Get Involved
Social Action Volunteer
Volunteer Position Description
Do you want to help make positive change in your community? This opportunity may be for you!
The volunteer will have the opportunity to contribute to Access Alliance’s advocacy work! Social action is an important part of the work we do to influence system and service level changes to improve the health and wellbeing of our immigrant, newcomer and refugee clients and their communities.
Our organization gets involved in various advocacy/social action initiatives and campaigns throughout the year around key topics (e.g. Paid Sick Days, Permanent Resident Status For All, decent work, etc.). As a volunteer, you will be working collaboratively with the Social Action Coordinator and other volunteers to provide support for these campaigns when necessary or needed. Activities might include doing outreach to clients and the community, providing logistical support at events, attending rallies/demonstrations, calling elected officials, distributing petitions and lots more!
As part of this role, we are also offering civic engagement & social action training to volunteers.
Location:
Location is mixed, depending on the task, but could be (i) Remote (working from home) and/or (ii) On-site at the three sites of Access Alliance (Jane – 761 Jane St.; College – 340 College St.; Danforth – 3079 Danforth Ave.) and/or (iii) External locations in the GTA.
If required, an office setting with assigned workspace, computer, and phone can be provided.
***PLEASE NOTE: Due to public health guidelines and organizational precautions around COVID-19, Access Alliance requires all staff, volunteers and students to be fully vaccinated. While onsite at Access Alliance, you are required to wear a mask and follow COVID-19 protocol***
Time commitment:
Flexible, based on your availability and interest, as the position is on-going (volunteers will receive a call-out for opportunities as they arise). However, we expect a minimum time commitment of 20 hours per year.
This includes 1-3 hours of orientation and onboarding.
In addition, volunteers have the opportunity to receive training in civic engagement/ social action (6 hours total). Stay tuned for registration information
Role Type: Program and Project Support
Format: Hybrid
Skills Required:
- Passionate about making a positive change!
- Communication and organizational skills
- Comfortable approaching and talking to people
- Can speak Spanish, Portuguese, Tigrinya, Mandarin, Farsi, Arabic or other languages
- Reliability
Skills that will be developed in this role:
- Analytical skills
- Issue framing (describing issue in a way to gain support)
- Communications and influencing
- Social media
- Networking and community organization
Benefits for the volunteer:
- Receive extensive free training to develop skills mentioned above
- Gain hands-on experience supporting and implementing meaningful and impactful social action initiatives.
- Learn how public policies connect to people’s lived experiences.
- Gain opportunities to connect with and network with other partner organizations and change makers.
- Gain the opportunity to improve and strengthen project management and communication skills,
- Understand the importance of social determinants of health and community health model of care.
- Work in a unionized organization with clients and staff from diverse backgrounds and barriers (e.g. language, mental health, etc.), as well as within an environment of access, equity, anti-racism, and anti-oppression.
- Gain valuable Canadian work experience
- Access to a job reference after fulfilling the volunteer commitment
- Expand network and meet likeminded people
- Gain transferable skills such as marketing, influencing, meeting/training facilitation and problem-solving etc.
Number of positions available: Multiple
To apply:
Complete an application form by clicking here.
Please Select ‘Social Action Volunteer’ as the “Position Title” in the Application Form
For any support you can email: volunteer@accessalliance.ca
For more information contact:
Miranda Saroli, Knowledge Mobilization and Social Action Coordinator
msaroli@accessalliance.ca; 416-324-0927 x3231
We welcome and encourage immigrants and refugees to volunteer with us! We encourage applications from volunteers who reflect the broad diversity of communities we work with, including those from racialized and LGBTQ2+ communities.