Pause for a moment and think about the people around you – in your neighbourhood, your workplace, your circle of friends and family, and outwards to your village, your town, your city. Think about the people in these places you have spoken to in the past – about what they have told you about themselves. Their strengths, their interests, their skills, their careers. What they choose to do in their free time. Those aspects of their lives that after you’ve spoken to them, you’ve thought ‘Wow, I didn’t know how passionate they were about that!’

Clearly these communities contain a vast array of resources for living. And where there are resources, there is usually also need – need for help, for support, for skills, even for small items to borrow rather than buy. For empathy, for time to lend an ear. For someone to go jogging with, to attend a class with. There is a marketplace near me. Not a financial marketplace, but a marketplace for sharing, for resource management. A potential opportunity to match people who need something with people who have the resources to supply it. Part of what we call the ‘sharing economy’.

Now imagine you can tap into this marketplace. To use it to offer the resources you have – and can comfortably spare – and the resources you need, right now. Imagine that in under five minutes you could connect with people around you to transact in this sharing marketplace. Your community is similar to a car battery, storing all this energy, power and resources. Think how much you could benefit others, and they might benefit you, if you were able to access this resource! Imagine a set of metaphorical ‘jump leads’ enabling you to tap into and download the energy you need. Are you able to currently do this?

This is how a ‘YuTU’ works. When you create a YuTU on your smartphone in just five minutes or less, you contribute to, or withdraw from, this collective resource. You specify what you need, or what you are willing to give, upload an image, tell people when you are available or when it needs to be done, and your location. Almost instantly your YuTU will find people around, prioritised by location and immediacy, who are interested in helping you, or need your help. You connect and message them within the YuTU platform, and those resources are put to work for your mutual benefit. YuTU is a marketplace app for free resources.

You decide how you want to use YuTU and exactly how your YUTUs define you. The potential uses are almost limitless, albeit with a few rules. YuTUs whether asking or offering are always kind, always helpful, always positive. There is enough angst and seediness in the world and there is no place on YuTU for this. A YuTU is a force for good. An opportunity to look out for people around you and to consider them first.

If you haven’t done so already, take a few minutes to check out the app – there are links to the App Store and Google Play on www.yutu.social. Look at the YuTUs nearby and see whether they appeal to you right now. Perhaps take the plunge and post one. Don’t limit yourself but use it for your brand of positivity, and perhaps expand your world as you do so!