ProtestApp

An app that allows protesters to find a protest near them. Bringing people together for social good.

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Inspiration

All across the nation, there has been a national outcry of social injustice. When a Black man is shot we have seen time and time again silence to be the end result. Indifference to these issues stems from our prejudiced current system. We have also seen a white man shooting up an entire school and given water when escorted to a police car. Here, we can see something deeply wrong with the system. Sayings like, “hands up don’t shoot.” have been shouted across many streets, and now more than ever people are starting to wake up to the corrupt system and are calling for change. Change can take place in many forms, but for many, the most efficient way is to show support in numbers by protesting. Now more than ever is the time to uplift your voice, as another saying, “out of your house off into the streets” is chanted you can join the movement too by taking out your phone and using ProtestApp.

What it does

Protesting, or the way organizers are publicly making their opinions heard by the public influence is a direct way people are trying to enact change. Our group thought that with everything happening in our society we should make an app to help these protests be more organized. Our solution was to design an app where people sign up anonymously, in order to protect their identity, and through our app will then be directed to find a protest near them.

How I built it

ProtestApp was built using five React-Native (coded in Javascript), Google Maps API, GeoCoder module FireBase, and React-native-modal-datetime-picker (created by React Native Community)

Challenges I ran into

Our group saw a problem with being able to find protests, as most people publish protests through Facebook, and it is difficult to navigate and find reliable and trustworthy protests from legitimate organizations. The most challenging part of protests is being able to find one near you, but with ProtestApp it is easily accessible to find a protest near you by simply inputting your search destination and our app will direct you with the exact mileage on a map to automate a protest for your wanted destination. This makes finding a protest easy, efficient, and accessible for anyone. Challenges coding wise was making sure all the software matched up. Sometimes it was difficult coding and then having issues with visually seeing things on the app so trying to debug code was a challenge at times.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

For our group, this was our first hackathon so being able to make an app for social good, especially one concerning so many movements that are currently taking place feels phenomenal. Every day I see issues on the news of new protests taking place, but really any organization as a whole. This app will help people collaborate on a holistic scale

What I learned

Each of my teammates came in all with different backgrounds. I learned through the process, of how inspiring and life-changing coding is and all the possibilities you can do with it. It was very intriguing to watch each of us put in our inputs and see the vision come to life. I think with everything, it was very rewarding to have people be so positive and welcoming even if you have minimal experience.

What's next for ProtestApp

Taking things large scale, we want to add more features like police radio news updates, as well our number one priority is the educational and safety of people, so we want to add more educational sources so people who are protesting know why they're protesting. Things such as history, what to wear at a protest, and how to still be involved if you can not attend a protest in person.

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