Volunteer Resources

Okay, so I didn't wait until I got home...shhhh, don't tell my boss.

Here are some links to help those of you in the US who would like to donate time or money, but don't know where to start. Maybe members from other countries will post for their respective areas too!

To find many different types of volunteer opportunities both VOLUNTEER MATCH & UNITED WE SERVE are fantastic:

VOLUNTEER MATCH
http://www.volunteermatch.org/

UNITED WE SERVE
http://www.serve.gov/


Hunger, Elderly, Service and Homeless - related:

FOOD BANK LOCATOR - This is a resource page from Feeding America which can help you find the contact info for some local food banks in your area that may need volunteers or other assistance
http://feedingamerica.org/foodbank-results.aspx

MEALS ON WHEELS
http://www.mowaa.org/page.aspx?pid=262

USO
http://www.uso.org/act-now.aspx


MASSACHUSETTS ONLY (but one of my favs)
BIRTHDAY WISHES (BIRTHDAY PARTIES FOR HOMELESS CHILDREN)
http://www.birthdaywishes.org/AboutUs.aspx

I love the Birthday Wishes idea!! I am going to see if we can do something like this with our local shelters. What a great way to make a child feel special. Thanks for the links!

if anyone wants information on volunteering or charity work within the UK, please dont hesitate to PM me or email me on Sammie @ live . co . uk (minus the spaces)

Im north-west co ordinator for student volunteers, have raised over £200,000 for charities, won a lifetime achievement award at 20 for commitment to the community, have well over 5000 hours volunteering now, and have sat in parliament debating for volunteers rights. I'm happy to put you in touch with the right people to volunteer across the whole country just let me know!

If it's regarding charitable donations, Im a patron for many charities, and know of a lot of places that would appreciated gifts, so let me know.

Sammie x

Fantastic!

AngieAnders wrote:I love the Birthday Wishes idea!! I am going to see if we can do something like this with our local shelters. What a great way to make a child feel special. Thanks for the links!

It's my favorite cause to be involved with. Anyone who wants to do something, but doesn't have a lot of extra money can help. Each item/service needed for a party is listed individually. Before I started face painting and during a time when we were EXTRA broke, I donated stuff like a pack of birthday candles or a pack of napkins.

But let me tell you, when kids see you show up with your FP kit or balloons at the party, it's so unexpected that the whole atmosphere changes!

I've been thinking about this all day today. We have a shelter nearby for kids waiting to be placed into foster care. I started out thinking birthday parties, but I am toying with the idea of just going by there on scheduled days and face painting everyone. It would give them something to look forward to, and I could arrange it alone if there weren't any other people available to add to it. I'm going to call soon and see how they do things, and pitch the idea.

How birthday wishes does it is to set up monthly group birthday parties for the kids that fall into that month. So, if you could find others interested in helping, maybe you all could work out a monthly schedule, where you could pick the month you'd like to work?
Some shelters have very strict privacy rules (for safety like in the case of domestic abuse) and don't even allow volunteers to help with the parties. In those cases, they ask for a care package to be made up "Birthday in a Box" and it gets dropped off to a main office or someone from the shelter arranges pick up.
Good luck with it however you do it!!

Animal related non-profits:

This list is about having difficulty affording your pet, but the list of non-profits are sorted by state and most, if not all, accept volunteers!
http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/resources/tips/trouble_affording_pet.html

Volunteer with your local animal shelter. They often need help walking dogs, pooper-scooper duty, socialization with timid intakes, and sometimes adoption counseling. Plus, getting to know what your shelter has to deal with will help make the best advocate for spay/neuter programs as well as pet adoption over pet purchase. Many people get into the idea of "no-kill" shelters which is great, but they forget that unless their whole community works together cohesively to end homeless pets, donating time and money only to no-kill non-profits doesn't fix the problem.

There are also many chapters of Feral Cat Coalition. They provide "trap-neuter-release" services for colonies of feral, domestic cats. They often need medical and non-medical volunteers to assist with the spay/neuter clinics.

Find your local Audubon Society:
http://www.audubon.org/search-by-zip
Many have wonderful programs which allow you to certify your backyard as a wildlife habitat or volunteer with their wildlife care center rehabbing injured native species.