Asian Women’s Shelter

Located in San Fransisco, CA.

The Asian Women’s Shelter mission is to eliminate domestic violence by promoting the social, economic and political self-determination of women.  Volunteers help by working directly with women and children at the shelter, helping to plan outings and activities, and providing childcare and tutoring.

Girls Inc. of Alameda County

Located in Oakland, CA.

The mission of Girls Inc. is to inspire all girls to be strong, smart and bold.  They offer a wide variety of programs for girls with many different volunteer opportunities.

International Museum of Women

Located in San Fransisco, CA.

The International Museum of Women is a world-class cultural and educational institution proposed for San Francisco. It will be the only international museum exclusively dedicated to chronicling and honoring the lives of women worldwide.

Planned Parenthood Shasta Diablo

Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood more than 80 years ago when she was working as a nurse and a midwife in New York City. She was moved by the number of young girls who already had several children. Although it was illegal at that time, Ms. Sanger began the movement to bring contraception to the United States. Planned Parenthood works to reduce unintended pregnancies with the goal that every child is a wanted child and reaches to inform and educate on sexual health.

Shepherd Gate

Located in Brentwood and Livermore, CA.

Shepherd’s Gate is a place where homeless and battered women and children are given clean clothing, a bed, hot meals, and support services. It is the first step in creating a stable lifestyle, especially for children, many of whom have been exposed to drugs, violence, and appalling living conditions

STAND! Against Domestic Violence

Located in Concord, CA.

STAND! Against Domestic Violence is the catalyst for change that helps to break generational cycles of violence that many are forced to endure, and rebuild lives.  STAND! is a non-profit committed to ending domestic violence through the provision of prevention and intervention services, primarily in Contra Costa County. You must be 16 years old or older to volunteer.

The Body Positive

Located in San Rafael, CA.

The Body Positive teaches young people to creatively transform and improve their relationships to food and body image.  Come for a day of video box stuffing. This organization is always in need of volunteers shipping their videos.

Wardrobe for Opportunity

Located in Oakland, CA.

Wardrobe for Opportunity first opened its doors in 1996 and has been serving economically disadvantaged women, seeking employment in Contra Costa and Alameda County. The organization provides vital and often overlooked services; furnishing suitable business attire for both interview processes and support for career advancements. Student volunteers are needed to help sort clothing.

Women’s Cancer Research Center 

Located in Oakland, CA.

Not long ago, agencies focused on the needs of women with cancer did not exist. While an extensive social service network for persons with AIDS developed during the 1980s, there were no parallel services for the over 50,000 women with cancer.  In 1986 all of this changed.  A small group of women with cancer created the Women’s Cancer Resource Center to provide direct services to women with cancer, as well advocate for broad changes in the health care system. The minimum age to volunteer is 16.

Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency – BOSS

Located in Berkeley, CA.

BOSS is an organization dedicated to ending poverty and homelessness in our community. BOSS devotes it’s time to economic development, community building, supplying housing and support services to those in need. BOSS helps to provide residency, employment, training and advocacy services for homeless and indigent people in the greater East Bay.

Rebuilding Together

Located in Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose and Berkeley, CA.

Rebuilding Together is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of low-income, elderly, and/or disabled people. They strive to create warm and safe living spaces, as well as to provide volunteer opportunities such as repairs and renovation of owner-occupied and non-profit facilities. The minimum age to volunteer is 14.

Shelter Inc. of Contra Costa County

Located in Concord, CA.

Shelter’s mission is to help the homeless of Contra Costa to obtain economic self-sufficiency, sustain permanent housing and regain human dignity. You can help out at their homeless shelters or by conducting food and toiletry drives, volunteering with Shelter to work on home improvement projects, or chaperone children at various children’s events Shelter creates. The minimum age to volunteer is 15.

Shepherd Gate

Located in Livermore and Brentwood, CA.

Shepherd’s gate is a place where homeless and battered women and children can come to regroup. They are given clean clothing, a bed, hot meals and support services. It is the first step in creating a stable lifestyle for their children, many of whom have been exposed to drugs, violence and appalling living conditions. Volunteer opportunities include: event planning and support, marketing, programs such as childcare and classes, and environmental work.

Alameda County Community Food Bank

Located in Alameda, CA.

Join the Alameda County Community Food Bank in breaking the cycle of hunger and poverty! They need help sorting, stocking and bagging food at the warehouse.

Dorothy Day House Catholic Worker

Located in Berkeley, CA.

