Volunteer

Interested in Volunteering or Interning?

Current Volunteers: Track your hours in the portal.

There are many ways you can volunteer with HIAS Pennsylvania. Click on the different areas below to learn more about the opportunities and how to get involved!

Find our upcoming volunteer orientations here.

General Volunteer Positions

  1. Learn about our current volunteer opportunities!
  2. All interested volunteers must attend one of our monthly volunteer orientations to get involved. Our orientations will be virtual for the foreseeable future.
  3. Please sign up for a volunteer database profile to register for one of our upcoming orientations and receive more information about volunteer onboarding. Once you complete a profile, a member of our staff will follow up with you directly.

Pro Bono Attorneys

We are currently recruiting attorneys to represent clients who are seeking asylum as well as other forms of immigration relief.

To represent an asylum seeker, attorneys are required to attend HIAS PA asylum training sessions which are offered live in the spring and winter as well as on demand. Training and mentoring is available for pro bono attorneys. HIAS PA is a PA CLE accredited provider and Pennsylvania CLE credit is available for attorneys working on pro bono cases.

Fill out an application to learn more.

Volunteer Translators/Interpreters

  1. Learn about our current volunteer opportunities including volunteer interpretation and translation. We are specifically seeking Haitian Creole, Spanish, French, Arabic, Dari, Pashto, Urdu, Ukrainian, Russian, Swahili, Tigrinya, Rohingya and Burmese speakers.
  2. All interested volunteers must attend one of our monthly volunteer orientations to get involved. Our orientations will be virtual for the foreseeable future.
  3. Please sign up for a volunteer database profile to register for one of our upcoming orientations and receive more information about volunteer onboarding. Once you complete a profile, a member of our staff will follow up with you directly.

Internships

A limited number of internship opportunities in our administration, social services, and legal services departments are available to students who are college-aged or older. Internships at HIAS PA are unpaid.

Click here to intern at HIAS PA!

In your application email, please indicate if you are interested in legal, social, or administrative services.

Interns are accepted on a rolling basis and we cannot guarantee a position.

Bar and Bat Mitzvah

Thank you for your interest in partnering with HIAS PA for your Bar/Bat Mitzvah project. Here are some ideas of what students have done in the past. Ideally, students do a combination of service work with us and then advocacy, community education, and/or fundraising in their communities to share what they have learned and garner support for immigrants and refugees.

Upon reviewing the above document, email community@hiaspa.org and share your timeline and which project(s) above are of interest.

In-Kind Donations & Community Drives

Our Standards of Excellence

HIAS PA is only able to accept new or gently used items that are clean and in good and working condition.  We do not have the capacity to clean or fix items. Consider: Would you give this item to a loved one?


In-Kind Donations

Visit our list of items we accept and don’t accept.

We do not have the capacity to pick up items. Items on our accepted list get dropped off at our community drop off location in Wynnewood.

If your items match our needs, please contact community@hiaspa.org for donation drop off information with the subject line “Household Goods Donation”.

Please email this address in advance of any drives or collections on behalf of HIAS PA.


HIAS Pennsylvania’s Registry

We have identified our top needs and shared them on our Target registry. All items purchased through the registry link below will automatically ship to HIAS PA. If you would like a donation receipt, please email community@hiaspa.org.

  • To donate home goods for newly-arrived refugees, please visit our Target registry.
  • If you’d like to purchase an equivalent item at a different online store, please have it shipped to this address:Attention: Lisa Lamboy
    HIAS Pennsylvania
    600 Chestnut St., Suite 500B
    Philadelphia, PA 19106

We thank you for your generosity!


Organize a Donation Drive for HIAS PA

We need at least 2-3 community partners per month to host donation drives to meet the urgent material needs of our clients. Our community partners include local businesses and professional groups, religious communities, book clubs, student groups and more. We would love to add you and your group to our list of partners.

Drives focus on collecting the following donations:

  • New & gently used household items
  • Seasonal items, including winter coats/outerwear, space heaters, box fans
  • Welcome Kits: assembled packages of hygiene items, cleaning supplies, safety items, kitchen items, or school supplies
  • Collecting gift cards and funds to donate directly to HIAS PA

Drives can be organized in-person and virtually. Please reach out to community@hiaspa.org if you are interested in organizing a donation drive.


Gift Cards

HIAS PA greatly welcomes donated gift cards to Target, Dollar Tree, and Walmart to support the ongoing and emergency needs of our clients. Gift cards can be sent to community@hiaspa.org or mailed to:

Attention: Lisa Lamboy
HIAS Pennsylvania
Box #8688
Philadelphia, PA 19101

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In 2021-2022,
We were supported by

volunteers

In 2021-2022,
volunteers donated

hours