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distribution on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store that have stringent approval
requirements.
The secondary funder for this project was the Johnston Group (Administrators of the
Chambers of Commerce Group Insurance Plan), who became a co-sponsor and contributed to
building the app to offer it to their members from the Chambers of Commerce at no cost. The
Johnston Group, along with their strategic partner Arete (a national provider of member mental
health and assistance programs for employees, retirees, businesses and organizations in Canada),
were hopeful that the app could become an evidence-based commercial product to support
workers' mental fitness around isolation and loneliness and build authentic connections.
A study was initiated in October 2020 through SMU to provide an independent
evaluation of the app's effectiveness. This research project was approved by the institutional
REB at SMU and conducted February-September 2021. Detailed results can be found in
Appendix A.
Through invitations and sharing this opportunity with the WSPS client base and
connections from Territorial, 26 companies expressed some level of interest within a 60-day
recruiting window in the fall of 2020. In February 2021, 16 companies signed up for the study
and promoted the opportunity to access Hugr Authentic Connections app to their employees. A
requirement to access the app with WSPS clients was to opt in to the research study. Of 22,402
employees invited to participate, 150 signed up by completing the first comprehensive
assessment (0.67% opt-in rate). Chamber Plan members did not have to agree to participate in
the research project in order to access the app. Not unexpectedly they therefore had much lower
participation rates.
