AinoAid™ is designed as a first step for people seeking help. Anonymous chat helps overcome the shame they feel, and learn the level of seriousness of their situation for the most suitable action they can take. Usually, the desired services are hard to find and scattered, and it’s often difficult to recognise the right services. Further, most of the services address the acute situation, missing the need for long-term mental health support in terms of psycho-social help and guidance for the healing process from victim to survivor. Considering the people committing violence, their threshold to reach out for help is very high. In the near future, AinoAid™ will also provide services for those using violence and lower that threshold.
We understand how the violence also affects people close to those who suffer, in the long-run AinoAid™ takes into consideration stakeholders who are also affected by domestic violence, such as, e.g. family members and friends.
The conversation flows are designed based on both the experience of the domestic violence-focused therapists and victims who have succeeded in finding the resolution and become survivors instead of staying as victims. Addressing the growing need and limited capacity for support services, AinoAid™ provides AI, machine learning and NLP -based conversational services to recognise the type of violence and to find the most relevant path to support organisations and services.
Most of the services that help the people affected by violence are focused on acute help and are mostly limited with both access hours and human resources. As a result, people may not be able to get a longer-term resolution and support for mental health and the healing process towards becoming survivors.
With AinoAid™, people get faster and easier access to the information they need to proceed in their search for help and smooth ways out with less damage to all parties involved. The anonymous chat provides first-level support with guidance to the paths forward, and the ecosystem players around AinoAid™ can help the victims, perpetrators and their families to start the resolution and healing process for the parties who should be included.The entire ecosystem of tools and partners can shorten the time of conducted violence, and prevent major economic and emotional suffering of the victims, perpetrators, people and organisations impacted.
AinoAid™ is a vechicle speeding up delivery of the aid provided by the domestic violence experts Ellimari and Katja. Both Katja and Ellimari have a long experience working with people affected by domestic violence, they work with victims, perpetrators and the whole family. Ellimari and Katja provide their therapy services via Hyvinpitely Oy and their expertise is also the secret sauce of AinoAid™.
Hi! I am Katja Kytölä, a Bachelor of Social Services and a Solution-Focused Therapist. For the first ten years of my career, I worked as an accountant until I found out that my real mission was to help people who have faced domestic violence. I also have worked in a kindergarten for eight years, and I always keep the children’s perspective in my mind in my work. Nowadays, I mainly work as an expert in intimate partner violence in Hyvinpitely.
AinoAid™ helps to take care of one’s own safety and rights, to heal and to get empowerment. My strong opinion is that everyone should have access to AinoAid™ all over the world, as such an unfortunately wide problem we have. I think AinoAid™ also gives an educational point of view to tell what is right and what is wrong in intimate relationships. I see AinoAid™ as a person, a trusted friend who is always there for you.
Hello! I’m Elli, and I guess crisis work and human rights are a few of my kooky passions which have led me here. I’m a Bachelor of Social Services and finishing my Master’s studies in Global Health and Crisis Management. I’ve been working in the field of social work for more than 17 years now with different customers and themes, but the majority of the time I’ve been involved with domestic abuse, crisis work and CPS (Child protective services).
I believe the whole ecosystem behind AinoAid™ is what makes our solution so special. From my point of view, the team consists of people with great attitudes and growth mindsets, who are choosing to do this for solidary reasons and are in this together. Since the beginning of the process, the users’ best interest has been in everyone’s mind. The approach is user-centric co-creation. I’ve seen that the team is grateful for all the feedback and even bumps on the road, humble to learn and make it better. And then there is this vitally important collective determination to get AinoAid™ ready for the people who it is meant for. They say it is easy to build AI but difficult to build an intelligent one — I’ve seen this team is up for the challenge.
First thousands of the pilot users cheer the opportunity to have a supportive information although knowing it’s a robot. The barrier to start seeking support is lower when the service is available 24/7 and when there are suggestions to the way forward.
Domestic violence is a persistent problem globally and, due to low reporting, remains a hidden epidemic still with tremendous harm to individuals and society. During the COVID-19 crisis, it has become even worse as healthcare organisations have had limited capacity to support the victims who, due to the lockdown, were trapped at homes with their perpetrators.
In addition to the suffering of the victims and people around them, domestic violence affects lost economic output relating to a variety of costs associated with the work status and productivity of victims. The cost of gender-based violence only across the EU is €366 billion a year. Violence against women makes up 79%, and intimate partner violence is almost half €174 billion of the cost of gender-based violence. The biggest cost, 56%, comes from the physical and emotional impact. The issue is global. Direct and indirect costs of mental ill-health are estimated at over 4% of global GDP, reaching more than €5,5 trillion annually.
This intervention is expected to address a chronic development issue and to have a cross-cutting impact on UN Social Development Goals: SDG3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all of all ages. SDG5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, and SDG17: Partnerships for the goals.
IMPROVE project develops several tools to increase reporting and detection of domestic violence by empowering the victims to understand their rights for services and justice and by supporting Police Authorities, Civil Society Organizations and other frontline responder organisations to enhance their competencies to utilize innovative solutions that enable and accelerate policy implementation. IMPROVE will develop a Conversational (multilingual) AI Chatbot (AinoAid) that provides the victims immediate advice and risk assessment as well as guidance towards the available service provisions.
Partners involved in the project: We Encourage, POLAMK and THL, among 13 other EU partners
Project duration October 2022 – September 2025
Project is funded by EU Horizon 2021
Award granted by
The Finnish Software and E-business Association
AinoAid™ – an AI-based service to provide psychological support and guidance for anyone affected by domestic violence.
By 2030, we will create trusted, widely recognised, empowered ecosystems to build awareness of, and prevent, domestic violence to make a safer world for those affected.
