Volunteer Opportunities

"The Y's volunteer program is crucial to fulfilling our mission by building relationships within the community, and gets the word out about our unique support for young adults. It also helps to provide a better representation of the community surrounding the Y, and promotes social responsibility. The impact of the volunteer program in the community is evident through the volunteers becoming more aware of the realities surrounding young adults exiting the foster care system, and/or experiencing homelessness." -Glenn, Y volunteer

Teach or Lead Life Skills

Greeter: Be the first to welcome guests at the YMCA Center for Young Adults.  Assist members with computer access, tours and connecting with staff and resources.  To help provide consistency for members a six-month minimum commitment is requested.  Shifts of two hours or more are available 10am-6pm weekdays (10am-2pm Fridays).  

Experiential Outdoor, Arts, Leadership and Community Service Activities: Help introduce young people to new things by experiencing them first hand.  Volunteer to lead enrichment activities such as trips to museums and art galleries, rock climbing, camping, tree planting, supporting the youth advisory committee, community service, kayak trips, art workshops and much more. See specific description here.

Community Building: The YMCA sponsors the Amy Yee Orchard, owned by the City of Seattle, and is committed to helping maintain the orchard so that it again produces viable fruit.  We regularly organize work parties for staff, young adults, and volunteers willing to roll up their sleeves and help out. 

Car Shopping: Youth purchase their first vehicles through the IDA matched savings account program. All are required to attend a car training and have an understanding of how to negotiate with a car dealer or individual. A volunteer with experience purchasing cars will help negotiate the sale and answer questions. 

Youth Technology: Choose from any options: Teach MS Word or Excel, help participants protect computers, accompany youth to purcase a computer (through the YMCA's IDA matched savings account program, which allows computer purchase as part of reaching an educational goal), computer set-up, and answering questions about installing new programs and troubleshooting problems. 

Employment & Education: Work with youth 1:1 or in groups to provide resume assistance, job interview skills, scholarship research and more.

Moving Assistance: Youth in our programs move in and out of transitional housing to permanent housing with some frequency. Many do not have a car or a truck and do not have family to help them make this transition. Volunteers are needed to assist individuals with moving. A truck may not be necessary in all cases. A volunteer will be placed on a list of people to call when help is needed. YMCA staff will coordinate logistics.

Group Facilitation: The YMCA publishes a full monthly calendar of workshops for young adults to develop life skills, receive additional support, or just have fun.  Current needs include money management, job connection, education mentoring, men's and women's leadership groups and more.  You can also share your own additional interests (cooking, personal finances, book club, knitting, meditation, etc.). 

Serve a Meal

Seasonal Events: Volunteer to cook food or serve meals at our annual holiday events (November/December), bi-weekly summer BBQ's or our annual spring Independent Living Conference.  

Housing Community Meal: Help homeless young adults in our housing program prepare and cook delicious and budget-friendly meals for our resident community dinners. Various evenings and locations. 

Meal Team-University District (group position): Purchase, prepare and serve dinner to homeless young adults during a Saturday drop-in program at the University District YMCA. Commitment is prep time plus serving meal from 5:00-8:00pm. Volunteers should be 18 years old or a member of a group with an adult present. Contact Emily Bandy at (206) 524-1400 or ebandy@seattleymca.org.

Meal Team - Bellevue (group position): Purchase, prepare and serve dinner to 15 homeless young adults spending the night at The Landing, based in the Bellevue Family YMCA. Food drop off is at 8:45pm. Possible shifts available Sunday-Thursday. Volunteers should be 18 years old or a member of a group with an adult present. Contact Cheryl Schnelle at (425) 869-6490 x309 or cheryl@friendsofyouth.org for more information.

Build Capacity

Partners With Youth Campaign: Be a campaigner during our annual Partners With Youth fundraising campaign. Volunteers engage colleagues, businesses, friends, family or others in the mission of the YMCA and help raise money to support needed programs for youth.

Downtown Seattle YMCA Board of Managers: Provide leadership for the Downtown Seattle YMCA. Responsibilities include oversight of the strategic plan and budget, visioning and fundraising. 

Research: Research and promote new resources for youth learning.  Organize existing resources on an ongoing basis on YMCA Sharepoint site.

Legislative Specialist: Research legislator positions on issues affecting Y communities, such as affordable housing, funding for mental health services, healthy living initiatives and more.  Assist with legislator engagement and education.

Administrative and Business Support: Help with reference checks for youth moving into housing, administrative tasks, data entry, filing, reception, event planning, pulling credit reports, and other essential projects supporting direct services.

Administrative and Business Support (Financial Education/IDA Program): Help with data entry, outreach, mailings and general support of the financial education program.  See specific description here.

Brochure Translator (Spanish): Translate key one-page brochures into Spanish to help the YMCA better serve Spanish-speakers.  Volunteers should be experienced translators. 

Organize a Drive 

Donation Drive: The young adults served by the YMCA often need various good and supplies that community members like you can help to supply.  Organize a drive in your church, school, neighborhood or office for one or more of the items listed below.  Ask for a toolkit you can use to set up your own community drive.   

                -Household items (linens, towels, pillows, etc.)
                -Backpacks, graphing calculators, etc.
                -Non-perishable food
                -Anything else from our wish list