Compassion in Crisis
A messaging lifeline for communities at risk
FemSMS: Pride Edition is a trauma-informed SMS service co-designed with trans, immigrant, and exiled LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers. Compassionate messages — about safety, housing, health, and belonging — delivered straight to your phone.
A project by Footage Foundation · Supported by NYC Pride Gives Back · In partnership with QARAVAN
BACKGROUND. What is FemSMS?
FemSMS is a messaging lifeline developed by Footage Foundation — first launched in 2022 in response to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. It sends life-affirming, trauma-informed messages directly to people's phones: not directives, not bureaucratic instructions, but warmth. Information that feels human. Words that remind people they matter.
The NYC pilot — FemSMS: Pride Edition — is the first adaptation designed with and for trans, immigrant, and exiled LGBTQIA+ communities in the United States. It is co-designed with community members from the ground up, with lived experience at the centre of every decision.
TRAUMA-INFORMED
Every message is non-directive, gentle, and designed to meet people where they are — not where we think they should be.
MULTILINGUAL
Messages are developed in multiple languages, because safety information should reach you in the language your heart speaks.
COMMUNITY CO-DESIGNED
Participants aren't recipients of a service built about them. They are paid co-creators, knowledgeholders, and the reason this works.
MEETS YOU WHERE YOU ARE — SMS
No app download. No account. No waiting room. Your phone buzzes and something kind is there.
THE PROJECT. How FemSMS: Pride Edition works
This NYC pilot is built in stages, led by the community it serves.
WHO THIS IS FOR. Built with and for
This pilot is explicitly designed for people who have too often been treated as afterthoughts by systems that claim to serve them.
"In these conditions, access to trustworthy, affirming information is not a luxury. It is a form of care, safety, and survival." — Footage Foundation
GET INVOLVED. How you can support this work
We are building this with community from the ground up.
