Venture Overview
dotzz is a secure platform designed as a lifeline for survivors of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and Gender-Based Violence (GBV), while empowering allies and service providers to actively support them. Founder Natasha Johnson is an activist, lawyer, educator, and human rights advocate who has worked across anti-trafficking, family violence prevention, LGBTQ youth support, and legislative reform. Her work reframing FGM/C as a U.S. human rights issue and co-drafting municipal advisory legislation informs dotzz’s survivor-centered approach.
Website: www.dotzz.io
Venture Issue Area: Civic Engagement
Venture Headquarters: Brooklyn, New York, USA
Venture Founder
Natasha Johnson (she/her/unicorn) is a proud Brooklynite who considers many spots across the globe her extended home. She is an activist, educator, lawyer, and artist motivated by creating innovative methods of access for communities historically peripheral to justice. Natasha serves as a board member of the NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault and the NYC Cyber Abuse Task Force. Her passion for storytelling and human rights is evidenced in her TEDx Talk reframing female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) as a human rights violation in the US and in her efforts to co-draft legislation creating a municipal FGM/C Advisory Committee, the first of its kind in the country. Before joining VOW, she worked as the executive director of a coalition against family violence, as an anti-trafficking legal specialist in the Solomon Islands, as a director of education supporting homeless LGBTQ youth, and as a professor at multiple universities. When not collaborating with the VOW team, Natasha is also a trauma-informed yoga teacher; the creator of dotzz, an app to support gender-based violence survivors; and the founder of PROFIT + JULY, an inclusive-sized yoga mat line.
