Volunteer for Session 90!

Greetings, WE Volunteers!

Happy New Year! Session 90 of our Job-Readiness and Empowerment Program just started, and we definitely need volunteer support. We cannot do this work without YOU! Below we have listed our upcoming volunteer opportunities, and you can SIGN UP HERE! If you haven’t volunteered with WE before, we ask that you sign up for a mandatory volunteer orientation.

We also wanted to provide you with a couple of important updates:

1. Our previous Volunteer Coordinator/Community Partnerships Coordinator is no longer with Women’s Empowerment. We are currently working to hire for this role, but in the meantime, I will be your contact person. We are deeply apologetic for the lack of volunteer information and delayed responses to inquiries while we work to fill this role. We truly value you and your time!

2. We are currently evaluating our volunteer sign-up and communication process to ensure it can be as effective as possible. Because of this, for this session, we will not be using GivePulse. You will sign up on THIS FORM for this session. We will keep you updated as we work on updating/simplifying this process. Thank you for all of your patience.

3. Most of our volunteer opportunities are returning to in-person! For the health and safety of everyone, we do ask that all staff, students, and volunteers, wear a mask while in the building and refrain from attending if experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms or illness. Our students who are not vaccinated also submit to COVID testing multiple times per week.

Please reach out to me at zoe@womens-empowerment.org with any questions you might have.

We look forward to seeing you soon! Thank you for all that you do!

WE appreciate you,

Zoe Fishman
Development Manager

I’ve shared the current volunteer opportunities available for sign-up below. To sign-up, please complete our VOLUNTEER SIGN-UP FORM.

SIGN UP & SEE ALL OPPORTUNITIES!

Workshops

As a Job-Seeking Skills volunteer, you will work through the course curriculum with Session 90 students, under the guidance of our Program Team.

Action Plans & Goal Setting #1
Monday 1/20/23
10:15 am – 12:25 pm

Action Plans & Goal Setting #2
Friday 3/10/23
9:15 am – 10:30 am

In program workshops, you will work directly with students and staff to build on and apply the skills they’ve learned to develop finished products. The women will then add these to their professional portfolios.

Resume Writing Workshop
Wednesday 2/1/23
9:15 am – 12:20 pm

Cover Letter Writing Workshop
Thursday 2/2/23
10:30 am – 12:25 pm

Every session, we conclude our job-seeking skills curriculum with Mock Interviews. Volunteers conduct mock job interviews so the women can apply what they’ve learned in class. The students “Dress for Success” and provide copies of their new resumes, ready to impress. It’s a highlight of every session! Volunteers will interview the students both individually and in panels, then evaluate their interviewing skills. Join us for this incredible experience of helping our students “Rock the Mock!”

Mock Interviews
Wednesday 2/22/23
9:00 am – 12:20 pm

MENTORS

If you have mentored before, or have completed a Career Mentor Orientation, and are available to support our new class of students, we need you!

If you have not mentored before, please still feel welcome to sign up, and we will contact you right away about attending a required career mentor orientation.

The Student and Career Mentor relationships are so valuable and impactful for both our students and our volunteer mentors. Not only do mentors assist students as they hone their job readiness skills and materials, but mentors often help bolster students’ confidence and courage as they venture into job applications, interviews, and employment.

While in-person meetings are allowed, we have also adjusted the program to allow mentors/mentees to hold meetings via Zoom or phone call.

We will be holding a Career Mentor Refresher prior to our virtual Mentor and Student Meet & Greet so we can review mentor guidelines, talk about how this session will work, and answer any questions mentors might have. Both the Mentor Refresher and Mentor and Student Meet & Greet will happen via Zoom.

Mentor Refresher & Mentor/Student Meet and Greet
Wednesday 1/25/23
10:15 am – 12:15 pm

Session 90 runs from 1/17/23 through 3/17/23

For those who are mentoring for the first time, please indicate so on your sign up and we will contact you with Career Mentor Orientation times.

PROFESSIONAL DRESS DAYS

Each session, students sign up for an appointment to shop in our professional Clothing Closet with the goal of finding 2-3 professional outfits they can wear to job interviews and other opportunities. We are looking for women who can assist students one-on-one in the clothing closet, help them find items that work for them, and provide encouragement and support.

