Volunteer Opportunities
If you have even one hour to spare, you can make a difference in the lives of homeless individuals and families at the Clara-Mateo Alliance shelter. Do you have a skill you can share? For example, could you:
- Prepare and/or serve a meal one evening for residents, perhaps a barbecue dinner on the grassy areas surrounding the shelter? Learn how to do it from our on-line manual
- Hold an informal resume-writing workshop at the shelter?
- Teach a resident how to use the internet to search for jobs?
- Give a small workshop on how to use word processing or other software?
- Be responsible for collections of Another Way canister donations, either from a group of merchants, or from Home or Corporate Canister participants, who need their donations picked up?
If you can help with any of these services and activities, or have other ideas about how you can make a difference please contact:
Volunteer Coordinator
Clara-Mateo Alliance, Inc.
795 Willow Road, Building 323-D
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Telephone: (650) 853-7076
Fax: (650) 853-7083
E-mail: [email protected]
Professional Services Needed
The Clara-Mateo Alliance would be grateful to receive volunteer services from professionals with the following specialties:
Front Desk Receptionists:
(2 or 3 days/week; 3-8 hours/day)
This is the first point of access and entry into our Transitional Shelter and the Elsa Segovia Center. It is important that clients are greeted and welcomed, sign-in, and are properly oriented to the facility and the services they need. Answering telephone calls, scheduling appointments, providing information about services and emergency shelters, interacting with residents and potential residents, and light administrative/office duties involved. [back to index]
General Office Assistance/Data Entry Clerks:
(1 or 2 days/week; 2-4 hours/day)
This position provides "behind the scenes" support to our staff and does not involve much direct interaction with our residents. We need help maintaining and updating all of our records, including, for example, our donor database and client files. [back to index]
Dinners for all Shelter Residents:
(1 day/month; 3-4 hours/day; good group activity)
One of Clara-Mateo Alliance's biggest expenses is the cost of providing dinners to our residents. We spend over $115,000 annually on dinners. Groups of individuals, corporations, service groups, civic groups, youth groups, religious groups are gladly welcome to provide dinners for shelter residents. [back to index]
Lunch Makers:
(1 or 2 days/week; 1-2 hours/day; good group activity)
Every weekday, our 90 residents leave our facility with a sack lunch that we provide. Because each of our shelter residents is expected to be at work, interviewing for work, or attending classes or a treatment program between the hours of 8am and 4pm, we send our residents out with a sack lunch each day. We always need help preparing and packing sack lunches for our residents! [back to index]
Clothes Sorters & Fashion Consultants:
(1 or 2 days/week; 2-4 hours/day)
The clothing closet provides clothing for women and children, including professional attire, business casual, casual, school clothes, and general clothing for children. Approximately 15 volunteers are needed to run this service, including one or two coordinators to operate the clothing closet 20-40 hours/week. Tasks that volunteers perform include: acquiring donations of clothing, sorting, sizing, and staffing the clothing closet. Staffing entails helping the clients choose the right clothing to suit their needs (e.g., professional attire for an interview), distributing the clothing, and maintaining inventory. [back to index]
Yoga/Aerobics/Meditation Instructors:
(1 or 2 days/week; 1-2 hours/day)
The Elsa Segovia Center Wellness Room is designed to house fitness and wellness-related activities. We would like to have qualified volunteers who can provide yoga, stress reduction and meditation classes, among others. [back to index]
ESL Instructors:
(1 or 2 days/week; 1-2 hours/day)
Many of our residents are Spanish-speaking and need to improve their English-language skills in order to gain employment (or to move into a more lucrative position). Qualified volunteers are welcome to help our residents hone their English-language skills. [back to index]
Computer Skills Instructors:
(1 or 2 days/week; 2 hours/day)
Our Transitional Shelter, Transitional Housing Facility, and the Elsa Segovia Center all provide access to computers for our residents. However, we could use volunteers to teach our clients how to use a variety of computer programs, ranging from Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, Excel, and PowerPoint, in addition to teaching basic computer programming classes to interested residents. [back to index]
Another Way Canister Program Merchant Representative (very flexible):
(1 or 2 days/week; 1-2 hours/day)
The Another Way Canister Program enables people to donate to the homeless without giving to panhandlers on the street. All money deposited into Another Way canisters, located at grocery and retail locations throughout Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Mountain View, is used by CMA for direct client services. We need volunteers who will help us get our canisters in more outlets and also help us to pick up the canisters when full, return them to us, and provide a new canister to the merchant. [back to index]
If you can help with any of these services and activities, or have other ideas about how you can make a difference please contact:
Please contact our volunteer coordinator at [email protected] for more information.