The Dorothy Day House of Berkeley is a non-denominational community of volunteers who are dedicated to feeding the hungry and providing hospitality to the poor. Breakfast is served seven days a week in the Men’s Shelter at the Berkeley Veterans Building, and six days a week (excluding Sunday) at Trinity Church (2362 Bancroft Way at Dana) to those in need. Dorothy Day House also coordinates dinners for the Men’s Shelter every evening. Volunteers that help serve meals must be at least 15.

Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano

Located in Concord, Bay Point, Pittsburg, Vallejo and Antioch, CA.

At the Food Bank of Contra Costa’s warehouse, volunteers help sort and stock food. The Food Bank’s mission is to reduce food waste and feed those unable to provide meals themselves. The Banks also aims to raise public awareness about poverty and hunger.  This agency helps about 83,000 people per month. The minimum age to volunteer without an adult is 16.

Food Not Bombs

Located in Berkeley, CA.

Food not Bombs provides free vegetarian healthy food to anyone who is hungry and works for peace and justice. non-violence and vegetarianism.  They cook and serve meals six days a week. The minimum age to help is 15.

GLIDE

Located in San Francisco, CA.

The largest of Glide’s programs, the Free Meals Program serves three nutritious meals a day to the city’s poor and homeless every day of the year. What began in 1969 as a Monday night potluck for 50 people now requires the talents of 27 staff members who come primarily from the ranks of the poor, homeless, formerly incarcerated and those with successful recovery from substances and addictions. The minimum age to volunteer is 12.

Meals on Wheels

Located in San Francisco, CA.

Meals on Wheels’ mission is to prepare and deliver nutritious meals necessary to prevent the inappropriate or premature institutionalization of elderly homebound residents in San Fransisco. Help is needed to serve meals to seniors during weekday lunches, to make greeting cards for the homebound and to participate in individualized projects.  Summer internships for high school students are also available. The minimum age to volunteer is 14.

Open Heart Kitchen

Located in Livermore, CA.

Founded in 1995 as an interfaith effort, Open Heart Kitchen’s Mission is to provide nutritious hot meals without charge or qualification to people in need in the Tri-Valley area. The organization is currently the only free hot meal kitchen in the area. Teen volunteers prepare box lunches two Thursdays a month in Pleasanton. The minimum age to volunteer is 10.

Project Open Hand

Located in Alameda and San Francisco, CA.

Project Open Hand provides food and nourishment to improve the quality of life of men, women, and children living with symptomatic AIDS & HIV, along with the critically ill and the elderly. Minimum age to volunteer is 15.

Salvation Army

Located in Hayward, Antioch, Oakland, Alameda, and San Francisco, CA.

The Salvation Army is a Christian fellowship dedicated to helping underprivileged low-income citizens, including: those who work, have lost jobs, have mental and physical limitations, the elderly, those who are retired and the homeless. The organization is in need of help with their food pantry. The minimum age to volunteer is 15.

St. Anthony Foundation

Located in San Francisco, CA.

Founded in 1950, the St. Anthony Foundation is a nonprofit social service agency located in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood.  Inspired by the Franciscan tradition of joy, compassion & solidarity with those who are poor, the Foundation welcomes clients & guests, volunteers and interns, donors, and all who hunger and thirst for justice and peace to share in it’s mission, being: to feed, heal, shelter, clothe, lift the spirits of those in need and create a society in which all persons flourish. The minimum age to volunteer is 13.

Earth Island Institute

Located in Berkeley, CA.

Earth Island Institute was founded in 1982 as a nonprofit organization to develop innovative projects for the conservation, preservation, and restoration of the global environment.  Visit their web site to learn about their various projects.

Earth Team

Located in Richmond, CA.

Earth Team is a free Bay Area environmental education action and resource network for teens, teachers and youth group leaders.  They provide access to hands-on service opportunities gatherings, resources, and tools. They have monthly environmental restoration projects and a group of teen leaders.

East Bay Regional Park District

Located in Oakland, CA.

The East Bay Regional Parks district seeks to preserve wetlands and open areas for environmental preservation and low impact use. The park district operates 59 parks and more than 1,100 miles of trails in its two-county jurisdiction. East Bay Regional Park also offers frequent shoreline cleanups for small or large groups.

Forest Home Farm

Located in San Ramon, CA.

Home Farms is a 16-acre farm bequeathed to the City of San Ramon. The property has two houses, fourteen outbuildings and two pergolas.  Students can help at their Saturday work days, special events, and fall and spring cleanup days.

Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy

Located in Marin, San Mateo, and San Francisco, CA.

The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy has a wide variety of opportunities working in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Examples of projects include working at a native plant nursery, doing habitat restoration at ocean side and creek sites, and working at Crissy Field.

