Volunteer Opportunities

Because of CFS children are safer, families are stronger, and thousands of individuals have a place to turn for help. Volunteer opportunities exist within all facets of Center for Family Services.

To download a volunteer application, click here. Completed volunteer applications can be:

faxed to 1.856.494.1442
emailed to volunteer@centerffs.org
mailed to Center For Family Services, Development Office, 584 Benson Street, Camden, NJ 08103

Get Involved

• Activity Leader - Family Success Centers

• Administrative Volunteering

• Become a Mentor

• Community Wide Initiatives Coordinator

• Domestic Violence Volunteer Advocate

• Foster Parenting or Shelter Home Parenting

• Head Start

• Literacy Coaching and After School Tutoring

• Quixote Quest

• Reading Blitz Volunteer

• Reading Volunteer for Born to Read

• Recovery Coaches

• Sexual Violence Volunteer Advocate

Activity Leader - Family Success Centers

Family Success Centers

Volunteer Activity Leaders are needed to tutor children, coordinate arts and crafts activities, lead workshops, oversee baking activities, offer computer skills training, lead a children’s reading group, lead parent and community cafes, serve on the Parent/Community Advisory Board.

The Family Success Centers located in Clementon and Camden offer a safe and supportive home-like environments designed to strengthen families, build relationships, and empower individuals to acquire the knowledge and skills they need to raise healthy and happy children. The Family Success Center is a community-based, family-centered neighborhood gathering place where any community resident can go for family support, information, and services. Through the Family Success Center, we provide families with convenient access to a wide array of services and family friendly activities are offered on a daily basis. All activities are free and open to anyone in the community. View our monthly calendar.

To download a volunteer application, click here. Please email the completed application to familysuccesscenter@centerffs.org

Administrative Volunteering

We are always in need of volunteers to help with filing and other office tasks in our Public Relations department and in specific programs. Please email volunteer@centerffs.org if you are interested in this opportunity.

Become a Mentor

Mentoring

Mentors can help a child:

develop higher levels of self-esteem
achieve greater academic ability
improve behavioral and social relations
grow into strong, confident adults.

CFS has many opportunities for mentoring. Click here for more information.

Community Wide Initiatives Coordinator

Center For Family Services needs volunteer support throughout the year for our community wide initiatives - Operation Backpack, Holiday Gift Project, Denim Day, Promise Neighborhood. Ways to get involved:

donate in-kind items to assist with our drives or make a monetary donation
distribute flyers or share information through social media
start a workplace campaign
coordinate a campaign at your high school or university
host a donation drop off at your home and share information with friends and neighbors

Email mwoodward@centerffs.org for more information.

Domestic Violence Volunteer Advocate

SERV

SERV Domestic Violence program Volunteer Advocates are needed to accompany domestic violence victims to hospitals, law enforcement agencies, and courts. Volunteers assist with crisis intervention, advocacy, and hotline calls. Volunteers also attend community and health fairs representing CFS and the SERV program.

Volunteers must:

be 18 years of age
complete 40 hours of training
pass the Sexual Violence Advocate training test.

Center For Family Services provides the volunteer advocate training program several times throughout the year. For more information and to register for the next training session, please email serv@centerffs.org or call 856.881.4034 x106.

Program Locations - Gloucester County, Cumberland County

To download a volunteer application, click here. Please email the completed application to serv@centerffs.org

Foster Parenting or Shelter Home Parenting

Center For Family Services Helping Hands Foster Care and Serenity Homes Shelter Home Parenting program provide safe and supportive homes to children in southern New Jersey. We are actively recruiting foster families and shelter parents that meet our requirements. If you are interested in exploring the possiblity of foster parenting, contact us at helpinghands@centerffs.org. For information on Shelter Home Parenting, contact us at serenity@centerffs.org.

Head Start

Center For Family Services provides early childhood education throughout Camden County through our 14 Head Start sites. We need parent volunteers and community volunteers to assist with classroom activities, meal time, one-to-one reading, and administrative tasks. Click Click here for more information on Head Start volunteer opportunities . If you are interested in learning more about these opportunities or would like to volunteer in another way that is not mentioned, email Annie our volunteer coordinator.

