship training for everyone and modules on domestic abuse and street harassment for store employees but we don’t want to stop there.

The ALLY training is highly customizable and can be adapted to any storefront anywhere in the world. The app is meant to be a platform where you will get to learn about different issues and ways you or your local store can act at the individual and community level.

So hold tight! More training modules and locations are in the pipeline.