Greenbelt Alliance

Doing service all around the Bay Area.

Their mission is to make the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area a better place to live by protecting the region’s Greenbelt and improving the livability of its cities and towns.

Mount Diablo State Park

Located in Danville, CA.

Mount Diablo State Park works to keep the mountain accessible to all people. Volunteers will do trail work and park maintenance. The minimum age is 15.

People’s Grocery

Located in Oakland, CA.

People’s Grocery is a community-based organization working to find creative solutions to the food needs of the residents of West Oakland. Their mission is to uphold the human right to healthy and affordable food and to build community self-reliance by increasing neighborhood access to locally-produced fruits and vegetables and by promoting social enterprise youth entrepreneurship, sustainable agriculture and grassroots organizing

Save the Bay

Located in Oakland and San Francisco, CA.

Save The Bay seeks to preserve, restore and protect the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta Estuary as a healthy and biologically diverse ecosystem essential to the well-being of the human and natural communities it sustains. Save the Bay has a variety of wetlands restoration projects, a native plant nursery and other projects that students can help with.

Slide Ranch

Located in Muir Beach, CA.

Every bite of food connects us with the soil, sun, water and air and to the people who work to feed us.  Slide Ranch teachers respect and responsibility for sustaining these connections.  Help is needed working as a teaching docent for family weekend programs, garden assistants  ranch hands, and administrative assistants.

Bay Area Crisis Nursery

Located in Concord, CA.

The purpose of the Bay Area Crisis Nursery is to prevent abuse and neglect of young children by providing support to families who are under stress or in crisis. There is a wide variety of service work from computer entry to filing to gift wrapping! Age to volunteer is 18.

Community Reading Buddies

Located in Oakland, CA.

Concord Child Care Center

Located in Concord, CA.

The Concord Child Care Center is a great place to work with younger children.  80% of the children at the center are native Spanish speakers, so if you speak Spanish it’s a great way to use that skill.  You will be helping out at the Concord Child Care Center. The minimum age is 14.

Danville Library 

Located in Danville, CA.

They need volunteers to support staff and assist with providing community service outreach by working with library resources and educational materials and serving as an internet docent. The minimum age is 13.  There may be opportunities at all Contra Costa Library branches.

Harbor House

Located in Oakland, CA.

Their mission is to provide opportunities for the low income people in our neighborhood, spiritually, economically, and educationally, so that, together, we can become all Christ Jesus intends us to be.  They have an ongoing need for people to serve as tutors.

Kids’ Turn

Located in San Francisco, CA.

Every year over one million children suffer the breakdown of their families when their parents separate or divorce.  Kids’ Turn helps children understand and cope with the loss, anger and fear that often accompany separation or divorce. You can help run workshops for children whose parents are separated or divorced. The minimum age is 15 and interns must have prior experience working with children (babysitting, camp work, group work or other relevant experience).

Lawrence Hall of Science 

Located in Berkeley, CA.

TEAMS interns help families and children to: Explore hands-on exhibits  hold gentle animals  enjoy Science Theatre or solve a medical mystery. TEAMS Interns also assist at summer science camps. Each year TEAMS conducts several training programs for middle and high school students.

Lindsay Wildlife Museum

Located in Walnut Creek, CA.

Lindsay Wildlife Museum connects people to wildlife to inspire responsibility and respect for the world we share.  Their main volunteer opportunities are for office work and special events. The minimum age for volunteers is 16

 

Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation

Located in Fresno and San Francisco, CA.

Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to burn prevention and helping children and adult survivors of severe burn injuries. The minimum age for volunteers is 14.

Alzheimer’s Services of the East Bay

Located in Berkeley, Fremont, and Hayward, CA.

The Alzheimer’s Services of the East Bay mission is to enhance the client’s quality of life and to ease the family’s burden of caring for the individual with dementia. The minimum age is 14.

Camp Arroyo – The Taylor Family Foundation

Located in Livermore, CA.

The mission of the Taylor Family Foundation is to make a difference in the lives of Northern California children suffering from HIV/AIDS and other life threatening diseases. Volunteers can help in their office, work on their office, or help at one of the camps that use their facility.

Camping Unlimited

Located in Boulder Creek, CA.

Camping Unlimited assists children and adults with disabilities on recreational outings and activities to promote social, functional and group skills.  To assist disabled youth at a summer camp. Supervise and care for developmentally disabled children and adults at summer camp or on weekend hikes camping trips theme weekend events and other outings.

Children’s Skin Disease Foundation

Located in Walnut Creek, CA.

