Alexander Louzada

An app and a municipal response center for women facing domestic violence

Role
Idea and architecture
Period
2024–2025, new version in development
Company
A product of Starnorte
Site
proelas.com.br
Home screen of the ProElas app, with the protection network and the main resources.
My Network, with the people who protect her.
Arrived safely, the notice she sends before going home alone.
Information on rights and support.

When a woman asks for help on ProElas, the people she trusts and her city's response center find out at the same moment, with her location. City governments adopt ProElas and run their own center. I came up with the product and designed its architecture at Starnorte in 2024 and 2025. A new version is now in development.

Who it is for

The buyers are city governments and consortia, usually through their departments for women, social assistance or public safety. State and federal programs can run ProElas together with the cities.

The people who use it are the woman, the people she chose to protect her, the operators of the city's center, and the field teams such as the Patrulha Maria da Penha and municipal guards.

The problem

In domestic violence cases, when each person acts on their own, time is lost between phone calls and messages. The center doesn't know who is already on the way, and the family doesn't know what the center has done.

Often the first person to arrive is a relative or a neighbour. ProElas brings those people into the response together with the city's teams.

My role

I came up with ProElas and designed its architecture: how the woman's app, the city's center and the field agent's app share each case as it unfolds. Starnorte builds all three in-house and handles setup and training in each city.

One call for help, step by step

  1. She asks for help

    She asks for help in the app, quickly and discreetly. Her location goes with the request and keeps updating.

  2. Her network and the center are alerted

    The people in her network get an alert on their phones. At the center, the request appears on the map with a sound.

  3. Someone takes the case

    An operator becomes responsible for the case, and the rest of the team can see who is handling each one.

  4. An agent goes to her

    A field agent receives the case in the agent app, with her updated position. The center follows the agent's route.

  5. Someone close by helps too

    A person from her network says they are on the way, and the center starts to see where that person is.

  6. The case is recorded

    Each step goes into the case history. She can follow it in the app, and the city gets data to plan its policy.

Three tools

The woman's app

Phone

  • Help request with her location, from which she can also call the police or health emergency services.
  • Protection network: she chooses who gets alerted, such as her mother, a friend or a neighbour.
  • Arrived safely: before going home alone she tells her network, and if her arrival isn't confirmed, the network and the center are alerted.
  • Incident report with photos and audio, sent when she is safe, and a view of what the center did.
  • Information on rights, how to report and where to find shelter, published by the city itself.
  • Discretion features for women who may be watched, which the public material does not describe.
ProElas app sign-in screen on a phone.
Incident report, sent when she is safe.

The city's response center

Browser

  • The city map with help requests, cases in progress and field teams on one screen.
  • Every case has a responsible operator. The coordination assigns shifts and sees which cases have no one assigned.
  • The center guides the field team and the protection network through the system, without calls or message groups.
  • Reports by period and by neighbourhood for public policy.

The field agent's app

Phone

  • The agent sees where to go, talks to the center on the way and records the visit with photos.
  • The report reaches the coordination when the agent gets back to base.
The field agent talks to the center during the visit.
The agent's checklist for the visit.

Profiles

  • The woman being protected
  • Guardians, the people in her protection network
  • Center operators
  • Coordination
  • City administration
  • Field agents

Decisions and the reasons behind them

The family is part of the response.
Relatives and neighbours often get there first. ProElas alerts them through the app itself and shows the center who is on the way.
One owner per case.
Each case has one operator from the moment someone takes it. The coordination sees the cases nobody has taken yet and assigns them.
Built for use under pressure.
Many women use ProElas with the aggressor nearby. The app is simple to use in that situation and has discretion features. The public material, this page included, leaves out how they work.
Each city runs its own center and its own data.
A city can adopt ProElas alone or as part of a state or federal program, and the data stays with the city that collected it.

How a city starts

Setup starts with the city's departments, useful phone numbers and the content of the app. Then the team is registered and each profile is trained with illustrated material, and Starnorte follows the first shifts.

Status

ProElas was used in 2024 and 2025. A new version is in development. The ProElas site publishes no usage numbers or city names, so this page doesn't either.

Who is behind it

ProElas is a product of StarNorte Tecnologia e Projetos, which I co-founded in 2023.

  • StarNorte Tecnologia e Projetos

    Builds ProElas and handles setup and training in each city.

In danger now, in Brazil, call 190. Women's Assistance Center: 180, free, 24 hours.

ProElas is a Starnorte product. About Starnorte

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I work with teams anywhere in the world, remotely or on site. To talk about a project, email is the fastest way to reach me.

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