Kelowna, BC — ITAV Development Inc., in partnership with Atomic47 Labs Inc., has announced the early launch of its flagship product “The Village App”. Created as a communication tool rather than a social network, The Village App efficiently helps people build and connect to their personal support network and hyper-local community. The app is designed to build real-life mutually beneficial relationships with people who you are personally or physically close to without algorithm interference, group messaging or being subjected to harmful commentary found on today’s social networks.
ITAV Development is a Kelowna-based AuthenTech company focused on building tools to enable better human connection, and create stronger, healthier communities.
“We planned a full-scale release of The Village App for September, but as we watch the various crises unfolding in our community we decided we need to push up the release date with the intent to try and connect as many people as possible during their time of need.”, says Atomic’s CEO Karen Olsson.
The Village App cuts through the noise of traditional social media and allows people to send requests or offers for help to friends, family and neighbours in a few simple steps. The Village App uses needs-based notifications that are sent to curated Circles of supporters or to anyone on the app within a 1-5km radius. The use of push notifications means a person doesn’t have to be on the app to see someone needs help and without a comment section or algorithm, people don’t have to worry about judgment or their requests and offers being buried.
Co-Founder Ashley Stone conceived of the idea of The Village App after a surprise third pregnancy turned out to be twins and her family grew from four to six seemingly overnight. Using her experience as a public health nurse, Ashley was looking for an efficient way to connect to neighbours and friends for support.
“I work casually as a public health nurse and the way I receive call-outs for my shifts is very simple; the time, date and location are listed and I choose whether I’m available or not. After my twins were born I kept thinking there must be something similar to this for getting (and giving) help when I need it. There wasn’t a lack of people offering help but actually connecting with them was tricky due to logistics and schedules. It became clear that there was nothing on the market like The Village App, so I decided I needed to create it.” says Ashley.
“The Village App has a myriad of use cases.”, says Olsson. “Given the growing number of climate-driven disasters, getting immediate help when and where you need it is becoming more and more important; look at the number of fires and evacuation orders in Okanagan alone! The Village App can ensure that people get the help they need – when they need it. Whether it’s an evacuee that needs somewhere to go, a new mom that has run out of diapers, a neighbour under COVID isolation or some looking to make a new friend. The Village App will help individuals and communities connect in a meaningful way.”
The Village App is already seeing strong support from early community partners. The intention is to ramp up the use of the Village App at a vigorous pace, starting with communities in the Okanagan and then growing out to other areas of BC, and Canada with ambitions for a broad global impact. As the product is in its early days, the team asks for your feedback on how they can improve the app for future versions. At present, there are no fees to use The Village App, it is available for download on the App Store, Google Play or by visiting our website at https://www.thevillageapp.co/
