Although COVID-19 presents some physical and social challenges when wanting to volunteer, fortunately technology provides another modality for people to connect, investigate, give time, and serve their communities, locally, nationally, and globally. See below for some ways you can volunteer from the comfort of your own home.

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Medically related options:

• Glide Year Job Option: Telescribe with https://www.scribeamerica.com/telescribes/ 

• Become an emotional support person through https://www.7cups.com/

• Lend your eyes to solve tasks for low-vision or blind people through https://www.bemyeyes.com/

• Train to volunteer with the Crisis Text Line  (requires 30 hours of training) www.crisistextline.org/become-a-volunteer

• Support LGBTQ young people through text/chat: https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-involved/volunteer/

• Volunteer to translate with https://translatorswithoutborders.org/volunteer/ (may or may not be medical)

• Send a card, letter or note once a week to someone undergoing chemotherapy. You can apply at https://www.chemoangels.com/angel-pre-app

• Support the American Cancer Society virtual events through https://www.cancer.org/involved/volunteer/society-second-life.html

• Participate in crowd-sourcing research projects: https://www.zooniverse.org/projects?discipline=medicine&page=1&status=live 

• Take quizzes/assessments to participate in implicit bias research:

  •           Health-related topics: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/user/pih/pih/index.jsp

  •           Social Attitudes topics: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html

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Non-Medically related options:​​

• Tutor disadvantaged students online with https://upchieve.org/volunteer

• Volunteer digitally to research and expose human rights violations: https://decoders.amnesty.org/

• Use your technical and creative skills to help organizations across the world through Catchafire.org:  https://www.catchafire.org/volunteer?name_filter=&type_filter=1&type_filter=2&page=1

• Become a Digital Smithsonian Museum Volunteer through https://transcription.si.edu/

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Engage in free online learning opportunities:

• Class about pandemics from Harvard 

• Class about community change in public health from Johns Hopkins 

• Essentials of global health from Yale

• Ivy League free courses list via freecodecamp.org

• Class “An Examination of coronavirus-COVID-19”  from St George’s University

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For other ideas, see this comprehensive Google doc with virtual volunteering opportunities curated by the NAAHP

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