Lumina
Give women personalised information that helps them understand their situation and take action, in minutes.
Lumina is being developed to help your team create personalised guides based on the behaviours a woman is experiencing.
Drawing on Harbour Lights Community’s cited research and resources, Lumina brings together explanations of possible patterns of abuse, their impact and relevant practical guidance. The practitioner selects the information appropriate to the woman’s circumstances, creating a guide she can use to understand her experiences, consider her options and decide what to do next.
01 — Purpose & Context
The Need
The right information can change the course of abuse.
Lumina was designed to support women in the third stage of abuse called Assessing Risk. In this stage, a woman weighs the risks of staying against the risks of leaving.
To make the best decision for her, she needs a clear understanding of her situation. Much of the information she needs already exists in research and professional guidance. Finding, understanding and applying it can be difficult while she copes with the demands of abuse.261, 545, 744
Research shows tailored information can help. In US trials, women using a personalised online safety decision aid felt less uncertain about their decisions than women given standard online information.571, 738 After 12 months, they also reported greater improvements in helpful safety behaviours.738
Lumina brings together information on the behaviours she faces now, those she may face if she leaves, the impact they may cause and the precautions available. With this information, she can see her situation clearly and make the decision that is right for her.
Where Lumina Fits into Her Journey
Lumina is part of a portfolio of products designed to meet her information needs at each stage of her journey through abuse. The highlighted stage below shows where Lumina fits within that journey.
02 — Product Specifications
How to Create the Guide
From her experiences to a personalised guide in four steps.
Working together, the practitioner and woman identify the behaviours she wants to explore. Lumina brings together relevant information from Harbour Lights Community’s resources, including possible forms of abuse, why those behaviours may be used, their potential consequences and available ways to respond.
The practitioner then chooses what to include in her guide, drawing on their understanding of the woman’s circumstances, immediate priorities and capacity to absorb information.
The practitioner determines which information is relevant to the woman and appropriate to share. They can explore the findings with her and select the material most useful at that point in her journey.
Lumina complements existing professional practice. It does not replace safeguarding procedures, professional risk assessments, specialist advice or the woman’s own judgement.
Women may experience several overlapping forms of abuse, each with different consequences and possible responses. Finding the information relevant to one woman’s circumstances can mean searching through multiple guides and sources.
Lumina brings selected information into one resource, allowing practitioners to focus on the questions and behaviours that matter most to her and avoid overwhelming her with information she does not currently need.
03 — Product Specifications
What the Guide Contains
One personalised guide, built around her specific situation.
Lumina is designed to create a personalised PDF guide for every woman. The guide addresses each of the behaviours she describes. Practitioners can review the guide with her and print it where it is safe to do so.
| Her questions | What her guide explains |
|---|---|
| What is happening to me? | Explains the behaviours she is experiencing. Details the forms of abuse with which those behaviours can be associated and how they can form wider patterns. |
| Why is this happening? | Explores what research tells us about the purposes abusive behaviours may serve, including maintaining control, restricting independence or achieving other outcomes. |
| How could this affect my life? | Explains potential consequences for her safety, finances, children, housing, employment, relationships, wellbeing and future independence. |
| What can I do about it? | Provides practical countermeasures, precautions and potential complications relevant to the behaviours she describes. |
| What can I learn from other women? | Shares lived-experience insights, including what women said they would do differently, alongside case studies illustrating similar circumstances and responses. |
| Where can I find support? | Identifies relevant Harbour Lights Community resources and specialist organisations that may help her explore her options and access further assistance. |
| Where does this information come from? | Provides references to the underlying sources so she and the professionals supporting her can examine the evidence. |
Product Preview
Sample Guide
See an example using economic abuse.
This example shows a guide for a woman who was experiencing Economic Abuse alone. Because each woman’s guide reflects the specific challenges she is having, each guide will have different content and length.
04 — Quality Assurance
The Evidence Behind the Guide
Information grounded in research, legislation and specialist guidance, with sources you can check.
Lumina draws on Harbour Lights Community’s evidence base, including peer-reviewed research, UK legislation, government publications and recognised specialist guidance.
Our research with 26 women who experienced post-separation abuse informed the questions our resources answer and how we organise and present the information. Published evidence supports the factual claims and practical countermeasures, and each guide includes its references.
Research into tailored safety decision support has found that women receiving these interventions can experience greater confidence in their decisions and take more protective action.569, 571, 572, 738 One clinical trial also found that a higher proportion of women receiving tailored online decision support had left their abuser after 12 months.738
These external findings inform Lumina’s development. HLC has not yet measured Lumina’s own outcomes.
Our assurance framework explains how we select and verify sources, make the evidence traceable and keep our resources under review.
Explore our Supporting Research and Assurance Framework
05 — Sector Applications
Who It’s For
Designed for professionals supporting women experiencing abuse.
Lumina is intended for practitioners, employees and volunteers whose work brings them into contact with women experiencing domestic or post-separation abuse.
It is being developed for use within specialist services and organisations whose primary work lies in other areas but whose teams may encounter women affected by abuse.
Specialist & Public-Facing Support
Charities and community organisations
Supporting women with their personal circumstances, practical needs and access to specialist services.
Police and public services
Helping women explore and articulate their experiences, while giving professionals relevant information to offer alongside their existing responsibilities.
Health, family and wellbeing services
Supporting women and families affected by the physical, psychological, parenting and relationship consequences of abuse.
Support Through Everyday Services
Employers and workplace wellbeing teams
Supporting women whose employment, financial security or wellbeing may be affected by abuse.
Housing organisations
Helping women facing housing insecurity, tenancy difficulties or other accommodation-related consequences.
Financial services
Helping teams respond to customers experiencing possible economic abuse and know when to offer specialist information and support.
Lumina is designed to fit within existing services, bringing relevant information
into the conversations organisations are already having with women.
06 — Service Delivery
Delivery & Access
Online access, managed for your organisation.
Harbour Lights Community hosts, maintains and updates Lumina as a branded, browser-based professional service. Practitioners use authorised individual accounts. Each guide uses a reference number instead of the woman’s name. This enables practitioners to review previous guides and prepare updated versions as her circumstances change.
Information about organisational access, implementation, training and support is available on our dedicated page.
Explore Delivery & Access
Working With Us
Book a Demo
See the full process, from her experiences to her guide.
Discover how Lumina brings together relevant research, practical guidance and the judgement of your practitioners to create information tailored to each woman.
We can demonstrate the complete process, from selecting the behaviours she describes to creating a personalised guide she can use to understand her experiences, explore her options and consider her next steps.