Opportunities From: United Way of Dane County

Foster parents assist with the care of animals (dogs, cats, or small animals) that need time in a home setting before they are made available for adoption. This includes pregnant or nursing moms with litters, litters that are too young and need time to grow, animals in need of socialization and animals recovering from illness or injury. Depending on the season, fostering might last a few weeks or a few months.

RESTRICTIONS:

URL: www.giveshelter.org

Assist with daily activities including data entry, filing, volunteer support, event planning, and miscellaneous administrative projects.

Areas to help:

Tasks:

RESTRICTIONS:

URL: www.giveshelter.org

Assist with the overall care of shelter animals by providing a clean and healthy environment for them during their stay at Dane County Humane Society.

Care for a wide variety of shelter animals by participating in specifically outlined care duties, including dishes, laundry, kennel set up, taking out recycling and garbage, washing food cans, yard and barn cleanup.

RESTRICTIONS:

URL: www.giveshelter.org

As an adoption assistant, you will meet with people looking to adopt a new furry family member. You will introduce adopters to adoptable pets, answer questions about pet care and adoption procedures, as well as complete all adoption paperwork. Assistants carry out a variety of tasks to ensure successful adoptions and maintain adoption center operations.

RESTRICTIONS: Volunteer needs to be 18 years and older. Position is shift based with one (1) three-hour shift worked per week for a minimum of one (1) year. Good people skills, basic animal handling skills with a good understanding of responsible pet care and the ability to present information in a positive way is necessary.

URL: www.giveshelter.org

Positive Women for Change is putting together Family Care Baskets and we are looking for the following items:

We at LGBT Books to Prisoners depend on book donations from the community to continue to do our work. We are always in need of SOFTCOVER, GOOD CONDITION (preferably NEW or NEWISH) books in the following categories:

If you have books in any of the categories above, or want to buy them as a donation at a second-hand bookstore or thrift store, please get in touch with us at lgbtbookstoprisoner@gmail.com to arrange a drop-off or pickup.

Thanks so much!

McFarland Youth Center is looking for responsible adults to work with middle school youth after school on homework and goal setting. 

Do you enjoy good food and socializing?  Become a Cafe Helper at Oak Park Place!  Help serve residents, staff, and visitors low cost lunches and receive a free lunch yourself.

Requirements are as follows:

Band Committee

This committee is responsible for listening to, assessing, recommending for booking local and area bands and DJ's.  Of specific importance to this committee is to contract with ethnically and musically diverse bands.

Logistics Committee

This committee has the responsibility of planning and coordinating the routine activities for each night of Dane Dances.

Publicity Committee

This committee ensures that Dane Dances and its mission and activities are consistently presented in a positive way to the public.

Fund-Raising Committee

This committee is responsible for fundraising planning and implementation, including identifying what funding is needed; exploring funding sources; creating strategies to approach potential sponsors; and assisting in preparation of proposals and presentations.

Are you looking to make a difference in the lives of seniors?

We are in need of kind and caring volunteers to become Visiting Buddies.  Visiting Buddies are paired with a few residents who they come to visit and spend time with.

Requirements are as follows:

Benefits:

Child care volunteers offer support and comfort to children visiting the Respite Center Program - a 24 hour crisis child care program that provides short breaks for parents of children aged from birth through 14 years. Volunteers assist child care specialists in meeting children's basic needs, providing children with positive and nurturing play experiences, and building trust and rapport with children. Our staff child ratio is very low so that children can get the attention and respite they need away from often chaotic homes. Volunteers assist with household chores, such as meal preparation and clean-up.  

RESTRICTIONS: A child care volunteer must be 18 years old. There is some training required and a background check.

Commitment: Child care volunteers work four-hour shifts every or every other week, generally 9am-1pm, 1pm-5pm, or 5pm-9pm. Scheduling is done on a month-by-month basis, with most volunteers doing the same shift each week or every other week. We ask you for a commitment to the program of one year, one school year, or a semester. We are able to provide some flexibility in scheduling for volunteers. Volunteers are supervised by child care specialists while working in child care.

URL: www.centerforfamilies.org

WAGS volunteer trainers learn skills training and behavioral concepts to train a service dog for people with disabilities. Most trainers start with an 8 week puppy and socialize and train their service dog-in-training for one year. Puppy/dog live with volunteer trainers. Training is provided one-on-one and in a group setting.

RESTRICTIONS: One year commitment minimum. Must be able to live in volunteers home and take dog in public, including work environment. In Wisconsin, service dogs-in-training enjoy full public access rights.

URL: www.wags.net

The Good Shepherd Clothes Closet provides clothing to children ages newborn to 18.  It's open to all in the 53711 and 53719 zip codes. We're looking for volunteers who love children and want to make a direct, meaningful difference in the lives families in our community.  Volunteers can register clients and help them with clothing selections.  We also need help occuping children while their parents shop. Our current openings are Thursday evenings from 5:00- 7:00 pm.  Please call Donna at (609) 271-6633 x1310 or email volunteer@gslcwi.com.  Thanks!

Give animals at the shelter a clean fresh start. Bathers & Groomers address the grooming needs of animals that come into the shelter matted, dirty or just in need of some good cleaning and primping.

