Michael Oher of 'The Blind Side' Fame Launches Inspiring New Venture

Michael Oher is looking to help people with his latest project. The former NFL offensive lineman and focus of the hit 2009 film The Blind Side recently launched an app called Good Deeds. And according to the official website, the Good Deeds app "quickly and easily connects neighbors in need with neighbors who are eager to give."

"I thought back to when I was coming up, how I was going to Goodwill and I didn't have $2 or $3 to buy a pair of socks, some shorts, t-shirts — I just didn't have 50 cents to my name," Oher said in an interview with PEOPLE. "I thought, I've got to come up with something that can bridge the gap between the people that are in need, and people who are really wanting to give."

Good Deeds allows neighbors to give materials like clothes and shoes to people in the community. When a person creates a profile, they can post what they can give or request what they need. Then the app will connect those that crossover. One of the big things that helped Oher get the app going is the tornado in Nashville last year.

"I was watching the news and so many bottles of water got left in a warehouse. Supplies never got to the people," Oher stated. "I would donate stuff all the time to the shelters, the thrift store, things like that and it just got me thinking. I'm donating all this money and I don't know if it's going to the people that are in need."

Oher is making sure that people who are struggling don't struggle for long. When he was growing up, he was going in-and-out of foster care and was also homeless at times. It wasn't until he was 16 years old when Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy took him in and became a football star. After being a standout player at Briarcrest Christian School, Oher became an All-American offensive lineman at Ole Miss and then played for the Baltimore Ravens, Tennessee Titans and Carolina Panthers.

"When I started to see that I had two or three pair of shoes to wear to school and I had multiple pants, my mental health started getting stronger," says Oher. "I could focus on school, and my grades started to go up. I was eating, so I could focus on other things rather than being hungry, that's when I really started to excel."