Safety With Community: Technologies of Care, Connection, Collective Safety, and Mutual Aid for Transgender Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (TBIPOC)

Technology has the potential to enhance safety by supporting community-driven strategies. However, current safety technologies often narrowly frame safety as preventing violence, without incorporating the community-centered strategies essential to well-being for transgender, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (TBIPOC). We conducted 22 interviews with TBIPOC individuals to understand their safety challenges, experiences navigating violence, and safety strategies. Our findings reveal that safety is not only the absence of harm but also the presence of trust, connection, collective care, and mutual aid. Participants emphasized survival resources like self-defense training and trans-specific spaces, alongside joy rooted in community and support. We argue that community is not separate from safety; it is its foundation. This work contributes fundamental knowledge about TBIPOCs’ experiences and design implications for technologies that affirm TBIPOC lives. Designing for TBIPOC safety requires shifting toward community-centered technologies and non-technological approaches that prioritize lived experiences, mutual aid, and collective joy.