Mission: Ayuda envisions a community where all immigrants overcome obstacles in order to succeed and thrive in the United States. We realize our vision by advocating for low-income immigrants through direct legal, social and language services, training and outreach in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area.
Website: http://ayuda.com/wp/be-involved/become-a-volunteer/
Email: n/a
Phone: (202) 387-4848
What volunteers do:
- Contribute to a blog.
- Organize a donation drive: clothing, can goods, blankets, books, etc.
- Organize your own Ayuda Happy Hour fundraising event.
- Share your talent with staff on such topic as public speaking, management skills, work/life balance, yoga, or an artistic skill.
- Offer your expertise! Examples of professionals needed from time to time: photographers, videographers, graphic designers, social media guru, copywriters, and editors.
- Ayuda also seeks attorneys, social workers, and medical professionals wishing to accept cases on a pro bono basis. Any professional interested in accepting a case or providing mental health or medical assistance should contact Carolina De Los Rios at carolinadelosrios@ayuda.com. For pro-bono attorneys, please contact Susannah Volpe if you practice in Maryland or DC at susannah@ayuda.com or Victoria Lopez if you practice in Virginia at victorialopez@ayuda.com.
Mission: The mission of Bread for the City is to provide vulnerable residents of Washington, DC with comprehensive services, including food, clothing, medical care, and legal and social services, in an atmosphere of dignity and respect. We recognize that all people share a common humanity, and that all are responsible to themselves and to society as a whole. Therefore, we promote the mutual collaboration of clients, volunteers, donors, staff, and other community partners to alleviate the suffering caused by poverty and to rectify the conditions that perpetuate it.
Website: http://www.breadforthecity.org/get-involved/volunteer/
Email: volunteer@breadforthecity.org
Phone: (202) 265.2400
What volunteers do:
- Assist with administrative office work (filing, scanning, data entry, shredding, and other tasks).
- Distribute food with the food pantry team (Mon – Thurs, 9 am to Noon and 1 pm to 5 pm at the NW and SE centers).
- Sort clothing (Mon-Thurs, 9 am – 2 pm & Tues-hurs, 2:30 pm – 5 pm @ SE Center).
- Support the free farmer's market.
- Sort and pack donated produce into family-sized distribution packages for Bread for the City clients (**spring opportunity).
- Plant, water, weed, and tend to various edible fruits, vegetables, herbs, and ornamental flowers (training attendance required; ** spring opportunity).
- Join a roster of bilingual volunteers to help with facilitating social services.
- List of additional opportunities for skilled volunteers (lawyers + law students, doctors + med students, qualitative data specialists, grant writers) listed here: http://www.breadforthecity.org/internships/
FYI:
- Individuals can view and register for ALL volunteer opportunities on this shift calendar: http://www.breadforthecity.org/selectvolshift/
- Handy volunteer documents, forms, and orientation information available here: http://www.breadforthecity.org/volunteer-orientation/
- Many volunteer opportunities are one-time activities lasting 2-3 hours. Individual volunteers with a regular schedule in one or both of the centers (NW & SE) are asked to make a minimum time commitment of at least three months.
- A background check and confidentiality agreement are required for some roles.
- Group volunteer opportunities available.
Mission: The Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition is the only non-profit organization in the Washington, D.C. area with a legal services program focused exclusively on assisting detained immigrant men, women, and children in jails and juvenile facilities in Maryland and Virginia. CAIR Coalition’s newest programmatic initiative, the Virginia Justice Program (VJP), strives to ensure that non-citizens receive equal justice in Virginia criminal courts. We provide support to members of Virginia’s criminal defense bar in their representation of non-citizen defendants and also conduct litigation and advocacy at the intersection of criminal-immigration law. The Community Conversations Project is designed to provide holistic and culturally competent workshops on immigrants’ rights, defenses against deportation, as well as rights against gender and domestic violence. Our Gender-Based Violence workshop promotes awareness of gender-based violence and its impacts on legal status and eligibility for relief against deportation. All presentations include information for families through partnerships with local schools, community centers, and other nonprofits.
Website: https://www.caircoalition.org/how-to-help/volunteering
Email: for jail visit, translation/interpretation, or detention hotline volunteer opportunities: Kelly Rojas at kelly.rojas@caircoalition.org; for medical and mental health volunteer opportunities: Michael Lukens at michael@caircoalition.org.
Phone: n/a
What volunteers do:
- Help answer the Detention Line for detained noncitizens and family members. Help with initial intakes, provide additional information to the detainee/their family about the detention and removal process, as well as connect detainees to their attorneys. Detention line volunteers may also assist with preparations for our weekly jail visits, research criminal records and help with case follow-up and translations. Training is required.
- Help with jail visits. Assist CAIR Coalition staff with intakes, interpreting, and distributing information to the detainees.
- Translate/Interpret. Translate documents from a foreign language to English and /or interpret for staff and pro bono attorneys.
- Medical/Mental Health Evaluation Help. Refugees who need to apply for a special waiver in order to avoid deportation need a medical evaluation performed by a designated civil surgeon and to be up to date on their vaccines in order to complete the application for the waiver. If the individual does not have the resources to pay a physician to come to the detention center, volunteer medical professionals are needed who are willing to take the time to visit a detention center on a pro bono basis.
FYI:
- All volunteers must fill out volunteer application: http://bit.ly/2oLbRnD.
- For the Detention line, CAIR Coalition is particularly looking for volunteers who speak Spanish, French or Arabic. Volunteers can sign up for one or more two hour shift a week, or as their schedule permits, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Ideally, they are looking for volunteers who could do more than one shift a week.
