CareShare

Main Dashboard of CareShare
Settings Tab of CareShare

Inspiration

Imagine a platform where college students can effortlessly donate their goods to those in need, creating a positive impact within our community and fostering a culture of giving. With that message and the hackathon’s aim to create social good at the center of our thinking, we were inspired by the aggie reuse store to create Care Share. We noticed that when many students graduate, they tend to throw out a significant amount of easily reusable goods. We wanted to create a marketplace to facilitate the exchange or donation of those goods across Davis, increasing sustainability while also providing those in need with access to goods they may not be able to afford otherwise.

What it does

CareShare allows users to create listings for items that they wish to donate and allows other users to demonstrate an interest in those listings. These users, who can be either students or UC Davis-Affiliated NPOs, provide a name, image, and category of good they wish to donate in their listing, which other students can message them about and facilitate an exchange.

How we built it

CareShare was built using a combination of HTML, NodeJS, and MySQL. The front end primarily consists of HTML and CSS, with a backend of NodeJS. We stored listings and other important user data using MySQL to store and retrieve data.

Challenges we ran into

Some of the challenges we faced with this project included passing the data between the frontend and backend of the programs and storing that data into MySQL.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

This project required linking together the front-end and back-end at multiple key points to provide a smooth website experience and facilitate proper database usage.

What we learned

Our group learned about integrating MySQL with JavaScript code, and how to transfer data to/from databases to use on a website storefront. It was a challenge making sure every aspect of our program functioned with the rest of the moving parts that we had, which made constructing the storefront a journey of 1000 steps.

What's next for CareShare

Currently, CareShare's user login validation is only coded to accept certain preset profiles manually stored in the Database. Given more time, we hope to enable users to make their own accounts and store their login details on a remote server using standard encryption protocols. We also Aim to introduce more NPO-manage their inventory and also add a chatting feature as prototyped in FIGMA. CareShare fosters a strong sense of community among students, creating a supportive environment that goes beyond transactions. Donating on our platform empowers students to make a positive impact in their peers' lives, experiencing the joy of giving firsthand