SEEDS: Students for Education, Empowerment, & Direct Service
Summer Volunteer Starter Kit
If you are looking to gain valuable experience, avoid being a couch potato, feel good about the work you are doing, connect with others who share your interests and help out your community… spending some of your time this summer volunteering may be the way to go.
The following steps serve as a primer to hook yourself up with the ideal volunteer position this summer.
Seven Steps to a Summer of Service Success:
1. List what you want. The clearer idea you have about what you want to get out of your summer experience, the better chance you have of creating it. What type of work environment do you want? What people would you like to work with? What would you like to learn? What level of responsibility would you like to take on? What kind of time commitment do you want to make?…
2. List what you could offer. When contacting an agency, they are going to want to know what you could offer them. What skills do you already have? For many positions, enthusiasm and a desire to learn are plenty.
3. Browse volunteer opportunities. Check out the volunteer clearinghouse web sites listed on the back of this sheet. See if any of the positions match up with “wants” and skills you have to offer. The phone book, internet, and word of mouth are also great ways to see what is happening in your community.
4. Contact the agency. Generally, if you access the agency through one of the clearinghouses, they will give a contact name and number. When contacting other volunteer agencies, let them know you are interested in finding out about opportunities to volunteer with their organization. Many organizations have volunteer coordinators that they will have you speak with.
5. Agree to terms. When speaking with the volunteer coordinator, it will be helpful to establish the time commitment and schedule that will work, who will be your supervisor, what type of training is involved, and what your responsibilities would entail.
6. Finding a need and fill it. After you have successfully completed the tasks your supervisor has asked you to do, assess what other needs the organization has, come up with ways you might address these needs and see if it would be possible for you to take on these projects. This is a way to both carve out the experience you want and gain more responsibility and experience.
7. Closure. Bring you experience to a successful closure by asking your supervisor to have an exit interview. This is a good time to both give and receive feedback on the work that you have done. If the experience was positive, be sure to ask your supervisor for a letter of recommendation.
Your Summer Volunteer Resources
The following organizations can help you link up with volunteer opportunities in your own communities:
Idealsit.org, Action without Borders: Many international opportunities
Provides an extensive list of volunteer opportunities that are searchable by city, state, or country. Most of these listings are for ongoing projects where volunteers are needed.
Hands On Network: Many one-time volunteer projects
Hands On Network brings people together to strengthen communities through meaningful volunteer action. Hands On Network creates and manages nearly 50,000 projects a year, from building wheelchair ramps in San Francisco to teaching reading in Atlanta, to rebuilding homes and lives in the Gulf coast communities.
Hands On Network is currently made up of 55 national and international volunteer organizations that act as entrepreneurial civic action centers.
Volunteer Match: Many longer-term opportunities in the U.S.
VolunteerMatch is a leader in the nonprofit world dedicated to helping everyone find a great place to volunteer. The organization offers a variety of online services to support a community of nonprofit, volunteer and business leaders committed to civic engagement. Our popular service welcomes millions of visitors a year and has become the preferred internet recruiting tool for more than 30,000 nonprofit organizations.
Still have questions? Please contact Fawn Livingston-Gray at (503) 777-7563 or via email.