Current Community Needs

As a service to the community, we list here occasional and ongoing volunteer needs and opportunities.  For more information or to sign up, please contact the organizations directly.

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On April 7, 2013, Sexual Assault Response Services of Southern Maine will hold our 27th Chocolate Lovers’ Fling at Holiday Inn by the Bay.  This is our agency’s chief fundraiser.   This year, to celebrate the  agency’s 40th anniversary, they are changing to a gala completely seated event, which will require more volunteers with restaurant and catering experience.

Information and volunteer forms are availableat http://www.sarsonline.org/.

The Greater Portland Charitable Furniture Center is a non profit organization which redistributes donated home necessities to new immigrants, refugees, and others in dire need, staffed entirely by volunteers.  Able bodied volunteers are needed (including, but not limited to those with access to large vehicles such as pickup trucks or vans) to help with  pickups and deliveries of furniture.  Most recipients of the furniture live right in Portland.  This is a very rewarding volunteer activity which provides an opportunity to get to know some of our newest neighbors. 
If you can help, call the Furniture Center at 200-7796 and leave a message with phone number, to get a call back.      Medical students from Tufts living and working at Maine Medical Center have founded BountyShare, a food rescue charity based out of Portland to collect donations of food excess from local vendors for use to feed Portland's hungry, in partnership with Preble Street Soup Kitchen.   USM students are invited to help carry out this important work. The time commitment is entirely individual and can be based around students' schedules; ideally a day a week to be available to make a pick up from a donor.  There will also be quarterly BountyShare Nights at the soup kitchen to allow volunteers to see first hand the good they do. There are also opportunities in administrative work, including organization of food drives, website upkeep, volunteer coordination, and donor relations.  Interested students should contact BountyShare founder Jason Hine directly at jfhine@gmail.com. 

Biddeford Estates is a 89 bed assisted living home that provides 24/7 care and support to the frail elderly,  looking for kind and compassionate volunteers to help with wellness programming and activities. Volunteers can do anything from 1:1 visits (listening, reading, chatting with residents), to leading games (card, board, Wii), or if they have a particular interest (art, exercise, cooking, etc.) we can help to develop a program or activity around that.  Potential specialized service learning for visual arts would be a study on Aging; for Therapeutic Rec to have hands on experience developing programs for residents with co‑morbidities; or for history students to collect oral history from first hand accounts about WWII and the Great Depression, etc.  Contact Brittnee Greenleaf, MS, Resident Wellness Director, (207) 458‑8346.

Partners for World Health always needs volunteers to help with pick up and sorting and organizing at the warehouse. All are welcome to come and participate and see how you can make a difference in our environment and how your efforts help to improve health care throughout the world.   For more information or to volunteer, contact Cari-Lynn Lane, Volunteer Coordinator, at cari-lyn@partnersforworldhealth.org

Ingraham House, a residential home for developmentally disabled clients in downtown Portland, is seeking a student or group of students to spend 1-2 hours a week teaching simple songs to clients. Contact Briana Markoff at Briana.Markoff@goodwillnne.org

Portland Lion's Club  The Portland chapter of Lion's Club International, whose mission is "to empower volunteers to serve their communities, meet humanitarian needs, encourage peace and promote international understanding," wants to forge a relationship with students at USM, and give them the ability to not only be a member of the Portland LIONS Club, but to take on a leadership role within the club. Our vision is to allow the students to partner with the current leaders and actually run the club with the current officer’s guidance.  Many leadership roles and project opportunities exist.  For more Information: Please contact Bruce Roullard, President – bruce.roullard@bankofamerica.com or Nathan Cadorette - nathan.cadorette@maine.e