Volunteer Opportunities

• Activity good for: Families; individuals; all ages
• Where: El Nido Pacoima Center
• When: Saturday and/or Sunday in December (inquire for further details)
• What: Volunteers are needed to donate and distribute gifts, clothing, and other items for families during the holidays. Volunteers are asked to bring wrapped gift(s) to our Pacoima Center and help to distribute to families.

• Activity good for: Families; individuals; all ages
• Where: El Nido Pacoima Center
• When: Monday, November 22nd afternoon
• What: Volunteers are needed to donate goods and assemble food boxes for families for Thanksgiving  

Activity good for: Individuals aged 18+
Where: Virtual
When: Anytime
What: Volunteers are needed to join our Mentorship Community and offer support for college-aged youth.

Activity good for: Families
Where: El Nido’s Pacoima Center
When: Ongoing, weekends
What: Tending to our Pacoima Garden, weeding, composting, remove leaves, prune damaged limbs, fertilize.  Maintain tools, mulch, harvesting, water

Activity good for: Individuals aged 18+
Where: Virtual
When: Anytime
What: Volunteers are needed to join our Mentorship Community and offer support for college-aged youth.

The purpose of this program is to familiarize youth with careers that they are interested in, and introduce them to new career opportunities.  A select group of business professionals, in a variety of professions, are asked to have an informal, virtual conversation with El Nido high school youth (s) for a 30-minute discussion about their career experiences.  Most important, we want to engage young people with experts in their fields, and give them a sense of hope for the future during these challenging times.

Here are a few career or topic suggestions:  Resume writing and mock interviews, Career planning, Finance, Computer programming, Engineering, Real estate, Law, Film or TV tech, How to start your own business, Teach yoga, dance or a music class, or Demonstrate a craft.

Activity good for: Families
Where: El Nido’s Pacoima Center
When: Monday afternoons
What: Help pack produce boxes to feed dozens of at-need families. Grocery boxes and accompanying recipes are designed for families to cook healthy meals together during our interactive, online classes.  Everything takes place in a socially-distanced environment, at our Pacoima FamilySource Center kitchen in the north San Fernando Valley.

 Remote Grocery Box Volunteering  (Livescan Fingerprint test required):
We need assistance calling prospective clients and telling them about our support program, collecting testimonials, as well as remote texting to follow-up with clients and remind them that their grocery boxes are ready for pick-up.

Activity good for: Families, Individuals
When: November – December
Where: El Nido’s Pacoima Center
What: Supporters donate toys, school supplies, clothing, family games for specific families during the holidays. Families will have a master list to select what they need for each family member and enter info on Google doc
Where: Pacoima FSC

• Mentorship and guidance at our College Corner
• Assistance in our Culinary Arts program (instruction/ cooking/lend expertise)
• Support our Pacoima Garden (planting, maintenance, cultivation)
• Offer your business for field trip visits
• Volunteer at client seasonal holiday parties
• Donate toys, books or back-to-school items
• Organize a holiday food drive for families
• Youth need transportation to activities. Set up a schedule of trusted designated drivers or organize a carpool with other parents
• Help one of our locations with a holiday event for our children and families. Holidays might include Valentines Day, Halloween, back-to-school or winter holidays
• Tax Prep – During Tax season, our Our Pacoima FSC can benefit from volunteer tax preparers. VITA training is usually in January and it is a commitment of at least three months during late evenings and weekends.

• Videography and editing
• Photography
• Pro bono digital and print advertising campaign
• Host a fundraising activity
• Research savvy scholars: Help with analysis, data entry, research or database maintenance or construction, and data analysis.

Examples include:

• Collect donations of diapers and formula for young mothers and their babies.
• Promote education by donating much-needed new backpacks and school supplies for elementary and high school students.
• Donate grocery gifts cards for parents who are struggling to feed their families or organize a food drive to assist families in need.
• Collect Clothing (children, youth, and adult), Toys (new and in the original wrapping), Books (children, youth), and Blankets and Sheets.
• Organize a food drive for Thanksgiving baskets for our families .
• Organize a toy drive for our winter event.

Thank you to all our virtual tutors!  You have helped to ‘level the playing field’ for our students.  We have reached the maximum number of tutors needed for our students at this time.  If you have already applied, your name will remain on our waiting list. We will begin another tutoring group in the spring.