Get Ur Good On

By: Portia Obeng from Youth Service America

When I was in high school, I had to complete a certain number of service hours for National Honor Society. I vividly remember trying to find a volunteer activity I would really enjoy, but I never found the perfect activity for me. Back then, I wish I had access to a website like Get Ur Good On (www.GetUrGoodOn.org) to help me find my service passion and learn how to turn that passion into action.

Get Ur Good On is Youth Service America’s youth engagement partnership with singer and actress Miley Cyrus. This is a social networking site where young people upload pictures, videos, and blog postings about what they are doing to make a difference in their communities.

This site is much more than your typical status updates and pictures of people’s vacations. Almost 9,000 teens from around the world have created an online community where they share pictures from service trips in southern India, blog about ways to save the environment, and upload videos they’ve made addressing teen suicide prevention.

Most recently, I have been amazed by the way Get Ur Good On users have responded tremendously to the call put out to “Get Ur Good On for Haiti.” Pat wrote a blog post about how his school in Indianapolis, Indiana is going to collect shoes and clothes at a clothing drive for Haiti during prom. Kassandra uploaded pictures of her school’s fundraiser in Charlotte, North Carolina called “Hearts for Haiti” where they sold paper hearts to raise $1,500 in donations. Pat and Kassandra are only two of the dozens of Get Ur Good On users that exemplify what Get Ur Good On is all about; they not only answered the call to action, but shared their story on the site and inspired other young people to suggest Haiti service projects in school too.

What I love about Get Ur Good On is that young people are inspiring each other to change the world and showcasing that doing “good” is the cool thing to do. Getting your good on is so easy; take pictures or record a video of your next service project or write a blog post about an issue you’re passionate about and share it on the site. Also encourage other people in your life to do good too by educating them and inviting them with you on service projects.

But most important, make sure to go Get Ur Good On!