is actively seeking volunteers for various shifts throughout the week for pantry prep, grocery distribution, and assistance with serving to-go dinners. You can sign up for a shift here
is looking for volunteers to help design a podcast that will highlight the Connecticut Black-owned businesses that it supports! If podcasts aren't your thing, they are also looking for help with social media (creation of IG and FB posts, drafting LinkedIn articles, and maintaining a social media calendar) and with writing blog posts. Let Amanda know if you're interested and she'll connect you.
ConnCAN, a Connecticut education advocacy nonprofit, is looking for volunteers to spend a few hours a week, from now until the end of December, updating their educational Field Guide and helping to convert it from a pdf to an interactive website! See full description here.
An awesome food justice organization that "helps our neighbors grow their own food at home and cultivates a growing community that actively works towards practicing food sovereignty while supporting personal wellness and environmental health through land stewardship, agricultural education and training, and culinary education." They are looking for volunteers to help with garden days, and perhaps other skills-based tasks, typically on Wednesday afternoons and on Sundays.
New Haven-based nonprofit Columbus House is looking for drivers that can deliver food to homeless veterans that are being housed in hotels in Middletown and New London. They need these deliveries taken on Tuesdays (driven by folks with a car and valid license). You will be able to drop off the food in the hotel lobby with no contact, complying with COVID-19 regulations. If you're interested, please reach out to Amanda Martinez for the application.
An East Rock-based non-profit focused on immigrant/refugee resettlement and rights. They have openings on Wednesdays for volunteers looking to drop off boxes of food at immigrant/refugee residences. The role involves picking up food at IRIS HQ and then making 5-6 deliveries per shift (almost always within New Haven). It's low commitment and you can sign on for one week and see how you like it. The deliveries are all contactless and in compliance with broader public health guidelines. If you are interested, please email bdelahunt@irisct.org and tell her Patrick McGovern referred you and she will get you squared away. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Patrick.
A local nonprofit that is launching a pilot program to connect families with early intervention and pediatric providers through a multilingual, mobile-friendly platform, is looking for volunteers! Founder Shay Cantner could use help with the technical side of app development, with fundraising, and with helping new users to get comfortable with the platform post-launch. Immediate needs:
- Support the Yale SIC intern group with customer discovery activities (over the next 2-3 weeks)
- Alpha test our product (app and web dashboard, coded in react native, Typescript, MySQL, and ember.js)
- Data compilation of former customer interviews
- Other small research projects such as:
-research domain name, website hosting options
-research survey and landing page tools
Let Amanda know if you're interested in taking on any of these roles!
CPEN is looking for volunteers for Bike4Health on 3/6 12-4pm! Bike4Health is the kickoff event for their Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride, and they need volunteers to help with set up, running activity stations, and clean up. Whether you can attend for that whole time period or just an hour, all are welcome! Each volunteer will be expected to follow all COVID-related protocols while volunteering. If you want to join, please let Charlie Gress (charles.gress@yale.edu) know and he'll get back to you about next steps and any questions you may have.
The folks at Friends Center for Children would like help with several projects. First, they could use help with development (fundraising) and with enhancing their social media presence (whenever). Second, they could always use more volunteers to put together wellness backpacks (whenever) and to assemble food boxes (every Wednesday). Contact Amanda for more info and to be connected with Allyx from Friends of Children.
Advise the Connecticut Mental Health Center (CMHC) on Microsoft Teams best practices! As CMHC works to adopt the Microsoft Teams platform, they would like some advice from students who are familiar with it, or who could become familiar with it quickly. If you are interested, please contact Kyle Pedersen at Kyle.Pedersen@yale.edu and let us (Charlie and Amanda) know so we can determine how many more students to recruit for this.
Be a mentor for a young woman through Phenomenal I Am, Inc. (PIA)! PIA works to address the emotional, social and overall student engagement needs of female adolescents of the City of New Haven through empowerment enrichment workshops and matching of an adult female mentor. Mentor, group facilitator, and mentor coordinator positions are now open. Apply here. Once they receive your application, you will be contacted to complete a background check.
A web-based app that catalogues and amplifies the resilience of young adults experiencing homelessness in New Haven. DreamKit offers gift cards to their youth to incentivize skill-building completion on the app and they are looking to partner with local food businesses, grocery markets, and retail stores to help offset the costs of these gift cards. If you are interested in this project (relevant experience not necessary), let Amanda know and she'll connect you with the Executive Director.
Help compile literacy packets for this local organization that is committed to building literacy from birth. These packets are given to the families of every baby born in 15 hospitals around the state! Read to Grow is looking for two volunteers to cover the Monday 12-2 shift for every week in March and possibly beyond. If you want to participate, let Amanda know and she'll send you the Read to Grow waiver, which needs to be signed before volunteering.
The Restaurant Rescue Project (RRP) reduces food waste in New Haven restaurants. By partnering with receivers such as halfway houses and soup kitchens, RRP saves food that would otherwise be thrown away at the end of each working day. RRP has a variety of volunteer positions available, all with different levels of weekly commitment: Runners, Shift Leads, Back-up Runners, Junior Chef Series Volunteer, and Leadership Positions.
Doreen Abubakar, founder of the Urban Nonprofit Network, is looking for MBA students to offer workshops that will be recorded and kept on the Urban Nonprofit Network website for nonprofit professionals to consult. The workshops could be on a variety of subjects, from building excel skills to grant-writing. If you have any skills you'd like to share with New Haven nonprofit leaders, let Amanda know and she'll connect you with Doreen.
Clothing Closet aims to provide new and gently used clothing to those who need it most.Become a clothing runner with Clothing Closet.Runs are usually most convenient on Saturdays, but can be very flexible. Overall, getting the car, carrying the bags, and donating the clothes usually takes around an hour, but will be even faster with more volunteers. The Clothing Closet is a great way to get involved with service at Yale and to give back to the surrounding New Haven community.
Higher Heights Youth Empowerment Program, Inc is a non-profit organization founded in 2004, that provides college preparation services to students in grades 9-12 and their families in Connecticut. They are looking for dedicated individuals to volunteer as a College Access Coach. As a coach you will work with a small group of high school students in your community and guide them through the college process. Fill out the volunteer form here.