RESTRICTIONS:

URL: www.giveshelter.org

Calling all social butterflies!  We need your help.  We're looking for social butterflies to help with our resident socials once a week.  Spend your time volunteering getting to know new people.

Requirements are as follows:

Benefits:

We are looking for caring, able bodied individuals to help get our residents to different events and activities.  This may include pushing a wheelchair, helping residents find their way, or going on outings and helping staff get the residents where they need to go. 

            There is a high need for this position and hours vary throughout each week.  We are willing to work with your schedule.

Looking for dog owners to bring their dogs and visit residents.  The dogs must be well behaved and be up to date on all of their shots.  Please consider brightening our residents’ days with a visit from your furry friend.

            Hours for this position are very flexible and we will work with your schedule.

We're seeking an adult volunteer to come to the McFarland Youth Center (MYC) about once per week to run a club or program of their choosing. We love it when adults bring in a hobby, interest or passion of theirs and turn it into something that adds value to the lives of the youth we serve. Ideally, the activity would take place for about a half-hour sometime between 4 and 5 PM. This opportunity is flexible and can be terminated at any time by the adult volunteer.

Our community center carpets are in dire need of being carpet cleaned. 

We need a few people who are willing to come in to help us carpet clean our large carpeted area.

(The ability to bring a carpet cleaner along would be amazing but we will rent a couple if we need to)

We also need volunteers for organization of different youth center areas. 

Help organize and label our growing school library.  Duties include labeling new inventory, filing books in the correct area, and moving books and shelves.

Latinos United for College Education Scholarships (LUCES) is seeking to add members to its Board of Directors.  LUCES is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) that is organized exclusively for charitable and educational purposes.  LUCES exists to promote and advocate for the higher educational advancement of Latinos in the state of Wisconsin by providing merit and need based scholarships.  Available positions include:

If you are interested, please send a copy of your resume and a note expressing your interest to board@luces-wisconsin.org.

For more information about LUCES, please visit our website at http://www.luces-wisconsin.org.

The greenhouse and gardens are continually looking for individuals or groups to support our on-going programming.  People who are willing to tend gardens, harvest and prepare foods, work with students to construct items in the gardens or help coordinate the maintenance of the greenhouse and gardens are needed.

Spend time doing things that you enjoy and be a friend to a person with a developmental disability at the same time. We are looking for dependable volunteers who would be interested in developing an ongoing relationship with an adult with a developmental disability by spending time with this person doing things that both of you would enjoy.

Examples of activities might be: going to a sporting event, shopping together, seeing a movie, going out to eat, taking a tour of the Capitol, going to the Farmer's Market, having dinner together at your house, or joining an exercise class. The TIME that you spend with the individual is more important than what you do with them! Just tagging along with you while you run errands would have a positive impact.

RESTRICTIONS: Our Volunteer Coordinator will work with volunteers to match each volunteer with an individual with a compatible personality and similar interests. Spending time with the individual at least 1 time per month for a minimum of 12 months is desired. We currently have friendships between volunteers and program participants that have lasted years!

The Volunteer Coordinator will provide whatever training is necessary for the volunteer to feel comfortable spending time with the individual.

Informally present hobby or interest; or show a collection to Adult Day Center participants. Must be interested in working with the elderly and able to teach one on one and small groups.

RESTRICTIONS: General hours are Monday - Friday 9am and 3 pm, but can vary.

URL: www.colonialclub.org

Help work in the sustainable greenhouse and environmental learning center to water plants, maintain growing systems, repair small items, clean spaces, maintain the library, create museum signage and enjoy the beautiful space.

Dane County is becoming Dementia Friendly, but it needs your help. This is a grass roots, community wide effort. We need volunteers who are willing to spread the word in their community. We need people to talk to business owners to explain what it means to be dementia friendly and to encourage them to sign up for the free training. We need help promoting dementia awareness activities in your neighborhood and town. We also need leaders! Are you connected in your community or neighborhood? If so, you can become a leader in this movement in your area. Contact the ADRC to learn how to get involved!

We are looking for enthusiastic individuals willing to help assist with BINGO.  Duties of this position may include helping bring residents to BINGO, calling numbers, assisting residents who are playing, and passing out prizes. 

            Available hours for this positions are on Wednesdays between 2:00 and 4:00.

Provide musical entertainment, comedy, storytelling, etc. for Adult Day Center participants. Weekdays between 9am and 3pm.

URL: www.colonialclub.org

The Friends of Pheasant Branch Conservancy's education program provides guided field trips in the Conservancy for area schools. Become a Conservancy naturalist and help lead field trips!

Activities for grades kindergarten through 12 are directly linked to curriculum. Field trip topics include trees, plants, soils, water, landforms, the web of life and more. Detailed, easy-to-follow lesson plans and all related materials are provided. New naturalists can review materials and observe field trips before leading them. Additional training and mentoring is available. Most field trips are scheduled on weekdays during the school year. Each trip requires between 2 to 4 hours.

RESTRICTIONS: We ask that our trained Conservancy naturalists lead at least four field trips per year, each 2 - 4 hours long and mainly in spring and autumn (although some summer field trips occur as well). We require permission to do a basic background check. Training is not required for everyone...it depends on your background teaching outdoors, so we do ask for a brief resume.

URL: www.pheasantbranch.org