The Children’s Skin Disease Foundation operates Camp Wonder. Camp Wonder is free to children with serious and fatal skin disease. For one week these children can forget their disease and have fun!  High school students can serve as volunteer counselors at Camp Wonder.

Down Syndrome Connection

Located in Danville, CA.

The Down Syndrome Connection seeks to optimize the quality of life for individuals with Down syndrome by offering direct services to them and their caregivers and by educating the general public about the special concerns and unique contributions of the Down syndrome community.

Environmental Traveling Companions (ETC)

Located in San Francisco, CA.

Environmental Traveling Companions (ETC) is a non-profit organization which provides wilderness experiences for people with special needs.  ETC offers white water rafting, sea kayaking and cross-country skiing adventures.

Exceptional Needs Network

Located in Livermore, CA.

The Exceptional Needs Network (ENN) is a parent-driven non profit organization created to help families of special needs children in the Tri-Valley region of the San Francisco Bay Area. They offer local parents respite weekends by providing a camping opportunity for their special needs children. These weekends offer a fun, safe, and fully supervised camping experience for youth with special needs.

Los Cerros Special Education Program (SPED)

You will be working with a class for students with special needs at Los Cerros Middle School.  The students have autism, cerebral palsy and other neurological challenges. The Los Cerros program attempts to integrate special needs students into the regular school program to the best of the students’ abilities. The program also concentrates on life skills development such as basic social contact and community involvement and mobility. The minimum age for volunteers is 14.

Special Olympics East Bay

Located in Pleasant Hill, CA.

The mission of Special Olympics is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for individuals with developmental disabilities.

Wheelchair Foundation

Located in Danville, CA.

The Wheelchair Foundation is a non-profit organization located in Danville that provides wheelchairs to people all over the world who need them but cannot afford them.  Students would work in their Danville office on projects such as organizing their photos of recipients in their wheelchairs

Xenophon Therapeutic Riding Center

Located in Orinda, CA.

Xenophon Therapeutic Riding Center is a non-profit organization providing a high quality program of therapeutic horseback riding and related activities to disabled children. The instructors, therapists and other volunteers continually work to improve their levels of knowledge and performance so they can provide a stimulating environment to enrich the lives of the students. The minimum age for volunteers is 14.

Berkeley Repertory Theater Teen Council

If you’re looking for a group with exciting opportunities to get onstage  behind stage or in front of the stage, join the Berkeley Rep Teen Council! They want a diverse group of theatre-enthusiasts from a wide variety of high schools to share their talents and ideas towards creating new activities to sustain your interest in the stage.  The Teen Council provides the opportunity for youth to participate in all aspects of the dramatic process; on stage, backstage and in front of the stage.

East Bay Center for the Performing Arts

Since 1968, the mission of the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts (EBCPA) has been 1) to ensure that opportunities for a quality education in the arts should be available to all persons and 2) to engage the arts as a vehicle for social reconciliation and social change. The minimum age for volunteers is 13.

International Museum of Women

The International Museum of Women is a world-class cultural and educational institution proposed for San Francisco. It will be the only international museum exclusively dedicated to chronicling and honoring the lives of women worldwide.

MOCHA – Museum of Children’s Art

MOCHA is committed to ensuring that the arts are a fundamental part of the lives of all children. Open Studio Art Assistants are needed on Tuesdays to Fridays 3:00 to 5:00 and on Saturdays and Sundays from 12:30 to 4:00.   Open Studio Art Assistants prepare for art projects and interact with children and parents. The minimum age to volunteer is 14.

 

Benicia/Vallejo Humane Society

Volunteers handle duties such as handle duties such as pet grooming, animal care, cleaning, office work, special events, handy work, as well as fostering pets in their own homes. Minimum age to volunteer without a parent is 16.

Berkeley Animal Services

Berkeley Animal Services is a program of the City of Berkeley that provides shelter for unwanted animals.  Volunteers help by bathing, grooming, walking and socializing with their dogs and cats.  Volunteers attend an orientation and receive 3-5 hours of training.  Minimum age is 15.

Berkeley East Bay Humane Society

The Berkeley East Bay Humane Society’s mission is to expedite the placement of adoptable companion animals into appropriate loving homes by providing enrichment, socialization and quality veterinary care while they are living in our no-kill shelter for adoptable animals, and by educating the public about the joys, as well as the responsibilities of pet ownership. The minimum age to help there without an adult is 16 and volunteers are asked to make a six month commitment.

Contra Costa Animal Services Department (CCAS)

The CCAS provides shelter for abandoned animals.  Volunteers can help with grooming, walking and socializing with animals. Volunteers are asked to make a six month commitment and to volunteer for at least four hours per week. The minimum age to volunteer is 18.

