We have so many volunteer opportunities to suit your talents and time.
General Requirements
- Adult volunteers must be 21 years of age and graduated from high school or equivalent
- Able to communicate well in English (second language skills are a plus)
- Complete the entire volunteer application (found here)
- Attend a 1-hour orientation session
What to Expect After Applying
- Applications can take 1-2 weeks to process.
- Once your application has been processed, we will contact you to arrange an appointment for a personal interview.
- We will discuss a volunteer role that will be fulfilling for you and meet the needs of our Upbring family.
Apply to Volunteer
Match your talents to volunteer opportunities
Point Store: Young Women at New Life earn points throughout the week by demonstrating responsibility and good behavior. They can use those points to shop for things like stuffed animals, shampoo and conditioner, journals, blankets, and snacks.
Donation Drive for Point Store: Partner with your church, place of work, community, school, or friends to organize a donation drive for the Point Store.
Sharing Hands Team Volunteer: The Point Store has a seasonal or holiday-appropriate theme each month. Come and decorate, restock and spruce up the store. Volunteers are welcome to bring their ideas and helping hands.
Mentor: Mentoring will take place between a young woman and an older, more experienced person. In a nonprofessional capacity, the mentor supports, encourages, and advocates for the young woman.
Donation Divas: New Life receives donations throughout the year from various community partners. We are always looking for volunteers to help sort and organize all donations that are given to New Life.
Chicktime: Volunteers gather the second Saturday of each month to do an activity with the young women at New Life. Chicktime in the past has included: an etiquette class, yoga, crocheting, a basketball clinic, arts and crafts, a carnival, writing thank you notes to soldiers, packing beans and rice for a food bank, taking glamour shots, and more. Women are welcome to bring their daughters (ages 12 and up) to this volunteer opportunity.
Christmas Donations: Upbring is fortunate to receive Christmas gift donations from various churches, organizations, communities, schools, or friends in response to the items requested by the young women at New Life.
Donation Drive for Christmas: Partner with your church, place of work, community, school, or friends to organize a donation drive for Christmas gifts.
Organization Volunteer: Once all donated gifts are collected, we need volunteers to help organize and sort through all the Christmas items, making sure each girl receives the items they specifically requested.
Wrapping Volunteer: Once all the gifts are sorted and organized, volunteers are needed to wrap all the Christmas gifts!
Helping Hands Mentor: Mentoring will take place between a young woman and an older, more experienced person (or group). In a nonprofessional capacity, mentors provide relationship-based support that benefits one or more areas of the young adult’s development, like cooking a meal.
Spiritual Care Volunteers: The spiritual health of the young women at New Life is a key component to their healing journey. Volunteer with our Spiritual Care Director to help lead chapel once a week (Monday from 4-5 p.m.).
Bags of Hope Transporter: Bags of Hope are toiletry bags filled with essential items made for the young women who are just arriving at New Life. Volunteer to help transport those bags to our New Life campus.
Pop-up Birthday Transporter: Pop-up Birthday currently fulfills birthday requests from our young women at New Life. Once they receive a request, they prepare a custom party in a Pop-Up Birthday box, a plastic tote filled to the brim with party supplies, theme decorations, paper goods, games/crafts, cake, candles, balloons, goody bags, a personalized card and gifts for the young woman. Volunteer to pick up these boxes and deliver them to our New Life campus each month.
Jayne’s Salon: New Life has an on-campus salon to help the young women look and feel great. If you are a licensed stylist, we would love for you to volunteer. The salon is fully stocked, and the hours are flexible.
Rainbow Room: Our Foster in Texas team has a room located at our corporate offices that stores and provides items to foster families. Items are donated by the community and include baby items, gently used clothes and shoes, diapers in all sizes, and more.
Rainbow Room Volunteer: Volunteer to organize incoming donations by age/gender into bags, making it easy for a foster family to pick up needed items. Volunteers will also be asked to take regular inventory of the Rainbow Room.
FIT Donation Drive: Partner with your church, place of work, community, school, or friends to organize a donation drive for much-needed items when a child is placed in a foster home. Items to collect include: gift cards, baby wipes, gently used clothes and shoes, bags, car seats that are less than 5 years old, and diapers in all sizes.
Transportation Team: Foster families sometimes have multiple children they care for, and with that can come a variety of appointments and obligations. Volunteers for our transportation team are there when a foster family is required to be in more than one place, or a family needs help with transportation to family visitations, therapy appointments, etc.
FIT Driver: The assigned volunteer is responsible for transporting foster families in their car to and from authorized appointments, medical appointments, counseling sessions, visits, events, or errands that are authorized and arranged by our Volunteer Coordinator.
Childcare Provider: Provide childcare to children and youth of all ages for our foster families when needed and during the four events Upbring hosts for foster families.
Childcare Volunteer: Assist with crafts, games, or free-play, and act as a positive role model to provide positive reinforcement to promote healthy, nonviolent behaviors.
Austin Diaper Bank: Foster In Texas partners with Austin Diaper Bank to collect diapers for our foster families in need. Austin Diaper Bank is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to providing diapers to Austin families in need to strengthen the community.
Austin Diaper Bank Transport Volunteer: Volunteer to pick up diapers from Austin Diaper Bank that have been ordered by our Volunteer Coordinator and transport them to our various Foster In Texas offices.
Mentoring Program: Mentoring will take place between a young adult in the BeREAL program and an older, more experienced person in a nonprofessional capacity to provide relationship-based support that benefits the young adult’s development. Mentoring could include (but is not limited to) offering help preparing for a job interview or assisting a young adult with managing their finances.
Community Gathering: Once a month, the BeREAL community gathers to participate in an activity together. Volunteers will get to know the young adults involved in BeREAL in a casual/non-threatening environment.
Apartment Changeover: Upbring BeREAL helps young adults successfully transition from foster care to self-sufficiency and independence by providing Supervised Independent Living. When a young adult exits the program, volunteers help prepare the apartment for the next young adult.
Cleaning: Volunteers will provide their time to help clean the apartments in preparation for the next young adult.
Furniture Transport: Volunteers will help remove furniture from vacated apartments, transport furniture from our storage unit to new apartments, pick up furniture donations, and take them to Upbring storage units.
Decorate an Empty Apartment: With previously donated furnishings and household items collected by Upbring, volunteers will transform and decorate an empty apartment into a warm, welcoming home for a young adult.
Donation Drive: Partner with your church, place of work, community, school, or friends to organize a donation drive for much-needed household and seasonal items.