Hello! Cary here. Founder, director, girl who deals with a bit of anxiety- maybe just like you.
It's so common for a friend or neighbor to come to us and say she wants to volunteer at Designed For Joy but she's dealing with some anxiety. From personal experience we understand coming into a new place to serve can be difficult, and we do our best to love new volunteers by offering tours before you sign up for a shift, giving options of how you want to serve, and being flexible when you want to move to production from retail for example.
We always pair new volunteers up with reliable, seasoned volunteers or staff. The pressure's not on you. We bought volunteer name tags this year, so it's clear to visitors that you are there to help and aren't the expert.
We try to share new studio images (inside and outside) often so new or potential volunteers can visualize the space. We do our best with describing how to get to our new downtown location on the website and social media so that driving in is a bit easier and you know what to expect.
Would you like to chat on the phone, FaceTime, or come in for a tour with me? Email me here and let's plan a no pressure conversation and see how we can get you connected.
This is true... As staff and volunteers, we come to the studio with the intention to serve women in crisis, but we leave with more confidence and joy for ourselves. It's been my experience that listening to the stories of the women we serve brings me more courage and determination to do the hard things in my life. Would this be a good experience for you?
Learn more about volunteering at Designed For Joy here.
Sign up for our volunteer email here.
If you have any suggestions for how we can make volunteering even more comfortable, let us know.