Literacy Coaching and After School Tutoring

Many teens in our supportive housing programs have faced overwhelming circumstances that may have caused them fall behind in school. We are in need of literacy coaches and after school tutors to offer educational support to these youth after school on the weekdays. Please email Annie, our volunteer coordinator if you are interested in learning more about the opportunity.

Quixote Quest

Quixote Quest is a volunteer program for teens dedicated to making a positive difference in their community. The program is open to high school teens and kicks off in September of each year. Teens are asked to make a year long committment to volunteer service.

Joining Quixote Quest takes some thought. The teens of the Qrew are committed to the Quixote Quest motto...Deeds Not Words. They put kind thoughts and concerns for others into actions that truly make a difference. If you are a person that is ready to sacrifice two hours per week for a good cause, then Quixote Quest wants to talk to you.

The first step to being part of Quixote Quest is to check it out. The QQ director can schedule and interview for you (parent necessary), which will help you gather information about the club and learn about different types of volunteer opportunities that might be available near you.

Click here for more information.

Reading Blitz Volunteer

Promise Neighborhood

Join the Camden Cooper Lanning Promise Neighborhood Team to encourage children to develop a life-long love of reading! Volunteers are needed to participate as Reading Blitz Volunteers. A Reading Blitz is a montly event that pairs volunteers with students at Lanning Square Family School. Students read aloud to volunteers for 20 minute blocks of time. Volunteers listen and encourage children. This is a wonderful way to make a positive impact on the life of a child!

Click here for more information and to register as a volunteer.

Reading Volunteer for Born to Read

We are currently recruiting parent and community volunteers to read with children in our Head Start classrooms. If you love reading, enjoy working with children, and can commit to one hour of volunteering per week, then this is the perfect volunteer position for you....and your time and energy will make a real difference in the lives of the children we serve! Volunteers are placed in the same classroom for the course of the school year. Volunteers read with children one-to-one promoting literacy skills and encouraging a love of reading. For more information on this volunteer opportunity, contact Diana Husanu, AmeriCorp VISTA and Volunteer Coordinator.

This volunteer opportunity is part of a larger initiative known as Born to Read, a campaign to promote grade level reading for children in Camden City. For more information on Born to Read click here.

Recovery Coaches

Recovery Center

Recovery Coaches facilitate group sessions at the Recovery Center and link the newly recovered person to the recovering community, serving as a personal guide and mentor. Email recoverycenter@centerffs.org for more information.

What is a Recovery Coach?
Recovery coaches are not licensed therapists or counselors or credentialed experts. Recovery coaches are personally experienced in recovery, having either gone through it themselves or been close to someone who has.

How Do Recovery Coaches Help Support Recovery?
Recovery Coaches help clients identify and remove the personal and environmental barriers to recovery and increase the quality and quantity of “recovery capital” – the internal and external resources that are shown to play a major role in successfully initiating and sustaining recovery, such as life skills, knowledge, stable housing, health insurance, family support and linkage to the community, among others. The Recovery Coach’s job is to understand the people they are helping, hold them accountable to the goals they set, and act as advocates. Coaches also link the newly recovering person to the recovering community and serve as a personal guide and mentor in the management of personal and family recovery.

How is a Recovery Coach Different from a Sponsor?
Unlike traditional 12-step sponsors, recovery coaches support a wide variety of recovery paths and focus more on the challenges, barriers and opportunities in the person’s recovery environment, rather than on inter- and intrapersonal issues.

Recovery Coach Training
Recovery Coaches are trained at the Recovery Center. The training includes 1) Components of recovery and defining the role of the recovery coach; 2) Identifying and understanding the various pathways to recovery; 3) Building communication skills – active listening, telling one’s story, improving relationships, motivational interviewing; 4) Providing knowledge of community resources and programs offering a range of life skills support; 5) Developing an individualized recovery plan; 6) Understanding cultural competence and common spiritual themes.

Sexual Violence Volunteer Advocate