FREQUENTLY Asked Questions
What is THE Global village APP YOU ARE CREATING?
People have lost their sense of village, and in a world more connected than ever before, people are feeling increasingly disconnected and alone.
Our app is an online Peer-2-Peer platform for emotional support, where the currency is the exchange of ones knowledge and leanings.
The greater goal of the app is beyond simply accessing support but creating a place to give back. We want to make the ‘act of giving’ (non-monetary) a simple, daily wellness ritual, removing barriers of time and money.
What problem is Global Village solving?
Problem 1: Too many barriers exist to receive support for life’s challenges:
Problem 2: People have a deep desire and need to ‘give-back’ and be of service in the world they live in. However we face barriers of time and money.
Global Village overcomes the time and money barriers and makes the act of giving accessible and meaningful. By connecting the giver and receiver directly the impact is in real time, between person to person offering a new way to find a sense of fulfillment and be of service to others in small, yet cumulatively profound ways.
DO PEOPLE SHARE THEIR CHALLENGES WITH THEIR CLOSE CONNECTIONS?
Our academic supporter, Sociologist at Harvard University and award-winning author Mario Luis Small PhD. is driven by the discovery that despite what people say they do, they are in fact sharing with strangers more than they think.
“…when it comes to whom we confide our most serious personal problems to, what we do and what we say we do are different things. We tend to think of ourselves as careful to trust, in the sense that we would only talk about personal problems with close friends and family. But in our behaviour, we often feel comfortable trusting acquaintances, random colleagues, and even strangers with our personal difficulties, especially those we think might understand us.”
Extract from his latest book “Someone to talk to”.
Dr Small’s findings show a major reason for seeking comfort from weak connections and strangers is to feel cognitive empathy:
“When we need someone to talk to about a personal difficulty, we often seek not sympathy but cognitive empathy, not pity but a sense that the person really understands our difficulty. The sense that someone truly understands us can be cathartic.
But that can be hard to find among the people in our inner circle. For example, many people with severe addiction to alcohol or drugs, may have this problem. Their loved ones may even be supportive, but they may not understand what addition feels like. Or think of a soldier returning from a tour, or a surgeon whose patient has died on the table - their loved ones will be sympathetic, but they will often not be able to empathise, to truly understand what the person is going through. There are many circumstances, large and small, that are difficult to us but that our closest friends and family will simply not get. In those circumstances, finding someone who will "get it" will mean finding someone we're not particularly close to.”
Why is giving so important?
It is well documented that being of service to others and giving is critical to generating feelings of contentment and a state of wellbeing. Giving has a profound impact not just on the receiver but the giver.
We believe “Giving” (non-monetary) should take its rightful place in the wellness dialogue based on well documented physiological and mental benefits. These include:
The release of the ‘feel good’ hormone, oxytocin.
The higher the levels of oxytocin in our systems, the more we want to help others
Boosted oxytocin levels are related to elevated levels of neurotransmitters such as serotonin (related to sleep, appetite, digestion, learning and memory) and dopamine (related to motivation and arousal).
The lowering of blood pressure
Countering the effects of cortisol, the stress hormone
These physiological responses to giving underlie overall improvement in physical and mental health and enhancement of communal bonds.
Further, Nicholas Christakis, a Sociologist at Harvard Medical School, found altruism spreads through people’s connections by three degrees – from person to person to person to person. As a result, each person in a network can influence dozens of other people, some of whom have never met.
See more neuroscience information on the Science page.
GIVING IN THE Wellness SPACE?
With a $4.2 trillion, global wellness industry, so much attention is being spent on oneself. Meditation, yoga, nutrition, fitness, all me focused, all with their own benefits and necessary for a healthy lifestyle.
However not a lot of focus has been placed on the profound physiological benefits of ‘giving’, which focus on others. When we’re in a place of giving, we not only help someone else, we heal ourselves in return. We are excited as we reinvent the wellness dialogue to include the act of ‘giving’ as the new wellness ritual.
We are creating the “fitbit for kindness”.
So exactly Do WE mean by ‘giving’ IN THE APP?
Who we are with all the challenges, large and small and life experiences we have gone through, we hold LEARNINGS = KNOWLEDGE.
This knowledge is POWERFUL and like our indigenous brothers and sisters have done for generations before us, we have a strong responsibility to share this knowledge we hold within us and use it to help others, which in turn heals us.
Who we are, as we are, as long as we present as authentically as we can, we have the power to help someone by simply sharing.
By answering someones question you are in the space of being of service to someone. This is GIVING.
There are three levels one can give on the Global Village platform:
1. Micro Giving: Ability to see questions relevant to you, tap once to send a supportive thought or tap again to send a more detailed response. Support can be practical advice or emotional support. Low effort giving.
2. Group members: Users could be part of shared interest group/s which exist to support each other through a like experience or, part of a group set up to influence change. Medium effort giving.
3. Change Champions: Set up and host a group that has a specific goal to initiate change within a local community or around the world. Users can join a group and work together to achieve the goals and tasks set by the host. High effort giving.
is global village a women’s or men’s platform?
