Blog
Mom Creates Just Us App to Protect Young Black Drivers
“Driving while Black” has been an issue in the African American community for quite some time. Fearful for her sons, Charmaine Davis invented a solution for every Black parent who has the same concern. “I can’t have him driving without me being able to be right there for him if he needs me,” Davis said.
As a play on the word “justice,” Just Us App is a free app with safety features that allow users to easily communicate whether they are safe or not. All the app’s features were designed to help create a layer of protection for young Black drivers while they are on the road.
“Just checking in, lets you know that I’m OK. I’m doing great. I don’t need any help,” Davis told Spectrum News. “My sons, they don’t like to call and check-in or send a text. They just like to push that button to say ‘I’m OK’ and then I can be off of their back, as they call it.”
The app has three voice-activated safety commands: Check In, Heads Up or Help. Check In lets others know the user is safe and allows the receiver to view their location. If a user is pulled over by the police, the Heads Up feature sends an alert to five designated contacts and can even begin an optional live stream for a monthly fee. The Help feature alerts other Just Us users within a 3-mile radius that someone nearby needs their assistance.
“How do we get together and keep one another safe? How do we put our safety in our own hands because it doesn’t work in anybody else’s, and that’s obvious.”
Charmaine Davis tells Spectrum News.
“They’re actually able to relax now, and they’re able to let their children go out and be teenagers, right? [They can] be like every other person and just go out and be able to go to a party and the parents know that they’re OK,” Davis said.
This Black mom sees the app as a practical tool in a world where police brutality has become too common in Black and brown neighborhoods.
Just Us App is now available in the Apple App Store!