Volunteer Opportunities

For those of you who may be interested in doing volunteer work while here in Chicago,there are many contexts that would welcome your help.

Please note that many agencies now require an orientation program that requires several weeks to complete, i.e. two to four training sessions over a month-long period. Also, many agencies now also require a minimum time commitment of a year. For those reasons, you may have to hunt around a bit for a context that will welcome you on a short term basis.

Also, please note that agencies have great need for administrative support, e.g. data entry, photocopying, stuffing envelopes, answering phones, and other unglamorous tasks. Consider negotiating a role with the organization that includes both interaction with people (direct client service) and administrative tasks.

Additionally, if you are specifically looking to work with people, past ESL students of mine have really enjoyed working with the elderly. Americans do not often do as well as they might with respect to maintaining relationships with their elder relatives. As a result, there are many elderly Americans in nursing homes, group homes, and elder care facilities who are lonely and greatly appreciative of visitors.

On the other hand, if you would like to work with animals, PAWS Chicago
is a no-kill shelter group that has locations throughout Chicago. Past student volunteers have worked as dog walkers and helped out as needed at a shelter location.

Below, I have posted a link and blurb Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly in Chicago, which serves Chicago's elderly community, and which I found on the Internet.I also posted a link and blurb on Centro Romero, an agency that serves a primarily Central American refugee immigrant population. In 2005, I volunteered for several months with Centro Romero and was touched by the clients' stories. I also spent a lot of time working on clients' files and making copies of their files. The copy machine there was much worse than ours at school.

Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly
Since 1959 Little Brothers – Friends of the Elderly (LBFE) Chicago Chapter has brought companionship and social interaction to isolated and lonely elders. This last year we served 1,000 elders, with the indispensable help of 1,625 volunteers giving more than 52,300 hours of their time.

We have a broad range of opportunities for volunteers, donors and elders to share, learn, grow…and to celebrate life.

Centro Romero
Centro Romero is a community-based organization that serves the refugee immigrant population on the northeast side of Chicago. Our interrelated programs include adult education, women's empowerment projects, legal assistance, and youth learning and leadership development as well as special projects such as Community organizing and HIV/AIDS Outreach and Education. These are essential services that support healthy personal and social development of participants. Our long-term organizational goal is to bridge a disenfranchised community of Latino immigrants and refugees into mainstream American society as well as improving their opportunity for upward social mobility. Long-term sustainable growth of our target population will only be achieved through education, leadership development, and advocacy; therefore we focus our energy in related initiatives.

If you want to help to strengthen the efforts to improve the conditions of our Latino population, you may do so by volunteering or by supporting our cause. For other types of donations please contact the Associate Director Abel Nuñez by email or by phone at (773) 508-5300.