For the person asking

How we check the people who write to you.

You are about to tell a stranger something private. Here is exactly what we did before that stranger was allowed to answer — and, just as plainly, what we did not do.

The short version

Every guide was approved by a person, after a conversation. Nobody approves themselves. A guide can write to you once, cannot reach you anywhere else, and cannot see anyone's request but the ones sent to them. The rest of this page is the detail.

We publish this because a "verified" badge has stopped meaning anything to anybody. You deserve to know what the word covers here — and where it stops.

Before anyone can answer a request
  1. They apply, in their own words. Which faith they answer from, what they have lived through, what languages they write in, and why. This is what we match on — a person writing about losing their mother reaches a guide who has buried a parent.
  2. A person reads it. Not a filter. If they named an organisation — a hospice, a parish, a mosque — we ring the organisation. We do not take their word for it.
  3. They prove who they are. A passport or licence and a live selfie, checked by Stripe. We never see the document and never store it; we keep a date and a reference. Their card shows whether this has been done — and says plainly when it has not.
  4. They start with celebrations only. A new guide is shown births, weddings and good news — nothing else — until a person has read their first three replies. This is enforced in the database, not by policy: a new guide's account cannot even ask for a grief request. Someone who has done this work reads those three replies and decides. Grief never reaches an unread guide.
  5. They promise three things. No advice on medicine, therapy or the law. No money, no contact details, no moving the conversation elsewhere. And that every word they send is their own — never written or suggested by AI.
Three kinds of guide, and what each one has passed

Guides are not ranked. They are cleared for different things, and the checks get heavier the more they are trusted with. Every guide's card shows which of these apply to them — and, in the same size type, which do not.

Every guide
Can send you one blessing.
Application read by a personFirst replies read by a person
No background checkNobody has vouched yet
This is the guide who answers most requests. One message, from their own tradition, and then they cannot write to you again unless you ask. Where they have passed the identity check, their card says so; where they have not, it says that instead.
Companions
Can also be sent requests that suggest real distress, and can hold a conversation if you open one.
Government ID checkedPhone number confirmedVouched for by two stewards
No background check
The ID check is done by Stripe, the same company that checks identity for banks. We never see the document — we receive a yes or no, and a date.
Stewards
Can vouch for new guides, and sit in quietly on conversations to keep both people safe.
Affiliation confirmed with the organisationBackground check
"Confirmed with St Mary's Hospice" on a card means we rang St Mary's Hospice. A background check covers one country on one date, and we repeat it every year.

Right now, in the platform's first weeks, most guides are at the first level. The card always tells you which.

What we check — and what we do not

The second column matters more than the first. A platform willing to print its own gaps is the one worth believing about its checks.

We do check
  • That a person read the application and spoke to them
  • Any organisation they name — by ringing it
  • Government ID and a live selfie, for companions and above
  • That two stewards put their own standing behind them
  • A background check, for stewards, renewed yearly
  • Every reply, before it sends, for contact details, money, links and medical advice
We do not check
  • Any qualification of any kind. Guides are volunteers, not clinicians or counsellors. We do not verify training, and they are not allowed to claim it.
  • Titles. A guide cannot sign as "Dr.", "Pastor" or "Therapist" even if they are one — to a frightened person it reads as a credential we checked, and we did not.
  • A first-level guide's identity or record. Their card says so.
  • Anything about you. No account, no email, no name. We could not check you if we wanted to.
What no guide can do, however well they passed

Checks tell you who someone was on the day we checked. These are different: they are things the system refuses, for every guide, every time.

  • Write to you more than once — unless you open a conversation, and then only in turn, after you have written.
  • Edit or delete what they sent. It is permanent, so a report can be read against the actual words.
  • Send you an email address, a phone number, a link, or a way to reach them anywhere else. The send button refuses it, including the spelled-out kinds.
  • Ask you for money. Or know whether you ever gave any.
  • Tell you to stop a medication or skip a doctor.
  • Read anyone's request but the ones sent to them. There is no queue to browse and the database refuses the question.
  • Use AI to write or suggest a single word of a blessing.
If something is wrong

Under every blessing there is a Report this button. It needs no account and it goes to a person. A guide reported for asking for contact, money, or anything sexual or medical is suspended while it is looked at, and because replies cannot be edited, what they actually wrote is still there to read. The safeguarding policy sets out every step.

If what you write suggests you are in danger, the request does not go to whoever is free. It goes only to a companion or steward — and if none is available, we tell you so and show the crisis line for your country instead. We would rather say we cannot take it than hand it to the wrong person.

Guides are volunteers offering prayer, scripture and reflection. Nothing on EverVerse is medical, psychological or legal advice. If you are unwell, please also speak to a doctor.

Ask for a blessing → Become a guide