Serve and Empower Those Who Have Been Displaced
Thank you for your interest in volunteering with Home for Refugees. We can’t fulfill our mission without you. Volunteers play an integral role in our efforts to help refugees across the U.S. Whether you are an educator, stay at home mom or dad, doctor, attorney, or have a special skill like a second language or not, you can make an impact simply by loving these men, women, and children. If you are interested in sharing that love with newcomers, we invite you to volunteer with us.
STEP 1 - Attend a virtual info session.
Email info@hfrusa.org to find out the next dates.
STEP 2 - Form a team of five and all members attend a virtual info session and complete a volunteer application.
Once your team of five has attended one of our info sessions, your team will be emailed an link to our online volunteer application and following with a background check.
Includes $50 application processing donation. Once your application is approved, you will be asked to complete a $19 background check through Sterling Volunteers.
STEP 3 - Training and fundraising
Training
Once the background checks are all cleared, then your team decides on a common weekly time to meet virtually to start training. These training times include (1) an introduction to the foundation of our work, an overview of Home Teams and how they work, (2) fundraising and Home Team communication tools, (3) navigating a helping relationship and cultural differences, and finally (4) an overview of the year which includes a timeline and assignment of team responsibilities and roles.
Fundraising
HFR’s Home Team fundraising goals based on an average family of five:
Available for teams across the U.S. > Home Teams resettling arriving Afghans who have aided the United States’ government fundraise $20,000. From this $20,000, $14,000 for your Home Team’s Family Start Up Fund and $6,000 helps cover the cost of training and coaching your team for the year. This type of team will help the family find an apartment and one team member will need to be a co-signer for income, because a newly arrived refugee does not initially have credit.
Available for teams in California > Home Teams resettling refugees in California partnering with resettlement agencies fundraise $12,000. From this $12,000, $6,000 for your Home Team’s Emergency Fund and $6,000 helps cover the cost of training and coaching your team for the year. This type of team will be partnered with a refugee family who has recently arrived in the last year who have an apartment found by their resettlement agency.
STEP 4 - Start the process of being partnered with a refugee family.
When your Home Team’s training and fundraising is complete, Home for Refugees starts the process of partnering your team with a refugee family. This partnering process can take one to three months depending on the current events that are happening in the world.
STEP 5 - Once your Home Team is partnered, then this begins your year of walking alongside the family to help them resettle!
*Total time for volunteering could be up to a year and a half.
Key is flexibility. For your planning purposes, once your team is formed and applications and background checks are complete, training and fundraising takes about 1-2 months to complete depending on how quickly your team completes this step. Then partnering your team with a refugee family could be one to three months. Once partnered, then one year is the commitment for the team to help resettle the refugee family. Total time could be a year and a half.