East Bay SPCA

The East Bay SPCA works with adoptions, as well as spay and neuter education. They take in adoptable animals, work with other animal facilities and rescue groups. Positions include:  dog trainer, puppy socializer, feline socializer, mobile adoption associate, dog groomer, feline groom, special events aide, photographer, etc. The minimum age to volunteer is 16. 

Fremont Tri-City Animal Shelter

The Tri-City Animal Shelter is part of the Fremont Police Department and it provides sheltering services for lost stray and injured domestic and wild animals found in Fremont, Newark and Union City. The minimum age for volunteers is 16 and you need to make a six month commitment.

Lindsay Wildlife Museum

Lindsay Wildlife Museum connects people to wildlife to inspire responsibility and respect for the world we share. The minimum age for volunteers is 16.

Marine Mammal Center

The Marine Mammal Center rescues and humanely treats ill, injured or orphaned marine mammals and assures their long-term survival and through education and communication. The minimum age is 14.

Smiley Dog Rescue

Smiley Dog Rescue is a group of volunteer dog lovers whose mission is to rescue and provide sanctuary and ultimately to re-home abandoned stray and neglected dogs. Whenever possible we also assist dogs who, because of extenuating circumstances, are unable to remain in their homes with their owners.

Tony La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation

ARF’s mission is to ensure humane treatment of companion animals, bringing people and animals together to enrich each others lives.  For all volunteers age 17 years and younger, please see their website for updated information on humane education classes.  They require a minimum of eight hours per month.

Tri-Valley Animal Rescue

Tri-Valley Animal Rescue works with East County Animal Shelter.  They help care for and place shelter animals; offers foster homes low-cost spay-neutering and community services. The minimum age for volunteers is 15.

Valley Humane Society

The Valley Humane Society is a ‘no kill’ shelter working to find homes for homeless animals and to educate public in responsible pet care.  There are different opportunities to volunteer for including:  cleaning up litter, changing food and playing with animals to socialize them. You can download a volunteer application from their web site.

White Kitty Foundation

The White Kitty Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to the care, nurture, and quality of life of the animals in our community. Through donations and fundraising, the Foundation seeks to shelter, rehabilitate, and nurture animals, regardless of condition, and ultimately find them a home where they can flourish.

Xenophon Therapeutic Riding Center

Xenophon Therapeutic Riding Center is a non-profit organization providing a high quality program of therapeutic horseback riding and related activities to disabled children. Minimum age for volunteers is 14.

 

National AIDS Memorial Grove

The National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park provides a positive focus for grief and a means for the community to recognize the enormity of the AIDS crisis.

Pets Are Wonderful Support (PAWS)

A volunteer-based organization that helps improve the quality of life for persons with AIDS and other disabling illnesses by offering the emotional and practical support to keep the love and companionship of their pets.

Vital Life Services

The Center is the only adult day center in Alameda County for persons with HIV/AIDS. You’ll be cooking and serving lunch and helping out with a variety of activities. They need volunteers to be consistent.

Project Open Hand

Project Open Hand provides food and nourishment to improve the quality of life of men, women and children living with symptomatic AIDS & HIV the critically ill and the elderly.

Healing Waters

Healing Waters is a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to empower  inspire and enrich the lives of people challenging HIV/AIDS through wilderness adventures.

American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California

The ACLU is dedicated to defending the civil liberties of all people.  Students can start an ACLU club on their campus, attend their student conference, and help in other ways.  Each summer, the ACLU and a group of high school students travel throughout California for seven days to explore a controversial issue in-depth.

Amnesty International USA

Where there has been a call to action, to stand up and speak out, young people have been there, leading the fight for social justice. Getting involved with Amnesty International is one way to join that fight.  You can participate in Amnesty International letter writing campaigns, start an Amnesty International group at your school, sign up for Amnesty’s free email newsletter for students volunteer, or become a member.

Global Exchange

Global Exchange is an international human rights organization dedicated to promoting environmental, social and political justice. They have a structured summer internship program, which requires you to work there a minimum of 20 hours a week for two-three months.

Youth Activism Project

Many adults recognize that the long tradition of making decisions for youth without youth has failed.  Getting the powers-that-be to take seriously the ideas and solutions offered by the next generation is not as difficult as you might expect. Youth Activism is a youth advocate resource center.

Youth Noise

Speak out. Take Action. MAKE SOME NOISE! YouthNoise fills dangerous a silence in global culture by giving youth voices to make a stand.