Signal for Help was actually brought to us by an advertising firm that wanted to do something to help out. They had an idea that we could create some kind of sign that a women could use, on a call like this one, that would indicate that she was in distress. They wanted to give an extra tool to a woman who was trapped in a home and didn't have a way to communicate that or to leave. We worked with them to create a hand signal, called Signal for Help, that indicates that the person needs help. We educated them around telling people that calling the police and sending them over to the house was not necessarily the best step. We worked through that process. They created it in English, French and Spanish, and have really pushed it out worldwide. We've seen people posting it from Brazil and different countries around the world.
Obviously, it doesn't work for everyone, but a lot of people are at home and are working on calls like this. If you get the signal that someone is in distress, the Signal for Help poster that's out there says how to contact resources and the steps you can take to help out instead of just calling the police right away in an emergency. It's free for anyone to use and for any agency to adapt and forward as they want.