Community Service
Community Service is an opportunity to help underprivileged women and students reach their leadership potential by sharing knowledge about your career.
Regardless of what level you are in your career, your time can make a huge impact!
The WICT Network: New York Volunteer and Giving Back Committee serves the dual purpose of partnering with external nonprofit organizations that emphasize career and leadership opportunities for women and girls, and providing internal organizational support via volunteer sourcing for various The WICT Network: New York events.
The WICT Network: New York was the proud recipient of two awards from WICT National in 2018 for Community Service and Mentoring Excellence! It’s all thanks to the dedication and hard work of our engaged and dynamic membership.
The WICT Network: New York partners with Grace Institute for Community Service initiatives. Whether you are able you to volunteer in person or virtually, The WICT Network: New York Volunteer and Giving Back Committee has an opportunity for you to be of service.
Volunteer opportunities currently include:
Grace Institute
Grace Institute empowers unemployed and underemployed women in the New York area to achieve economic self-sufficiency. Stay tuned to this page for info on our next event.
Grace encourages women to tap into their inner strength, resilience and limitless potential to become gainfully employed and economically empowered. Our very own Ingrid Laub volunteered with The Grace Institute Brag Party and shared her experience.
As part of their programming, Grace Institute offers its graduates excellent career support and The WICT Network: New York volunteers are there to help! Volunteer opportunities with Grace Institute include:
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Spend an hour performing mock interviews with soon-to-be graduates to get them comfortable in interview situations.
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Help sort the donations and create a boutique for Dress with Grace, a bi-annual clothing drive for work-appropriate attire. Or lead a team at your company to solicit donations (continue to look at this page for details).
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This is a great way to share your experiences with a very deserving group of hard working women!
Find out more about Grace Institute here: http://www.graceinstitute.org
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Within a supportive and structured environment, Grace Institute provides job-skills training, counseling, placement services, and continuous learning opportunities that lead to upwardly mobile employment. For more than 120 years, Grace Institute has been moving women – young professionals looking for somewhere to start, women who were laid off or had to stop working to care for family members, “underemployed” women who want to escape dead end jobs and start a career – by providing a pathway out of poverty and a vehicle to earn a living for themselves and their families.
To join the Volunteer & Giving Back Committee,
please contact Dawn Fitts wictny.volunteers@gmail.com
Virtual Volunteer Opportunities
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Cause: Arts/Culture
Opportunity: Transcription
Citizen scholars are invited to transcribe historic documents including diaries and working papers of prominent Americans and records associated with the Smithsonian’s vast scientific collections. Transcription makes these important materials more accessible to researchers around the world, as well as the general public.
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Cause: Arts/Culture
Opportunity: Translation
Help to translate Ted Talks into other languages.
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Cause: Arts/Culture
Opportunity: Record a story
Read and record chapters of books in the public domain no longer under copyright and make them available for free on the Internet.
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Cause: Arts/Culture
Opportunity: Transcription
Read and record chapters of books in the public domain no longer under copyright and make them available for free on the Internet.
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Cause: Children
Opportunity: Mentoring
Members of the Granny Cloud interact with groups of children via Skype, engaging them in conversation and in activities of various kinds, such as reading and telling stories, craft activities, solving puzzles and exploring big questions. The role of the Granny includes provoking curiosity, asking questions, listening attentively and providing warm encouragement.
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Cause: Children, Health, Arts & Culture
Opportunity: Record a story
Record yourself reading a childrens book in English or Spanish. Recordings will be compiled and made available at www.happyhopefactory.org for any child to access when they want to hear a story. Listening to a story provides children with comfort, fun distractions, a chance to use their imaginations, and opportunities to strengthen their literacy skills. Through Hope Reads, children will be able to hear their most-loved stories any time they want or discover a new favorite that will help brighten their day.
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Cause: Community Building
Opportunity: Various skills-based volunteer projects
Sign up for in-person or virtual volunteer projects. Do not need to be an AARP member to volunteer.
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Cause: Community Building
Opportunity: Various
Follow BuildOn’s instagram account to learn about new at-home volunteer opportunities every week.
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Cause: Community Building
Opportunity: Virtual fundraising
On this app, log exercise & movement like running, walking, dancing, biking, etc. For every mile you move, you help earn money for your charity from our corporate sponsorship pool.
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Cause: Community Building
Opportunity: Various skills-based volunteer projects
Sign up for in-person or virtual volunteer projects.
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Cause: Crisis Counseling
Opportunity: Counseling support
Give emotional support over online chat to people who reach out and needs someone to talk to.
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Cause: Crisis Counseling
Opportunity: Counseling support
Crisis Text Line is the free, 24/7 text line for people in crisis in the United States. The service is powered by volunteer Crisis Counselors who work remotely — anywhere with a computer and secure internet connection works. Answer texts from people in crisis, bringing them from a hot moment to a cool calm through active listening, collaborative problem solving, and safety planning. Note – serious subject matter.
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Cause: Crisis Counseling
Opportunity: LGBTQ Counseling support
Sign up to chat/text with young people struggling with issues such as LGBTQ identity or depression. Note: Serious subject matter.
