Volunteer

Volunteer Today

Open Daily

Volunteers are needed daytimes and evenings, whether for a day, an hour, a week, a summer, or anytime. Call WSWA today at (510) 832-2111.

On-The-Job Training

No Experience Necessary

We use “on-the-job” training, so anyone can learn while taking action and making a difference. No prior experience or special skills are needed. Volunteers are productive from their first day in!

Make a Difference

Dare to Care

Participation is open to all those who dare to care and invest the time. Poverty wages force working families to “choose” between putting food on the table, paying rent and utility bills. Your participation can make a difference for service workers organizing to end poverty conditions.

WSWA volunteer organizer presents an orientation to new volunteers in WSWA's office

Sign up for an Orientation and Activity

New volunteers attend an orientation to inform them of basic history of the association, how it works, what its goals are and ways that are available for them to participate. After the orientation, new volunteers join an activity, learning the practical skills of organizing while helping to advance the association’s efforts. Contact WSWA’s Volunteers Coordinator to sign up for the next activity.

A live performance at WSWA's Anniversary Dinner

Attend Special Events

Volunteers can assist at special events like holiday food basket distributions, Back-to-School campaigns, the association’s anniversary and other celebrations. Seasonal events are designed by and for WSWA members to help offset unavoidable expenses while collectivizing strength for long-term solutions.

WSWA volunteers sign up a new member on a membership canvass

Learn Professional Organizing Skills

Find out about WSWA’s volunteer organizer training programs. We teach the organizing method and lessons that have created the most successful movement in this country for lasting change and advancement by and for low-paid service workers, elderly and disabled workers and other workers. In these troubled times, add your voice by joining WSWA to fight the government policies that cause and perpetuate poverty among the working poor.

WSWA HAS ALWAYS

BEEN GREEN

Regular Volunteer Activities

  • WSWA volunteers sort food at a distribution

    Food Distribution

    Wednesdays 4 pm - 7 pm

    Once a week WSWA members run supplemental food distributions from a donated space at a local church and from the homes of members. We prioritize fresh, organic and healthy food items and always need volunteer drivers and other assistance.

  • WSWA volunteer attorney provides legal advice to a WSWA member

    Legal Session

    One Wednesday per month 4:30 pm - 9 pm

    Legal Advice is provided to requesting WSWA members privately with a volunteer attorney, accompanied by a volunteer lay advocate to assist with the next steps of the attorney’s advice. Lay advocates help on cases ranging from stolen wages to evictions. Advocates and volunteer attorneys are always needed.

  • Volunteer physician provides free of charge vaccination to a WSWA member

    Medical Session

    Call WSWA for details

    Volunteer medical professionals conduct general medical sessions that provide preventive care to WSWA members lacking access, and offer vaccination sessions as available. Lay advocates assist members and the doctors with follow-up, organize donated lab work and learn how to coordinate the medical sessions. Volunteer medical doctors and other medical professionals are always urgently needed.

  • volunteer advocate work with WSWA member at an advocacy session

    Benefit Advocacy

    Thursdays and Fridays Noon - 4:30 pm

    Service workers, domestic workers and other low-paid workers can’t win without organization. WSWA teaches the skill of advocacy. You can learn how to fight to keep a member’s lights on, how to restore and prevent utility shutoffs, how to expunge medical debt, and fight benefit denials for elderly, blind or disabled members.

  • WSWA volunteer sign up new member on membership canvass

    Membership Canvass

    Saturdays 10 am - 4 pm

    Alone and isolated we cannot achieve anything; united we can win! Volunteers canvass door to door in low-income neighborhoods where members and potential members live, to build organization where it’s needed the most.

  • WSWA volunteers work on newspaper during a publication session

    Publications Session

    Sundays Noon - 4 pm

    Join WSWA's publication staff! You can learn – or help teach – how to produce the next issue of WSWA's newspaper, the California Service Worker, and our seasonal Sponsors Guide to tell the truth about low-income workers organizing for economic justice. We also need volunteers to design flyers. Call WSWA!

  • WSWA volunteer signs up new volunteer at a grocery store

    Community Outreach

    Fridays and Sundays Noon - 5 pm

    Volunteers set up information tables in front of grocery stores, local community events and other locations to promote WSWA so that others can join our cause. This is one way WSWA enlists new friends and participants to come in and make a difference. Please call if you can volunteer or if you know of a location where WSWA can set up an information table.

  • WSWA member trains WSWA volunteer on mailout

    Mailout Session

    Mondays 1 pm - 4 pm

    Volunteers prepare and send letters about our current campaigns to people who have joined WSWA and have expressed an interest in volunteering or supporting WSWA. We need volunteers to help with the daily letter mailouts as well as to assist with the bulk mailing of WSWA’s membership newspaper and Sponsors Guide.

  • A group of WSWA volunteers phone

    Phoning Session

    Mondays and Wednesdays 5:30 pm - 9 pm

    Volunteers are essential to all of WSWA’s activities year-round. Volunteers conduct group telephone sessions to re-contact interested individuals met on community outreach and by word-of-mouth about participating with WSWA’s organizing activities scheduled each week.

Annual Activities

  • WSWA volunteers collect food donations for winter survival campaign

    WINTER SURVIVAL CAMPAIGN

    January to March

  • WSWA volunteer carries tray of tamales at WSWA's Super Bowl Sunday Tamale Benefit

    SUPER BOWL SUNDAY TAMALE BENEFIT

    January to February

  • A group of children dye eggs at WSWA's Spring Family Brunch

    SPRING FAMILY BRUNCH

    March to April

  • ANNIVERSARY DINNER CELEBRATION

    June to July

  • child recieves donated backpack and school supplies

    BACK-TO-SCHOOL DRIVE

    August

  • CHILDREN'S SAFE AND SANE HALLOWEEN PARTY

    October

  • WSWA volunteers sort donated turkeys for Thanksgiving food basket distribution

    THANKSGIVING FOOD BASKET DISTRIBUTION

    November

  • WSWA volunteer coordinates a game at Family Holiday Party

    HOLIDAY FOOD BASKET DISTRUBUTION

    December

  • FAMILY HOLIDAY PARTY

    December