Help Center
Frequently Asked Questions
You’ve got questions, and we’ve got answers. Find Wayplace FAQs below.
Definitions
Wayplace strives to use as little jargon as possible. Just in case, we have a list of definitions to help you understand and navigate the app with more clarity.
Tutorials
Step-by-step instructions for how to use different parts of Wayplace.
General
Frequently Asked Questions
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Are you looking for help, but not sure this is the right place? If you answer yes to any of the questions below, then Wayplace would have options for you. Select the Survivor account type to get started.
Do you feel in control of your current living situation? Are you able to leave your situation if you wanted to?
Has anyone pressured or forced you to do work or activities you didn’t want to do?
Do you feel like you have to do certain things to avoid harm/consequences?
Have you ever had to do certain things you didn’t want to do for needs like food, housing, or safety?
Does anyone control your phone, money, or ID?
Do you need permission to make every day decisions?
Were you promised something that turned out to be different?
If you’re supporting someone who may be in an unsafe or exploitative situation—such as a friend, family member, or acquaintance—you can share Wayplace as a resource and encourage them to sign up using a Survivor account. If they’re unable or prefer not to set up their account on their own, you’re welcome to help them get started and search for services together. The account should still be created under the Survivor account type to ensure they have full access to the most relevant support.
If you are a case manager, social worker, outreach coordinator or any other type of service worker who regularly encounters individuals who would need help getting services that Wayplace offers, but cannot offer those services yourself or within your organization, then we suggest you select the Organization account type, then choose the following path: Seek services for survivors of human trafficking
By selecting this option, your organization will be able to make service requests on behalf of multiple survivors at the same time. However you will not have the ability to display and offer services to survivors seeking help in the app.
If you are affiliated with an organization that can offer any type of services to individuals who have experienced human trafficking or sexual exploitation, we suggest you select the Organization account type, then choose the following path: Provide services for survivors of human trafficking
Selecting this option does not limit your organization’s ability to request services for survivors. Your organization will continue to have full access to submit service requests on behalf of those in your care while also allowing you the option to offer services to individuals using Wayplace.
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No, communication within the tool is limited to:
What you add to your profile. Survivors create their profile that they share with any services that they make a service request to. Organizations create a public profile for every service they provide within the tool. Those profiles are your main way of communicating with others.
You can change the status of a service request. See our definitions section for what different status options are available.
Service organizations will set up a specific phone and/or email address that will be sent to any Matched or Waitlisted individuals, so that communication can begin outside of Wayplace between the individual and the organization.
Reporting a user: if you experience someone misusing Wayplace or acting in a way that is inappropriate, you have the ability to report that user to the Wayplace Team within the tool.
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Atlas Free contracts with a professional development team that specializes in designing, building, and maintaining applications and knows best practices related to hosting and security. In addition, we limit communication and the sharing of personal data and information within the app. For survivors, Atlas Free has created a customizable safe exit button that will allow them to quickly leave the tool if an unsafe person enters their area. For more information for survivors on how to create more safety when using Wayplace, check out our tutorials on customizing your safe exit button and viewing the tool in private mode below.
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At this time, Wayplace is only available in English.
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If you have any questions while using Wayplace that haven’t been answered here, reach out to the Wayplace Team at Wayplace@atlasfree.org.
Organizations
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Survivors, as well as other organizations or advocates using Wayplace to find services for a survivor, will be able to see any published services as well as your organizational profile. Any services that are in draft mode will not be viewable yet.
When publishing a service, it's important to be mindful of when you need to toggle on the option to make your location undisclosed if that is your organization’s policy. Also consider, particularly for open-ended questions in the service description, the way you phrase things.
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Yes! You do not need to include your licenses or affiliations when you register; you can skip that step. You also can do it after registration if you have licenses or affiliations but do not have the documentation on hand. Once your profile is verified and built you can go in and edit your profile to upload and include licenses or affiliations at any time. Once you upload them to your profile, they will still be sent to the Wayplace team for review and approval before they appear on your profile for survivors and other organizations to see.
That said, we encourage you to only register in Wayplace once you have all the proper and necessary licenses or approvals in order to operate in your state for the demographic you serve.
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Wayplace was built with this customization in mind! You can make each location or program its own service in your profile. Each one will get its own service profile with separate details, demographics accepted, offerings, etc.
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When registering the organization for the first time, be sure to select the following organization account type: Provide services for survivors of human trafficking.
Selecting this option does not limit your organization’s ability to request services for survivors. Your organization will continue to have full access to submit service requests on behalf of those in your care while also allowing you the option to offer services to individuals using Wayplace.
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We still want your organization in the system! No need to worry about continuing to get service requests, the system will show your organization is full until you update it.
