Safety is fundamental to everything we do at Lyft, and has been since day one. As our community has grown, so have our efforts to protect it. That’s meant a continual investment in community safety, driven by a number of new product features and policies designed to keep our riders and drivers safe.
In short, we work hard every day to find ways to improve the safety of our platform. But prevention is only part of our work. When incidents do arise, we are committed to providing the best possible response.
Our dedicated customer service team supports our riders and drivers, helping to resolve routine situations that take place through the app. For more urgent situations, we have a dedicated Trust & Safety team that’s available to speak with drivers and riders around-the-clock. This expert team handles situations that require immediate support, and they undergo special training to handle these calls.
Today, we’re building on our existing employee training with new programming provided by the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA), a leading nonprofit dedicated to promoting, advancing and enforcing victims’ rights. Their mission — to champion dignity and compassion for those harmed by crime and crisis — extends to their work with those who serve victims every day. For these workers, NOVA provides training and technical assistance through state, regional, and national trainings as well as one of the best-attended, skill-based victim services professional annual conferences in the nation.
Trust & Safety team members will now receive 40 hours of NOVA Training on foundation-level topics for victim assistance. Upon graduation, team members will apply to be professionally credentialed victim advocates through the National Advocate Credentialing Program (NACP)©. Founded in 2003, NACP is the first and only national credentialing program available to crime victim advocates.
NOVA will also develop and deliver a Victim Advocacy 101 Training for Lyft’s Trust & Safety employees. That training will cover key topics, including: Trauma-Informed Care; Crisis Intervention; Communication Skills; and De-Escalation.
As the oldest national group of its kind in the Victims’ Rights Movement, NOVA unifies a diverse group of individuals committed to the recognition and implementation of victim rights and services. Their network includes victim and witness assistance program practitioners, crisis responders, criminal justice agencies and professionals, mental health professionals, researchers and survivors.
This program is the latest step toward our goal of keeping our community safe and providing the right support and resolution when issues arise. We will continue to invest in learning and development for everyone who partners with our riders and drivers, especially our Trust & Safety team members.