Volunteering opportunities for an SF resident **please read** <3 <3?

Question

Hello Answer's Community!

One of my new years resolutions was to become more involved in Volunteer work. I work with an organization currently called "Shanti" and one day a week work with a client for a few hours (practical support mostly)

I would like to do more though, and was hopeing to see some suggestions.

also, one of my main interestes are in the Suicide Hotlines... was wondering if anyone knew how to volunteer with them... or what the hour requirments are.

for the record I'm 22, I work, and am a student so really all I have are weekends to volunteer

Answer 1

weekends and an interest in suicide hotlines. you are semi perfect for http://www.rainn.org online hotline for sexual assault victims.  I curretly work the hotline on weekends and we are horribly understaffed on these days...

your suicide hotline interest is great, because unfortunately a lot of sexual assault victims are suicidal and/or participate in self-injury.

I encourage you to check it out.

Answer 2

I&#039;m also trying to do more volunteer work and really get more involved this year in specific projects. So good on ya!

As for the suicide hotlines, just do a search online for some organizations. I did one just now (&quot;San Francisco suicide hotline&quot;) and the first item that came up was this: http://www.sfsuicide.org/  You should check out that website and see what you find.

Generally their requirements are that you have to be of the legal age in your country, have a clean criminal record, do an interview, and then extensive training. Each place is different though, so definitely contact them.

I know that the Red Cross (at least in Canada) does a huge prevention program with teens. Volunteers over 18 can apply to do the intensive training program and then work in prevention situations directly with teens. So it&#039;s not a phone line but it may be something else you can look into.

Since I&#039;m trying to get more involved in my community (at a deeper level than &quot;regular old volunteer&quot;), I&#039;ve been researching international development organizations in my area for the past week. I&#039;ve found numerous opportunities to volunteer on planning committees for youth conferences, world film festivals, Model UN and other things like that. I&#039;ve also found opportunities to apply to four different youth conferences on international development.

It does take a lot of work - I can&#039;t count how many hours I&#039;ve spent researching these things this week. But if you&#039;re prepared to put in the work, you will really reap the benefits. Choose something you&#039;re really interested in and research the heck out of it. Many organizations have a links page and I found new orgs that way. Also, Yahoo Answers and even more so, Facebook groups, have been really been great for me.

Good luck. This is quite a task and I commend you for making this your resolution this year! There aren&#039;t enough people like you out there. Hopefully you can find something you really love.

(I know this didn&#039;t totally answer your question... but hopefully it at least gave you a few things to look into or think about.)