Survivors
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When making your username, we suggest avoiding any personal information, including any part of your actual name. Pick something that you like, but that doesn’t give away your identity.
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No. The only time anyone sees the information you add to your profile is when you select the Request Service button for a service. When you select Request Service, the details you input into your profile will immediately be shared with only that specific organization so that they can assess if they have the ability to serve you. If you match or are waitlisted with a service, they will send you contact information you can use to reach out to them directly; at that time it is likely they will need you to share more information with them, but all of that will happen outside of Wayplace. At that point, you can decide not to share your information if you don’t feel comfortable, but it could affect if that organization can move forward with you.
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When you select ‘Request Service,’ the details you input into your profile will immediately be shared with only that specific organization so that they can assess if they have the ability to serve you. They will then change the status to either Matched, Waitlisted, or Unable to Serve.
At any time you can select Cancel if you change your mind about requesting a service.
If a program matches or waitlists you, you will receive specific contact information from that service in order to move forward with their intake process. This is not a guarantee that they will take you into the program; for many organizations, they will still need to do some type of assessment with you to ensure they are a good fit for you.
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Service Request Statuses: This is status on a service request that can be seen at all times by the survivor (or advocate) and the service manager that shows where the request is at the moment. Some statuses are chosen by the service manager, some by the survivor or advocate. A service request can only have one status at a time.
Pending: When a survivor or advocate makes a service request and it has not been responded to yet, it will have the ‘Pending’ status.
Cancelled: When a survivor decides they are no longer interested in the service, for whatever reason, they can cancel the service request.
Unable to Serve: When a service manager reviews the service request and believes they will not be able to offer the service to that individual, they can change the request status to ‘Unable to Serve’.
Waitlisted: When a service manager reviews the service request and believes the individual will be a good fit for the service, but the service is currently at capacity, they can offer to add the individual to their waitlist. This change in status will prompt an email notification to the survivor or advocate with contact information from the service.
Matched: When a service manager reviews the service request and believes the individual will be a good fit. This change in status will prompt an email notification to the survivor or advocate with contact information from the service in order to begin any relevant intake steps.
Placed: Service Managers can update a ‘Matched’ or ‘Waitlisted’ status to ‘Placed’ once the survivor has entered the service and begun receiving support from the service organization.
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If a program matches with you, you will receive specific contact information from that service in order to reach out to them. They will likely have some additional steps for you as you move forward with their intake process. A match is not a guarantee that they will take you into the program; for many organizations, they will still need to do some type of assessment with you to ensure they are a good fit for you.
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Unfortunately, that might mean there isn’t a program in Wayplace that has all the elements you are looking for, or you have stumbled on a gap in our field at large. We recommend you try editing some of your filters to see what changes in order to see if you can find a close fit to what you are looking for.
In some cases, we know there are very few programs in the United States serving that population. This is the case with men, minors, and women with dependent children. The Wayplace team continues to search for more programs that can serve people of all demographics and will work to address these gaps as much as we can.
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To prevent retraumatization and harm, Wayplace strives to:
1. Limit how often you need to tell your story and background to organizations by helping you find the right service more efficiently. Instead of talking to many services and telling each of them your whole background of trauma, you hopefully will need to talk to a few.
2. We keep our questions to a minimum. The questions Wayplace asks in order to build your profile have been chosen intentionally. Only the questions that we know are often significant factors for getting into the correct service for you have been chosen.
3. We verify any organization that joins Wayplace. No organization can just sign up without the Wayplace team checking if their information is real.
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If you ever experience any user of any kind acting inappropriately in the app, you can report them to the Wayplace team.
If something unsafe or negligent occurs in a service outside of the app, we recommend you take that to the appropriate authorities. Wayplace team is not law enforcement and cannot act on reports of activity outside of the app.
Definitions
Types of Users: Different users will have different roles, access and experiences in Wayplace.
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Entities that participate in the system to offer support to survivors of human trafficking, often offering multiple ways for survivors to access help.
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The specific forms of assistance offered by service organizations available to survivors of human trafficking which may include, housing, case management, legal assistance, and other types of support. A Service Organization can have multiple service locations and/or types of services.
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The staff members of a service organization assigned to manage a particular service in the app; typically someone who has the authority to decide if an individual is a good fit for the service as well as manage the service description that survivors and advocates can see when doing a search.
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Individuals who have been victims of human trafficking, either currently or in the past and are seeking support from service organizations.
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Professionals that support multiple individuals who are victims of human trafficking by helping them access services and resources; commonly these individuals are case workers, law enforcement, or outside service people who are supporting multiple survivors to find a service.
Safe Exit URL: Customize your safe exit. Pick a website link you often go to. If you are in an unsafe situation, select the ‘Safe Exit’ button in the top right corner at any time to immediately go to that website.
