Papa announces Trust and Safety Advisory Board

Papa, an end-to-end human care network supporting social needs, announced the creation of a Trust and Safety Advisory Board to further its overriding priority to keep members and Papa Pals safe on every visit. This milestone, along with the implementation of other major operational and product enhancements, support Papa’s goal to remain the safest in-person healthcare platform on the market.

“While over 99.9% of Papa visits go without a member-reported safety concern, even one report is too many,” said Papa’s Head of Trust and Safety, Jane Yu. “This is why we have doubled down on trust and safety, partnering with leading experts to help guide continual improvements — because we know this work is never done.”

With extensive experience in geriatric health, law, workplace and marketplace security, and safety across diverse populations, the new advisory board will support the continued ideation and implementation of trust and safety strategies to enhance the safety and well-being of the communities in which Papa operates, the people it works with, and the members it serves. Board members include:

• Ally Coll – Founder, The Purple Method. An attorney and founder of The Purple Method, an organization dedicated to providing employers with the knowledge, tools, resources, and strategies needed to create and maintain safe and empowering workplaces, Ally will support continual improvements to the experience and safety of Papa’s community members. She is a nationally recognized expert on addressing harassment and achieving gender equality in the workplace.
• Jeremy Gottschalk – CEO, Marketplace Risk. A leading expert in trust and safety for marketplace platforms, Jeremy will support Papa with trust and safety, risk management, and regulatory compliance. Jeremy has deep experience working with high-growth startups as a cross-functional resource and trusted advisor to key internal and external stakeholders. He formerly served as the General Counsel for Sittercity, a technology platform focused on managing child care for parents and caregivers.
• Michelle Feng, PhD – Chief Clinical Officer, Executive Mental Health. A licensed psychologist with expertise in geriatric psychology and behavioral medicine, Dr. Feng will help guide enhancements to Papa’s frontline training and general policies to improve support of older adults with mental health issues. She has dedicated her career to understanding and adapting evidenced-based therapy practices to treat individuals across the lifespan. She was named Woman to Watch by the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2022 and was recently named to Aging Media’s Future Leaders Class of 2023.
• Other board members bring cross-functional trust and safety experience, with specialties in user research, trust and safety strategy, and operations.

“As the caregiver shortage continues to worsen, and older adults have fewer people — if any — to rely on, Papa is creating a care experience that brings human help right to the front door in a way that is essential for older adults to age well and at home,” Yu said. “We’re proud to employ industry-leading safety measures and ongoing improvements that reflect our commitment to keep the safety of our members and Papa Pals front and center. We have enhanced our background checks and safety guardrails to be the industry gold standard, and are ready to build on these in the year ahead.”

Over the past year, Papa has implemented dozens of critical initiatives to prioritize and protect the trust and safety of its Papa Pals and members. Safety initiatives rolled out over the past six months include:

• Additional mandatory training: Every Papa Pal is required to complete a more in-depth, custom-made training before working with any member, and 99.7% of recently trained Papa Pals reported feeling prepared to keep the Papa community safe after taking this training.
• Papa Pal identity verification: Papa has implemented a world-class standard similar to that used by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) that matches a prospective Pal’s driver’s license to a real-time selfie to verify the prospect’s identity and the validity of their driver’s license.
• Papa Pal identification features: Members can now identify Papa Pals via an in-app badge that includes both the Papa Pal’s and member’s names, as well as a feature that allows Pals to call the member directly to verify their identity.
• Phone number anonymization: Papa’s platform can now use a consistent masked phone number for both Papa Pals and members, adding a layer of security to every interaction. After a successful initial pilot, Papa is now beginning to roll this feature out more broadly.
• Continuous Motor Vehicle Record (MVR) Monitoring: Through this continual monitoring, if a Papa Pal receives a motor vehicle record-related flag (e.g., a speeding ticket), Papa’s background check provider runs a full MVR screen on the Pal and adjudicates the results through the same screening matrix applied at onboarding. This is in addition to continuous criminal record monitoring and annual background check screenings, which include manual reviews.
• Real-time emergency support: Papa Pals can now access immediate emergency assistance directly in the Papa Pal app from trained, real-life agents with our partner Noonlight. In the event a Papa Pal or their member needs immediate assistance and calling 911 is not possible, Pals can request emergency support with a single click in the app and receive a response within five seconds.