Indirect Service Volunteers

Branches offers several opportunities in which volunteers can gain service hours or contribute through indirect, off-site activities. These activities are absolutely necessary to the agency and can provide valuable support. They also provide the most flexible scheduling options for volunteers and are offered to volunteers under the age of 18.

Donation Drives

One popular off-site activity that many volunteers choose is to organize a donation drive in support of the shelter. If you're interested in this opportunity, here's some best practices.

Contact Sara Blevins, Director of Development before beginning to plan your drive--she can give you access to the logo and a list of frequently needed items or in some cases, an urgently needed single item.
You may decide to do a targeted donation drive centered around a theme or specific need.
Track the date/# of hours spent organizing any part of the donation drive. Include time spent creating marketing materials, distributing collection boxes, or picking up donations.
Upon request and approval of hours, the Director of Development can provide letters of hours verification to schools/workplaces.
Please note that at this time, Branches is unable to provide verification for court-mandated community service hours.

Welcome Home Baskets

Branches is pleased to maintain a focus on providing safe, permanent housing for clients facing homelessness due to domestic violence. One sub-category of donation drive that offers a unique way of helping clients have their best chance at a life free from violence is our Welcome Home Baskets volunteer opportunity. Clients may be moving into new homes directly from the shelter and will need certain items to make them feel at home in a new place or to help get them settled into a new place. Items such as shower curtain liners or pots and pans can go a long way in alleviating some of the immediate needs of our clients.

This is an excellent opportunity for a team of volunteers or a family that wanted to work together to organize collected items into baskets prior to delivery.