Teesside-based Lemon Contact Centre has won a contract to support a hi-tech ‘guardian angel’ personal safety app that helps keep people safe.

help me Angela supports, advises, and reassures people at home, travelling, or at work.

Lemon is providing a team of ‘Personal Safety Specialists’, who are available around the clock and can be contacted at the touch of a button on a mobile device, if someone is feeling scared, afraid, or vulnerable.

The Personal Safety Specialists have received intensive training from the experts at help me Angela, who include former police officers, to be able to deal with their members at first point of contact regardless of the situation.

The help me Angela app is designed for when someone feels unsafe or afraid, such as when they are walking home.

It has the option to generate a ‘Help Request’, at which time a Personal Safety Specialist to contact them immediately enabling them to feel safer. Alternatively, users can activate ‘Follow Me’, whereby a Personal Safety Specialist will ‘join’ them on their journey, so they are not alone.

Lemon has won the work because of its track record in handling sensitive and emotionally complex calls.

Martin Anderson, Lemon’s chief executive, said: “The mission help me Angela is on – to make everyone feel safe – is such a great cause. We’re pleased to be part of it and help keep its users out of harm’s way.

"Our ability to have active listening and empathy is really important because people will be contacting us when they feel they are at their most vulnerable."

Sarah Adderley, a director at help me Angela and former police officer, said: “We have appointed Lemon because of its outstanding ability to handle calls in a person-centred, individual, empathetic manner”.

“The sort of support we need to offer means it cannot be operated by a ‘one-size-fits-all’ type call centre.”

She added: “We believe feeling safe isn’t a privilege, it’s your right”.