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Cause: Disabilities
Opportunity: Communication
Download an app that connects you to blind and low-vision people who need visual assistance.
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Cause: Disabilities
Opportunity: Literacy support
Help people with print disabilities read, from scanning and proofreading texts to describing images.
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Cause: Disabilities
Opportunity: Literacy support
Empower dyslexic, blind, and visually impaired students to succeed in school, and in life. Help make audiobooks by narrating, listening & providing feedback, or QA testing.
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Cause: Education/College Access
Opportunity: Mentoring
The mission of iCouldBe is to provide high school students with an online community of professional mentors, empowering teens to stay in school, plan for future careers, and achieve in life.
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Cause: Education/College Access
Opportunity: Mentoring
Mentor a high school student as they begin the college exploration & application process.
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Cause: Education/College Access
Opportunity: Mentoring
Mentoring
Infinite Family’s video mentoring program, combined with additional activities, workshops and curricula, supports South African teens in building core skills in five areas: education, technology literacy, career preparation, and communication and life skills.
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Cause: Education/College Access, Careers
Opportunity: Job/Interview prep
Answer crowdsourced questions from underrepresented youth about careers and job opportunities.
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Cause: Education/College Access, Careers
Opportunity: Job/Interview prep & Technology
Provide guidance to a student as they prep for interviews, evaluate job opportunities and pursue meaningful careers in tech by mentoring students leading workshops, or co-hosting events.
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Cause: Health
Opportunity: Letter writing
Send uplifting cards & letters to adult cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
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Cause: Humanitarian Response
Opportunity: Social media monitoring
Digital volunteers assist the social engagement team by monitoring online conversations for disaster-affected people who may need Red Cross help, sharing important disaster updates and resources through their personal social media accounts and offering a compassionate voice to people who have been impacted.
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Cause: Humanitarian Response
Opportunity: Translation
Translators without Borders depends on volunteers to translate millions of words, but also to help us run the organization. We work with volunteers who have all kinds of great skills – and many learn new skills that they can use in their jobs. You can volunteer with TWB if you are fluent in at least one language other than your native language.
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Cause: Humanitarian Response
Opportunity: Data
Participate in an open, collaborative project to map areas where humanitarian organizations are trying to meet the needs of vulnerable people.
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Cause: Humanitarian Response
Opportunity: Various skills-based volunteer projects
Through a newly launched cross-sector effort, volunteers with relevant experience such as healthcare, data, engineering and product development, general management, operations, supply chain, procurement and more can help government agencies and organizations troubleshoot issues around the pandemic.
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Cause: Immigration/Refugees
Opportunity: Translation
Multilingual volunteers can download the Tarmaly app and connect with refugees or immigrants that need documents or other items translated.
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Cause: Immigration/Refugees, Careers
Opportunity: Job/Interview prep
Support immigrant job seekers in your field through informational interviews, mock interviews and English language coaching to help them secure a job.
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Cause: Pro-bono
Opportunity: Various skills-based volunteer projects
Sign up for in-person or virtual volunteer projects.
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Cause: Pro-bono
Opportunity: Various skills-based volunteer projects
Sign up for projects that need volunteers with skills including writing & editing, HR, web design, and marketing.
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Cause: Pro-bono
Opportunity: Business-focused mentorship
Mentor entrepreneurs from around the world to help small businesses thrive. Converse directly with entrepreneurs or answer questions they pose on a message board.
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Cause: Pro-bono
Opportunity: Various skills-based volunteer projects
Application process. Share your skills and background, available time commitment with Taproot Foundation and pick out a project that you’d like to assist with. Taproot will review your application, match you with a nonprofit and facilitate an introduction to a nonprofit that you will be consulting with.
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Cause: Pro-bono
Opportunity: Various skills-based volunteer projects
Sign up for in-person or virtual volunteer projects.
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Cause: Science/Research
Opportunity: Archiving
Help to type and archive records that would be made public for free to those interested in geneology.
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Cause: Science/Research
Opportunity: Web development/testing
Assist the NPS web team with the testing and evaluation of web products. Your feedback will be used to enhance and improve the online offerings of the National Park Service.
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Cause: Science/Research
Opportunity: Data/Beta Testing
The Zooniverse is the world’s largest and most popular platform for people-powered research. This research is made possible by volunteers — more than a million people around the world who come together to assist professional researchers. The main ways of volunteering are helping us with classifications on data, being a beta tester on projects we’ve yet to launch, and being a moderator for a project.
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Cause: Veterans
Opportunity: Various volunteer projects
From letter writing and paracord bracelet making, Operation Gratitude provides a variety of volunteer opportunities to thank those who are serving our country.
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Cause: Veterans, Careers
Opportunity: Job/Interview prep
Offer career expertise and guidance to veterans and military spouses.
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Cause: Veterans, Careers
Opportunity: Job/Interview prep
Support veterans or military spouses in their job search or careers by helping with mock interviews, resume tips and career counseling.
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Cause: Veterans, Careers
Opportunity: Job/Interview prep & Technology
IT professionals from senior executives to new hires are encouraged to share their career knowledge and experience with veterans, military spouses, and young adults in underserved communities.