Community Gives Back: The Good Use App
When times are tough the question often heard is, “what can I do to help?” And it’s not always easy to know where to begin, which is why Good Use App is our Community Spotlight, shining a light on giving, gratitude, and the good feelings that come from helping a community member. The Good Use App has made it easy for you to donate your time or your gently used goods, making it a perfect way to get your family and friends involved in whatever way they can! It’s always a good time to teach children how to give back to their local communities and this combination of technology with volunteering and giving makes it fun for kids! Be sure to download their app and get started with meaningful, accessible actions you can take to be a better neighbor!
Tell us about your App:
We created the Good Use app to make giving easy with the goal of enabling communities to come together through social sharing. The app allows anyone (individuals or organizations) to easily create listings for items they can give or goods they would like to receive.
What inspired you to launch this App?
We all have things that we can give but we recognized that it’s not always easy to give. Our aspiration is to increase happiness through the act of giving. We believe that we can inspire the act of giving through discovering meaningful opportunities to give. For example, a neighbor who will appreciate that good you’re no longer using and put it to good use or an organization that is focused on a cause you care about and has a need for your good or skill. The more we get to see how our giving makes a direct impact on someone the more joy it brings us.
The inspiration came from members of our team who wanted to help give back to the community and also increase the product life cycle of physical goods to decrease our carbon footprint. More specifically, a few of our team members were either moving or going through life stages where they had things in their possession that they were no longer using that others could benefit from (e.g. kids aging out of clothes they’ve never worn or toys that they lost interest in), so we decided to start the Good Use Co to solve this problem as giving should be easy.
What is one of your proudest moments?
We’ve been able to get thousands of items placed since we launched a couple months ago, which means that we were able to get the items into the hands of someone who could actually put them to better use.
We are also proud that we were able to help facilitate a successful campaign to drive the donation of 3000+ jars of peanut butter for the San Diego Food Bank through our community.
What can one expect when using your app?
You’ll find a community of users around you based on the proximity you choose. The app allows you to give easily and ask for things that you might need freely. The app is intuitive and easy to use so you can create a listing in seconds. We are also working with organizations to help them get the items they need so we can come together as a community to support local causes.
How can the community support you?
We are looking for more people to use the app so we can build a stronger community and get more items circulated. If you have something you can give or something that you’d like to receive, give the Good Use app a try!
We have created a social sharing economy, so you give items to the individuals or organizations that you choose to give to. Since we launched a couple months ago, we have enabled thousands of items to be put to good use amongst our community. We hope that everyone can find the joy of giving and feel better about lessening our carbon footprint.
Tell us a little about you:
I am a Redondo Beach resident with 2 boys (4 and 2). I attended middle school and high school in West Torrance and lived in SD and SF for 18 years before moving back to the South Bay 2.5 years ago.
What do you enjoy doing in the South Bay when you are not working on your cause?
These days, life is a bit more routine with everything that’s going on, but I really enjoy taking my kids to the beach and getting together over some good food with friends and family that are part of our trusted circle 😉
Download the iPhone app: https://gooduse.app.link/southbay
See more information here: www.goodu.se
