Volunteer

Volunteering during COVID-19

We’d love to have you join our friendly team! We need people to collect food, act as drivers, and make phone calls. All roles are based in Sydney, Australia.

A welcoming place. Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Australia pursues an equal opportunity policy in the recruitment of staff, volunteers, in our partnerships, and in our community engagement work. We welcome all who share the JRS mission to serve, accompany, and advocate for the rights of all forcibly displaced peoples. This means working with those of any faith, religion, gender, race, sexual orientation or any other factor. We look forward to hearing from you.

To Volunteer: 

Please call (02) 9098 9336.

Or email Jane Turner, our JRS Volunteers Coordinator: jane.turner@jrs.org.au

Other ways to help:

Our ‘Take Action’ page has other ways to help people get through COVID.

Thanks so much for your interest!

Volunteering before the pandemic.

Please note, the below volunteering information applies to ‘normal’ non-COVID-19 volunteering conditions and opportunities. Only the above details are current and apply in the COVID-19 context.

JRS’ Community Space.

This Space is where people seeking asylum, refugees and people seeking asylum can access essential support. It is often called “Arrupe Place”, named after JRS’ founder, Fr Pedro Arrupe SJ.

At this Community Space, people belong to a welcoming community and can engage in a number of programs. Our volunteers are essential in helping us perform our work. In November/December 2020, this Community Space will move to Parramatta (relocating from Westmead).

Due to COVID-19, it is unclear when the below ‘normal’ volunteering roles will apply. Please see above for more information on volunteering during the pandemic.

Roles of volunteers: 

• Reception fortnightly. Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays
• Giving hospitality and shopping and restocking food bank shelves, weekly or fortnightly on Mondays.
• Giving hospitality and helping with the domestics of the Centre including helping with cooked lunches [clients cook] on some days Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays.
• Foodbank. Taking clients through foodbank and restocking shelves, also domestic duties. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays
• Driving to pick up food from Food Bank NSW, fortnightly on Mondays or Wednesdays.
• Home visits, once or twice a month.
• Providing activities for pre-school children, fortnightly usually Tuesday mornings.
• Play with English [play group included], weekly or fortnightly on Wednesday mornings
• Men’s group night, monthly on last Friday of the month.
• Employment support weekly or fortnightly on Mondays or Tuesdays
• Teaching English [need to be ESL trained], weekly
• School Engagement Program. Occasional talks [prepared] to school groups re JRS, collecting donations for foodbank.

Your availability: Volunteers on reception, hospitality, foodbank are usually asked to be available on a roster at least twice a month on weekdays, between 9:00 am and 4:00pm. Teaching English requires a weekly commitment for a couple of hours.

Mandatory Training: Volunteers are required to a JRS induction in which we cover the history, mission and values of JRS, JRS globally, our Arrupe Project and its services, a case work study and the Volunteer Manual. Volunteers are also required to complete the Hub core training.

Before the training day, volunteers complete an application form and have a short interview to which they bring I.D for police checks. They need to apply for their own working with children checks.

If you are interested in volunteering with us, please email: jane.turner@jrs.org.au

JRS’ Women’s Space.

More information available on volunteering at the Women’s Space is available on the NSW Humanitarian Hub website. The Women’s Space is located in Parramatta.

Top image courtesy of Flashpoint Labs.

Thank you for your interest in serving people seeking asylum, refugees and migrant in vulnerable situations!