The Inner City Women's Group have developed a free mobile app which will allow women to determine whether or not their relationship is considered to be abusive or not.

The Women's Group developed the app in partnership with digital developer Omnispex.

From left: Brendan Baber, Marketing and PR Liaison Anusha Bhana and Deborah Mackenzie. Photo: Anusha Bhana.

The app was developed by Omnispex senior coder Brendan Baber who says developing the app gave him a better understanding of domestic violence and the associated effects.

'Working with the team at Inner City Women's Group I learnt a lot about the nature of domestic violence and the horrific way it can affect the average woman.

'I'm really happy that I could not only make something I'm proud of, but that is something could have the potential to actually help someone.”

The app is called ‘1 in 3 Be Free', a reference to the statistic that one in three women will experience physical or sexual violence from their partner or ex-partner at some point in their lives.

Inner City Women's Group agency manager Deborah Mackenzie took part in the making of the app.

'We recognize that it isn't always easy to identify when behaviours in a relationship become concerning, controlling, or abusive, so we want to help educate women about different forms of abuse and their effects.

'We know from working directly with women affected by violence that financial, verbal, psychological, physical and sexual abuse are often misunderstood and downplayed, and often abusive behaviour is dismissed by friends and family as ‘normal'.”

With the app, Deborah and Brendon both hope to help women who have been abused or are being abused by their partners.

The app will be a series of questions which will help women screen their current or previous relationships for signs of abuse.

Regarding the questions on the app Deborah says 'We know that women are not all the same. We have added filtering questions to the app to make sure the quiz is responsive to women's different situations and where they live.”

After the quiz has been taken, depending on the answers give, the app will highlight different types of abuse if there are any. The app will then list a number of service providers in their area that will be able to offer the woman support.

The app will be launched in a private event on May 4, with guest speaker Dr. Jackie Blue from the Human Rights Commission.