Uncommon Hacks Project
Team Members: Cindy Nakhammouane Yana Ninovska Anahi Ochoa Inika Goyal
YouthInAction connects high school and college level students with volunteering opportunities, empowering them to drive meaningful change and helping organizations strengthen their communities.
YouthInAction connects everyone from high schoolers to college level students with volunteer opportunities, blending the best of social media and matchmaking to make community service engaging and accessible.
Studies show that only 33% of teens engage in regular community service, often due to difficulties in finding opportunities that align with their interests or fit into their schedules (Source: National Youth Volunteer Survey). Students are struggling to find volunteering opportunities that truly inspired them, we saw firsthand how frustrating it was to commit to causes without a clear match or easy access.
Inspired by the swipe-style simplicity of apps like Tinder and the storytelling format of Instagram Stories, we envisioned an app where students can “swipe” through volunteer opportunities that truly fit their passions and schedules. YouthInAction lets students view current and past volunteer opportunities, keeping everything fresh, visible, and engaging. Students can easily track their volunteering goals and search for new ones.
One of the challenges we faced during development was that everyone was coming from different skill levels, which added complexity. But we turned that challenge into an opportunity, combining diverse talents and perspectives to create a platform that truly empowers students to find their perfect volunteer match.
By merging the best features of social media with the power of community service, YouthInAction helps students find their perfect match in volunteer opportunities, ensuring they stay motivated and connected to causes they care about.
We used GenAI to convert our UI design designed in Figma using a free plugin called "Anima", this made implementing our frontend a lot faster, providing us converted Javascript and CSS files. OpenAI was then used as a tool to reference whenever we needed assistance tweaking any frontend or backend code through out our project.