Richmond Hill mother, Army veteran builds free safety app to protect families and service members

RICHMOND HILL, Ga. (WTOC) - A Richmond Hill mother and Army veteran has built a free app she hopes will give parents and service members a single place to find safety resources, report abuse anonymously and get help in an emergency.

Lyndsay Monaco calls it Project 31, a nod to the Bible verse Proverbs 31, which she says is about defending people who can’t defend themselves.

She said the free, beta-phase app is a passion project she’s built almost entirely on her own time, working on it late at night and during lunch breaks at her full-time job.

“After you become a mother, you become super protective,” Monaco said.

“It just seems like the more we turn on the news, ... we see children getting hurt ... missing and endangered children. It just seems like it gets worse every year.”

Monaco spent nearly 14 years in the Army before medically retiring. She said her professional background in intelligence and government work — including experience with artificial intelligence and data-aggregation tools — shaped how she approached building the app.

“Why don’t we use open source data and aggregate it all into one app, so parents have everything they need,” Monaco said.

“This aggregates everything. One source for parents; for training, for teaching your kids, for tracking predators and creating your own map, one source to get help when you need it.”

The app includes an interactive safety map that pulls from public offender registries, allowing users to filter by offender risk level, view active missing and endangered child alerts, and see safe locations such as police and fire stations. It also includes a tool for filing anonymous tips, which Monaco said automatically routes reports to the appropriate agency and generates a tracking number for the user.

One of the app’s features, called “Mayday,” is designed as a discreet way to seek help without immediately calling 911. Once a user sets up two emergency contacts, activating Mayday disguises itself as a text conversation, begins recording information in the background, and sends an alert with details to the user’s contacts.

“Maybe it’s not enough to call the police because you don’t have enough [proof],” Monaco said, “but that’s what [Mayday] is for.”

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the organization received more than 50,000 reports of financially motivated sextortion in 2025 alone; an average of about 137 reports per day. That’s up significantly from more than 36,000 reports in 2024, according to NCMEC.

Monaco said the app isn’t just for families. With Fort Stewart nearby, she said she’s heard from military women in networking groups who are hesitant to report incidents through their chain of command.

“All the time, I see things on there where even leaders are saying, ‘How do I address this?’ Or, ‘I want to submit a report, but I’m still afraid of my unit finding out,’” Monaco said.

Project 31’s anonymous reporting tool routes military-related reports directly to resources such as SHARP and Equal Opportunity representatives, she said.

Monaco said the app does not store personal data by default, and only retains information, such as a user’s location, if someone actively chooses to turn a feature on.

Project 31 is currently in its “beta 2” phase, open to community testers who can submit feedback directly through the app.

Monaco said she built and funded the app entirely on her own and is now reaching out to local organizations, including area chambers of commerce and law enforcement agencies, in hopes of future partnerships.

She said no formal partnerships have been finalized yet.

Monaco said she is aiming to get feedback from about 100 testers before pursuing additional funding, developer support and a future release on iOS and Android. She said the app will always remain free for families.

“I never wanted to sit behind a paywall,” Monaco said. “That is going to be something I stand by forever.”