It’s both, however users have the ability to choose if they would like to share with the whole community, female only or male only. In order to create the space for people to share ‘like’ experiences it’s important each individual has the ability to create their version of a safe and supportive community.
So, is Global Village a tecH company?
No. Given the problems we are solving, we are operating in the wellness industry. We are using the power of technology to create a solution to connect people across so they can share and help one an other. We also offer other solutions through events, publications and podcasts.
Are you providing a professional advice service?
No. We believe there is always a role for professionals in society however this is not the space Global Village operates in. Global Village is harnessing the simple power of one human connecting with another and the healing that can happen by simply being heard and feeling less alone in knowing there is someone else out there that may be going through the same thing.
What happens if someone urgently needS professional support?
Global Village is not a platform for emergency or life-threatening situations. However, a Support Now section will exist that will help link users directly to available mental health and emergency services within their region.
WHY WOULD USERS KEEP RETURNING TO GLOBAL VILLAGE?
Through the power of thoughtful design.
We want users to feel a sense of “home” as they enter and feel lighter than when they came in, when they exit.
We are passionate in giving users control, be it in how they manage the feed of questions displayed, ability to choose what is important to them but also what advertising reaches them. We are all different and we believe our users should choose what works for them.
We’ll offer users the following key reasons to return:
Set giving goals and track these goals in the performance centre of their profile – similar to some fitness apps, we are in effect, gamifying the act of giving.
Ability to see a world map to view how much support and kindness is being shared in real time across the world, creating a sense of belonging.
We’ll encourage users to find their tribe, and connect in with like-minded groups to feel part of a meaningful community.
The more users GIVE by answering questions, the more Global Village gives – through The Global Village Community Foundation we will invest back into communities, grass roots programs and NFPs in the areas that our community cares most about.
Users are able to customise their village square, so it feels personal, it feels like home. We will use technology to ensure their experience is relevant to the users and they feel useful by able to help someone.
Global Village will curate powerful workshops that will provide insight for reflection, contemplation and perhaps even action.
With Global Village wheel of life calculator, users will be able to receive insight into areas that may need attention or celebration.
How and why will you give back to community projects and NFPs?
We care about the wellbeing of every human. Giving is embedded in Global Village’s DNA. In everything we do, we lead first by giving. Whilst we provide a platform for users to give in a non-monetary way there are many people, especially women and children who need monetary support and programs that need funding to deliver life changing programs.
We purposefully did not make Global Village Co a non profit. There are two reasons for this:
1. We love business, positive, mindful and kind business, and
2. The more we make, the more we’ll be able to give.
We believe for a company to be truly successful it needs to operate by attracting the best talent, implement strong processes and use the latest technology available… the only way we are able to do this is by operating as a for profit company.
As Global Village Co succeeds, so will the Global Village Foundation, which is designed to offer four tiers of support to help people achieve emotional fitness:
1. Our own programs. We’ll execute programs, events and other solutions that promote emotional wellbeing.
2. Individual grants to Global Village App users based on an application process.
3. Existing programs, grass roots community-based programs that provide immediate impact and to more established programs with long-term, sustainable objectives that support emotional wellbeing.
4. Impact investing, invest in businesses, funds or programs that deliver positive outcomes consistent with our vision and values, that support emotional wellbeing.
How will you create a safe and trustworthy environment for PEOPLE to share honestly?
We take emotional safety very seriously and have a zero tolerance to misconduct. A combination of factors will create the safe and trustworthy environment that is critical for our community to feel safe and supported:
Tone and purpose: A prominent code of conduct will be present and the reason we exist clear. We are not a social media tool designed to showcase our life nor a place to collect friends. We are a wellness tool that allows safe, private and relevant access to strangers who may be going thought a like experience and can provide support and empathy.
Technology: We will use IBM Watson artificial intelligence to moderate content, find the sentiment and stop content against our code of conduct from appearing, it will also warn users if their comments veer too close to bullying, judgement etc.
User moderation: Like most peer-2-peer marketplaces users will be able to report content, block and seek support from Global Village support team.
User ID verification: only fully verified users will be able to post anonymously.
Could I just use a forum, Quora or Facebook instead?
We are creating something entirely different. We are a network of strangers rather than friends. We are more than just a forum because we stand for creating a sense of belonging and rewarding efforts of giving support. We want to create a purpose built, trustworthy environment, emotionally safer than any platform available today.
We exist to work together with our users as a collective to create a positive social impact and will make decisions and design our platform around that virtue.
We exist to offer a new type of ‘giving’ one that requires less time, effort and money than what is available today. We’ll ensure people feel better the more they use it which is why we have been described as the “fitbit for kindness”.
Can I use Global Village right now?
The Global Village App is on its way to being built, however we’re accepting early sign ups. Join and be the first to know when we are live.
HOW CAN I HELP?
You can reach us at: we@globalvillageco.com
We are looking for talented developers, investors and companies who are interested in being a part of a solution that will redefine how we give, belong and be well.