Our core volunteer team is responsible for caring for the youth at Sisu alongside our staff. Volunteers are trained and vetted to work directly with the youth in our emergency shelter as well as youth who are utilizing our drop-in center. These volunteers will help check the youth in and complete any paperwork needed, help youth shop our clothing & resource closet, serve dinner, assist with laundry & chores, and prepare the youth for bedtime.

Volunteers wishing to work in the shelter with youth must:

• Complete a criminal background check

• Be at least 25 years old

• Attend our 1.5-hour orientation and training

Available shifts include:

• Daily from 4-7pm

• Daily from 7-10pm

• Sunday 8-10am

• Saturday 8am-2pm

The Sisu meal team provides dinner to the youth every single night. Whether home-cooked, store-bought, or catered, this team volunteers to provide food for 40-45 youth and deliver it to the shelter. We kindly ask that volunteers bring food in disposable serving dishes and avoid meals with shellfish or nuts. For more information about our Meal Team volunteer opportunities, email volunteer@sisuyouth.org or sign up to provide a meal here. Meal team FAQs can also be found here.

Sisu’s primary funding comes from private donations and corporate giving. Each year, we host a variety of events and fundraisers to grow our reach and fill our coffers. If you have skills or interest in organizing, marketing, promoting, soliciting donations, or building relationships, we would love to have you on our fundraising team!

If you want to get involved but think working directly with the youth may not be for you, fear not, we still need your help! This team keeps things at Sisu running smoothly through general organizational and office tasks like donation sorting, laundry, cleaning, and “thank you” note writing.

Do you have a skill or business that can help support the Sisu mission? Tell us about it using the form below!

Looking to volunteer with your class, sorority, team, or group? We would love to have you! Groups can assist with projects like moving furniture for our transitional housing programs, organizing our clothing closet and sorting donations, deep cleaning our shelter and drop-in center, keeping our parking lot and flower beds beautiful, helping with mailers and thank you notes, and other large tasks. For group volunteer opportunities, please fill out this form.

You can pay for your background check by clicking this link. We encourage you to pay for your background check AFTER you attend a volunteer orientation. Not all volunteer opportunities require a background check. Please contact bharper@sisuyouth.org if you have additional questions.