Service Requests: the moment a survivor or advocate selects the “Request Service” button for a specific service, indicating they would like to receive that service and initiating contact with the service organization. By selecting this button, they will send the general information about their needs and preferences to the service for review.
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This is status on a service request that can be seen at all times by the survivor (or advocate) and the service manager that shows where the request is at the moment. Some statuses are chosen by the service manager, some by the survivor or advocate. A service request can only have one status at a time.
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When a survivor or advocate makes a service request and it has not been responded to yet, it will have the ‘Pending’ status.
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When a survivor decides they are no longer interested in the service, for whatever reason, they can cancel the service request.
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When a service manager reviews the service request and believes they will not be able to offer the service to that individual, they can change the request status to ‘Unable to Serve’.
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When a service manager reviews the service request and believes the individual will be a good fit for the service, but the service is currently at capacity, they can offer to add the individual to their waitlist. This change in status will prompt an email notification to the survivor or advocate with contact information from the service.
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When a service manager reviews the service request and believes the individual will be a good fit. This change in status will prompt an email notification to the survivor or advocate with contact information from the service in order to begin any relevant intake steps.
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Service Managers can update a ‘Matched’ or ‘Waitlisted’ status to ‘Placed’ once the survivor has entered the service and begun receiving support from the service organization.
Tutorials
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On the left-hand side click a tab that states “Services.”
Select the “Add New Service” Button.
Complete all the questions and click “save.”
Go back to the main services page and click the service you have just added.
Then select in the top right corner “service settings.”
Sign up for alerts to update bed/slot availability as well as contact information for each service.
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On the left-hand side click a tab that states “Users.”
Input the email of the user you would like to add in the text box.
Select the role of the user (see definitions above).
Click “Send Invite.”
Your user will receive an email to create a password for their account.
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On the left-hand side click a tab that states “Service Requests.”
At the top, select the tab listed “All.”
Select “View More” at the top right of each service request.
After viewing the request, select the response you wish to make in the top right corner of the screen.
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On the left-hand side click a tab that states “Clients.”
In the top right corner, select “Add Client.”
Fill out all requested information for the client.
Click “Submit.”
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Once a client is added, return to the client main page
Select the client you wish to search for services
In the top right, select “New service request”
Select all service types requested by the client
a. *If you want to search with location- select the check box and fill out the location information
Click search
Select “Filter” in the search result box
Fill it out and click “apply” at the bottom
Select service of interest
After looking at the information, if the client so chooses, select the blue “Send service request” at the bottom of the page
*This must be repeated for every service the client would be interested in
Survivors
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After logging in to Wayplace, go to ‘Profile Settings’ in the menu on the left side of the computer screen. If you are on a phone, use the three lines in the top left corner to see the menu, then select ‘Profile Settings.’
Click the ‘Edit’ button in Profile Settings
Fill in the box for Safe Exit URL. Make sure it is a complete and accurate link. We recommend a website you use often.
Select the ‘Save’ button.
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Anytime you want to prevent Wayplace from showing up in your history, go to wayplace.org while in a private browser.
To open a private browser, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+N (Windows/Chrome) or Cmd+Shift+N (Mac) to open a new private/incognito window. Alternatively, select the three-dot/line menu in the top-right corner of Chrome, Edge, or Firefox and choose "New Incognito Window" or "New Private Window".
To use a private browser on a phone, open your browser app (Chrome or Safari), tap the menu (three dots on Android, tab icon on iPhone), and select "New Incognito Tab" or "Private."
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Start by registering in Wayplace; when you do this you will have to verify your email address. Make sure you use an email address that is secure where emails won’t be seen by anyone unsafe.
Once you are registered, you can create your first service request. When you log in, you should begin on the Service Search tab, where you can click the blue button in the top right corner, ‘Add Service Request.’
Once you click ‘Add Service Request,’ you will begin by setting up your profile. You will need to fill out all fields. When selecting services, make sure to choose any you might want to request because you can make requests for more than one type of service.
Once you have completed your profile, click ‘Submit.’
Now that you have completed your profile, you will see the button in the top right corner again saying, “Service Request.’ Select that button to begin your search.
On the service search page, you will need to begin by selecting a service type to search for, you can choose one or multiple. You can also limit your location if you want to only see services in a specific area. If you don’t have a location limitation, then we encourage you to keep that open to see more options. Once you have made those selections, click the ‘Search’ button.
Now you should see a list of services show up. On the right side of the Search Results section you will see a ‘Filter’ button, select that to set your preferences for services. This will help you find services that are more catered to what you are looking for. All the services can be clicked on to see more details about what that service offers, its eligibility requirements, and more. When you find a service that you are interested in, click the ‘Send service request.’
Organizations