- For the Jail visits, additional training is required. No knowledge of the law is required. There is a particular need for Spanish-speakers. Also seeking volunteers who speak French, Amharic, Tigrinya, Somali, Arabic, Russian, Farsi, or Mandarin.
Mission: CARECEN’s mission is to foster the comprehensive development of the Latino population in the Washington metropolitan region by providing direct services, while promoting grassroots empowerment, civic engagement, and human rights advocacy.
Website: http://www.carecendc.org/join-us/volunteer/
Volunteer form: http://bit.ly/2pzqUAM
Email: info@carecendc.org
Phone: (202) 328-9799
What volunteers do:
- Provide assistance with data entry, help organize educational events such as workshops and informational sessions. Help staff with clerical duties such as general filing and correspondence work, answering phones as needed.
- Serve as mock interviewer for students of CARECEN’s citizenship classes (no Spanish required; 3 hour one-time session).
- Help immigrants fill out their form N-400 applications for citizenship (training provided by immigration attorney; 5 hour one-time session).
- Teach citizenship classes (classes are Tuesdays 6-8 pm, Saturdays 10-12pm & 2:30-4:30pm). A two hour commitment for 12 weeks is expected.
- Teach ESL classes (classes are Wednesdays 6-8pm & Saturdays 12:30-2:15pm. A two hour commitment for 12 weeks is expected.
- Tutor students preparing for their naturalization test on a need basis, usually week nights and Saturdays. Contact Carecen for times and dates.
- Participate in advocacy campaigns around immigration reform and citizenship expansion.
FYI:
- Attorneys interested in working pro bono on immigration casework should contact Andrea Rodriguez, Director of Legal Services at arodriguez@carecendc.org.
Mission: The D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center’s Health Care Access Project (HCAP) provides representation to low-income individuals whose health care is jeopardized either because of unmanageable medical debt or because they cannot obtain pre-approval for medical treatment or medication by their private insurer or public benefits program. Services through the project have the potential to benefit not only the client/patient, but also the medical facilities involved and, indeed, the general health care system.
Website: https://www.dcbar.org/pro-bono/volunteer/hcap.cfm#volunteers
Contact: https://www.dcbar.org/about-the-bar/contact-us.cfm
Phone: (202) 737-4700
What volunteers do:
Health Care Access Project volunteers employ both litigation and non–litigation strategies to resolve the debt or obtain pre-approval for treatment, including
- Representation in cases pending in D.C. Superior Court
- Working to obtain benefits to which the client is and/or was entitled under an insurance or public benefits program
- Working to reduce the debt due to unsubstantiated charges
- Negotiating a payment plan
- Negotiating to obtain pre-approval for treatment; and/or
- Utilizing insurance company appeal procedures when pre-approval is denied.
FYI:
Interested volunteers who agree to accept two pro bono referrals from the Health Care Access Project (HCAP) or one of the sponsoring organizations are eligible to view the HCAP training video on probono.net/DC. A membership is required, and will be approved once the participant agrees to referral of the two cases mentioned above. This training is appropriate for attorneys and attorney/paralegal teams. Attorneys must be admitted to practice in D.C., have an application pending to be admitted to practice in D.C. or be a government employee or internal counsel authorized to practice under Rule 49.
Mission: The ACLU of the District of Columbia (ACLU-DC), with more than 8,500 local members, fights to protect and expand civil liberties and civil rights for people who live, work, and visit D.C., and in matters involving federal employees and agencies. Those who join us also become members of the National ACLU. ACLU-DC pursues its mission through legal action, legislative advocacy, and public education. In addition to representing clients in court, sometimes we work with government agencies to defend liberty without litigation. We also testify and lobby before the D.C. Council, and we educate the public through Know Your Rights trainings and materials, appearances on radio and television, social media activity, and meetings with community groups.
Website: https://www.acludc.org/en/volunteer
Volunteer signup form: https://action.aclu.org/secure/dc-volunteer
Email: n/a
Phone: (202) 457-0800
What volunteers do:
- Help with community organizing, grassroots lobbying, research, writing, and online activism.
- Provide fundraising assistance, multimedia support, translation, and graphic design.
- Monitor protests, and take photos/videos.
Mission: Helping Educate to Advance the Rights of the Deaf (HEARD), is an all-volunteer nonprofit organization that promotes equal access to legal system for individuals who are deaf and for people with disabilities. HEARD primarily focuses on correcting and preventing deaf wrongful convictions, ending deaf prisoner abuse, decreasing recidivism rates for deaf returned citizens, and on increasing representation of the deaf in the justice, legal and corrections professions. HEARD created and maintains the only national database of deaf, hard of hearing and deaf-blind detainees & prisoners.
Website: http://www.behearddc.org/get-involved/get-involved.html
Contact: http://www.behearddc.org/contactus.html
Phone: n/a
What volunteers do:
- Visit deaf and deaf blind prisoners in your area.
- Become a pen pal for a deaf or deaf blind prisoner.
- Help raise awareness about wrongful arrests and convictions of deaf people.
- Become a "Know Your Rights!" presenter after completing your training with HEARD.
- Testify at a legislative hearing in your area.
- Donate stamps, envelopes, and old or new ASL dictionaries.
Mission: The Innocence Project, founded in 1992 by Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck at Cardozo School of Law, exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. The Innocence Project's mission is to free the staggering number of innocent people who remain incarcerated, and to bring reform to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment. The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project works to prevent and correct the conviction of innocent people in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. We have one of the highest success rates in the country for exonerating those who have been wrongfully accused.
Website: https://exonerate.org/
Volunteer form: https://exonerate.org/get-involved/
Email: volunteer@exonerate.org
Phone: (202) 994-4586
FYI:
- Help currently needed from law students, attorneys, and people with expertise in fields related to forensic science, criminal justice, and social work for work on prisoner appeals.