Team Checkmate

Josie Baldwin, Alex Hill, Katie Griffiths and Emily Bowes

Facts
26% of LGBT youth are forced to leave home because of
family conflicts over sexual orientation and/or gender
identity. - Lambda Legal.
25-40% of the youth who become homeless each year are
LGBT and the number is likely much higher. Lambda Legal
73% of LGBT youth say they are more honest about
themselves online than in the real world.- Human Rights
Campaign

We feel that the prejudice and discrimination facing members
of the LGBTQ youth (11-25 years) community needs to be
addressed. We are fully aware that solving this problem is very
difficult, but we still feel teenagers need more support.

Who: Young members of the LGBTQ+ youth community

What: There is not enough support or information available

Where: Everywhere at school, home

When: Everyday

Why: Because of their sexuality or gender identity

The Situation

Many LGBTQ+ youth (12-18) do not receive enough support and are not
clear on what terms mean.



Where can LGBTQ members find support and information?


Here is the link to our 1 minute long elevator
pitch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLxQCxca284

Please right click the link and then click Open
Hyperlink
There are people and companies supporting LGBTQ+ youth
but many people dont use them.

Not many people know the correct definitions and so arent
sure on what they are.

People can feel isolated and alone and need something to
help them feel less lonely.

LGBTQ+ may be in desperate need of advice, but this
information is not readily available.
Our Key Insights

Our team, Checkmate, is designing a mobile app, called Im Okay, to
help young members of the LGBTQ+ community in a number of ways.

The app helps people understand more about themselves, with:
clear definitions,
it provides advice, on for instance, help on coming out,
personal stories to make users feel less alone,
phone numbers for local help lines,
Videos,
answers to frequently asked questions.
Im Okay

We strongly believe that our app will help people and be
extremely beneficial. We aim to make teenagers
suffering from bullying, fear or confusion feel more
confident and comfortable with themselves.

We created an online survey, to see if possible users would find our app
useful.
Out of the 21 people who filled in our anonymous survey,
just under 3 quarters of the people answered yes to our question:
If an app supporting the LGBTQ community came out, would you use
it?
Over half the people who filled in our survey said they have or have
had suicidal thoughts due to their sexuality.
All the people who answered yes to having suicidal thoughts said
they would use our app.


Survey & User Profiles

The survey gave us an insight to the typical user of Im
Okay, and proved to us that our app needs to be put
out on to the market. If our app stands the chance of
preventing at least one person from feeling so low that
they consider suicide, we feel that it is absolutely
crucial that Im Okay is released.

Anonymous Survey Taker

Is teased about her sexuality or
gender identity, called names,
rumours have been spread about her
USA
Bisexual
Female with Female genitalia
Only told a few of her close friends
about her sexuality
Has a girlfriend
Has had suicidal thoughts
Anonymous Survey Taker

Hasnt been subjected to discrimination
13
England
Straight
Female with Female Genitalia
Has not had suicidal thoughts
Is certain on their sexuality
Hasnt been bullied
I think that an app supporting LGBTQ and giving advice to
people who have ever been subject to discrimination or
questioning their sexuality etc, would really be beneficial.
Perhaps a forum where people can discuss their problems,
an account based app where people can also be linked to
websites for help and advice.
LGBTQ is not well-supported throughout the world,
though on the whole in England (and Great Britain) I am
reasonably happy.
Anonymous Survey Taker

Has been discriminated due to their
sexuality or gender identity a few
times and some friendly teasing
Denmark
Pansexual
Male with Female Genitalia
Has had suicidal thoughts
Would use an app supporting LGBTQ.
There are currently no other competitors in the market solving our
problem. The only app similar to ours in any way is an app called Quist,
which displays events from this day in LGBTQ history. However, in no
way does this app do anything that we hope Im Okay will do.






Our app must provide useful advice, and clear, understandable
definitions. It must also have a form of GPS built in for localising
help lines and news articles.


The next slide contains a storyboard of the layout of our app.

We have created two mockups for our app, one on the program
Balsamiq and the other on App Inventor.

Here is the link to our Google drive.





Our app requires few difficult technical areas, the most advanced
addition being a GPS system to make news stories and advice localized.
GPS is included in most touch screen devices, but if GPS is not available,
another option of a user selecting their location upon setup solves this
problem.
The app needs people involved who would answer the frequently asked
questions. These people could be volunteers. Our app does rely on this
heavily for it to give the app the personal touch that makes our app
different to others on the market.

We learnt that it is important to check the technical feasibility of a
product before making it, as otherwise the product would not be
successful. However, our app is possible to make.


We are choosing to fund our mobile app using advertisements and
company support. We would also like to start a kickstarter (a funding
platform) when we have more of an app to show. This is because we do
not want to make people pay for help as our target audience as this is a
sensitive subject and they may have to ask permission from people they
do not want to tell yet.

We have received support from companies and people such as Bob
Schukai, Jenny Fallover and Sean Hamilton from Thomson Reuters, they
have been very supportive, giving us advice and helping us with any
problems we have.
Everybody we have spoken to or contacted have expressed great
support.
Dr J Harrison, one of the experts we spoke to over a
Skype call, was also very supportive. As a Senior Digital
Project Manager, she was great help, giving us advice on
websites which would be useful, the look and navigation
of the app and much more. Also, Dr J Harrison was an
LGBT Community Leader for 3 years so had a lot of
experience that was very beneficial to our app.
"As an LGBTQI person having this
when I was a teenager would have
been terrific -a real app for good." -
Dr. J. Harrison

Marketing strategy
Already we have created a twitter account for
our app, with growing followers. We have
contacted a number of companies and people
regarding the marketing of our app.

Two organizations have offered to promote our
app Pflag and The Albert Kennedy Trust
(AKT).

Pflag provides free information and support
for parents, friends and family of lesbian and
gay people in the UK their website contains
free resources for parents of gay children,
information for friends and family of gay and
lesbian people, as well as useful links and
general support.
Marketing Strategy continued
The AKT supports LGBT 16-25 year olds who are made
homeless or living in a hostile environment Though our app
wont be able to support the homeless as they will probably
not have access to a device to have our app, however AKT
supports LGBT youth which our app is aimed at. Tony from
AKT has offered to review our app and was impressed with
the work we have been doing.
We are creating a website, explaining what we do. We want to
talk to people about our app to help spread the word.
We want to keep our app up to date, and make sure that
people can ask questions so we can add it to
the app. This should keep old members
staying and new people could hear about it.

We have been given permission from numerous websites to use files
such as videos and information in the app. The websites include:
https://www.lgbtnetwork.eu/
http://www.itgetsbetter.org/ - international and we have been given
permission to use their videos.
http://www.akt.org.uk/ - supports young LGBT 16-25 year olds who
are made homeless or living in a hostile environment.
http://www.equality-network.org/about/our-aims/
http://www.brokenrainbow.org.uk/home - they have help lines and
chat lines.
http://www.pflag.co.uk/ - this website gives support to the parents,
friends and families of Lesbian and Gay people.
http://www.llgs.org.uk/ - instant messaging and help lines

These websites permissions have kindly be acquired
by Sean Hamilton and Jenny Fallover.
@CheckmateOkay