Monday, 1/30/23 – Professional Shopping – 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Wednesday, 2/1/23 – Professional Shopping – 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Thursday, 2/2/23 – Professional Shopping – 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Friday, 2/3/23 – Professional Shopping – 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER

Volunteers to help staff our Child Development Center is always one of our greatest needs.

We typically ask volunteers to commit to [at least] one day per week between the hours of 8:30 am and 2:30 pm for the duration of the nine-week session. We also are looking for volunteers who are willing to be floaters and “on-call” for special circumstances. We can be flexible with hours.

We accept volunteers ages 15 and older for this opportunity. Volunteers aged 18 and older are required to complete Livescan fingerprinting before beginning service. We provide support and training.

We acknowledge that is this a big commitment; it is also one of our biggest positive impacts. 85% of the women who participate in our program are mothers. Our ability to provide them with childcare enables their success, and provides a healthy environment for these precious little ones to develop and thrive.

THRIFT STORE DRIVERS

We need volunteers who would like to be drivers for our upcoming thrift store trips. Each session, women in our program are given the opportunity to take a field trip to Fabulous Finds on Fulton, where they are greeted by personal shoppers who help them assemble professional outfits.

Drivers need to be able to accommodate three women.
Drivers should arrive at 12:45 pm at Women’s Empowerment with their valid Drivers Licenses and Insurance
Drivers will depart at 1:00 pm and arrive back around 2:30 pm.
The thrift store dates are as follows:

Monday, 2/13/23 – Thrift Store Driving – 12:45 pm – 2:30 pm
Tuesday, 2/14/23 – Thrift Store Driving – 12:45 pm – 2:30 pm
Tuesday, 2/21/23- Thrift Store Driving – 12:45 pm – 2:30 pm

TEACH

We are looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help us out in the classroom (preferably in-person but virtually is also an option)! We need for a couple of lessons during Session 90 of our job readiness and empowerment program. The dates, times, and topics are listed below.

If you choose to volunteer to teach a lesson listed below, we will provide you with a short list of learning objectives and any materials we may have from previous instructors that we have permission to share. You will design the lesson around the objectives, incorporating your own style, expertise, and experience. There are no rules on how you teach your lesson; it can be a discussion, we can print handouts, you can make a PowerPoint, or whatever you feel will effectively cover the objectives.

Stress Management and Handling Work Frustrations
Wednesday, 3/1/23
10:45 am – 11:45 am

FRI-YAY

Many of our students face tremendous barriers, yet they continue to show up and push toward their goals. You can help our students celebrate the success of making it through the week. These women work HARD, and WE want to acknowledge their victories!

Consider becoming – or even recruiting — a sponsor for a Women’s Empowerment Fri-Yay! We are looking for the provision of simple snacks and treats for our Session 90 students at the end of each week.

We ask that each Fri-Yay serve 18-22 students and that this special surprise is dropped off by 10:00 a.m. on the chosen day or by 5:00 p.m. the day prior. The following dates are available:
1/27/23, 2/3/23
2/10/23, 2/17/23
2/24/23, 3/3/23
3/10/23,
Thursday 3/16/23 Special Student Closing Lunch Sponsor (provides lunch for students & program staff for closing lunch the day before they graduate)

SHARE CAREER LADDER

Our students often need help to see how an entry-level position can lead to careers with higher wages and benefits. Knowing that keeping a job long enough to promote or establish references can help in the long run is helpful. We are looking for role models who have successfully climbed a career ladder.

Here’s how you can help:

We want you to share your Career Ladders. You would speak to the women for 15-20 minutes about the jobs you have had, from bagging groceries as a teen to your current position. This description is not the sort of “sanitized” version of your work life that you tell in a job interview. It would be beneficial if you:

are honest about difficult situations or hard work or bad bosses and how you “stuck it out” until you found the next job or quit and had to scramble to find another job
describe how you found jobs (e.g., through networking, etc.)
describe how the early jobs prepared you for the future
share unemployment struggles or how you dealt with rejection
have any tips for getting or keeping a job

Career Ladder Speaker – Tuesday 2/14/23 12:00 pm – 12:20 pm
Career Ladder Speaker – Tuesday 2/21/23 12:00 pm – 12:20 pm
Career Ladder Speaker – Friday 3/10/23 12:00 pm – 12:20 pm
On-call Career Ladder Speakers – to be reached out to with 1-2 days’ notice if schedule allows for a career ladder.