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Last updated 3/6/23

How to Get Involved as a volunteer!

  1. Your first step to getting and staying involved with our mutual aid group is to contact us and ask to be added to our volunteer listserv. With that, you’ll receive a weekly email with our current volunteer needs. Here are our latest listserv emails.
  2. If you are interested in doing more, please take a look at the list of volunteer opportunities directly below. Please fill out the volunteer intake form and we will get back to you!

We are a small, dedicated, friendly group of locals. We love what we do, and we hope you can join us!

OUR volunteer NEEDs (in order of urgency)

Helpline Staff

One day a week, you have a shift to check the texts, emails, and voicemails that come in with requests for help and add them to our spreadsheet. You’ll text/call/email anyone on the spreadsheet who has been marked with a need for follow-up (maybe there was a question about what size they needed, or to confirm their address, etc.) and make a note of it in the spreadsheet. This typically takes 1- 2 hours, depending on the week. There is an English and a Spanish line; you will be on shift for just one language, not both. *For the Spanish helpline we need someone on every day except Tuesdays. For the English helpline, we are currently taking a waiting list for when someone needs to step back.*

Volunteer Coordination

One day a week you will have a shift to coordinate volunteers. You’ll follow up with people who have items to donate, or get in touch with people who have offered to drive and create/give them a route of where to pick up items and which items to bring to which addresses. For your chosen time frame, you are basically in charge of anything volunteer-facing. This typically takes up to 2 hours a shift, depending on the volume. *Help currently needed for weekly shifts every day except Wednesdays.*

Fundraisers

Brainstorm and help implement fundraising. This might mean coming up with ways to get families, scout troops, or other community groups to raise money to then donate to our grocery card fund. Or you might help coordinate a fundraising event (we’re toying with the idea of a virtual/remote fundraising concert, for example). You’ll share our Open Collective fundraiser with various community networks. We are happy to talk about any other possibilities you can think of!

Social Media Help

We are seeking someone who can join us in managing our day-to-day Facebook & Instagram accounts. The time commitment is generally a few hours a week. We’re especially seeking volunteers who have some graphic design experience, or volunteers who can translate any verbiage into Spanish. We are really trying to work on gaining traction through social media.

Drivers

We email our list of drivers when we have donations to be delivered, usually every week. If you’re available, you’ll reply and be given a route to pick up the items from someone hosting a donation drop-off location and deliver them to the addresses we give you for the recipients. Please visit this page for a more detailed breakdown of how volunteering as a driver works.

Clothing Volunteers

As we are getting our space at Takoma Park Presbyterian Church ready to easily distribute clothing from, we need a couple of specific tasks done:

Sorting donated clothes, linens, home goods, and other items on Sunday afternoons, usually starting at 12:30pm, at Takoma Park Presbyterian Church. (Other days/times may be added at a later date.) Tasks will include going through bags/bins of donated items, filtering out items that are no longer fit to be worn/used, setting items aside for washing if needed, and helping to put things away in an orderly manner. Volunteers must wear masks at all times, and the space is large enough to accommodate proper social distancing. We also usually leave the doors open for airflow.

Drop-Box Hosts

You’ll put a bin for diaper & clothes drop-offs on your porch and allow us to share your address with people interested in donating. When donations are dropped off to you, you’ll sort through the items (discarding anything soiled or torn) and enter items into our drop-off spreadsheet. We’ll schedule a driver to pick them up from your porch and deliver them to the recipient, and let you know when the driver is coming so you can have them outside and labeled with the recipients name. *Really looking for people who live outside of the Takoma Park/DTSS area*