Learning Ally wants all students to be on the same page-which is why the ed-tech nonprofit has built a library of more than 80,000 high-quality audiobooks for struggling readers in elementary, middle, and high school (from classics like The Rainbow Fish and The Baby-Sitter's Club to new favorites like Trevor Noah's Born a Crime and Jason Reynold's Long Way Down).
#Virtual volunteer opportunities free
Since the free app launched in January 2015, more than 4 million good-hearted helpers have lent a hand-and a pair of eyes-to over 285,000 people.Ī post shared by Be My Eyes Learning Ally The Be My Eyes app has a clear vision: to connect with people who have visual impairments who need assistance with everyday tasks-checking an expiration date, picking out the right spice, locating an item at the drugstore, identifying a piece of mail-with sighted volunteers through live, 1-on-1 video chat. Want to help set the record straight? By the People is a crowdsourcing initiative from the Library of Congress in which citizen archivists transcribe thousands of documents too indecipherable to be read by machines and scanners-including Mary Church Terrell's diaries, Walt Whitman's poems, and President Theodore Roosevelt's letters-as well as add keyword tags to assist future searches and review transcriptions by other volunteers for accuracy. partner organizations that are working to end poverty, build peace, and advance gender equality. Each year, its online platform pairs more than 12,000 volunteers-who specialize in a wide range of areas, from outreach and advocacy to research, writing, and editing, to teaching and technology development-with U.N. Thanks to the United Nations, you can make a world of difference -without even getting out of your pajamas. Every year, the nonprofit's volunteer translators help more than 200 aid organizations-including UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, and Oxfam-with a wide range of projects, from building a database of 12,000 essential medical terms in 40 languages to making Wikipedia’s 80 highest ranked healthcare articles available in 80 developing world languages to translating videos and leaflets specifically related to COVID-19 prevention, treatment, and care.Ī post shared by Translators without Borders UN Volunteers Translators without BordersĪnother way multilingual folks can help break (language) barriers: Translators without Borders. To date, it's kept more than 17,000 people (think: a Burmese speaker visiting the ER in Tulsa, an Iranian refugee signing up for food assistance in Los Angeles, an aid worker delivering essential items to a Spanish-speaking family in Houston) from getting lost in translation. Tarjimlyįamiliar with Kurdish? Fluent in Somali? Tarjimly-which means "translate for me" in Arabic-is a nonprofit with a free app that connects immigrants and asylum seekers with multilingual volunteers who provide on-demand linguistic support via live chat. Plus, the recipients of your generosity won't be the only ones getting a lift studies have shown that giving back, whether through community service or random acts of kindness, is one of the best ways to boost your mood-which, let's be honest, is something we could all use right now.Īhead, we've gathered the best virtual volunteer opportunities you can do remotely-from tutoring kids, teens and high school students in marginalized communities to providing refugees and asylum seekers with linguistic support-all of which will stir up some positive change. You can lend a supportive ear at a crisis hotline, translate important medical information into other languages, assist those with visual impairments with everyday tasks, transcribe President Theodore Roosevelt's letters, and even help protect vulnerable wildlife. Enter: virtual volunteering.Īs a result of social distancing, many organizations have shifted from in-person activities to engaging volunteers remotely-so there are plenty of meaningful volunteer opportunities that you can do from your couch. And if you're anything like us, you've already organized your closet, streamed the first season of Bridgerton (and read the entire book series), mastered the virtual happy hour, completed a 2,000-piece puzzle (twice), and baked more sweet treats than you can possibly eat. Between the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and weeks of blustery winter weather, chances are, you've been spending extra time indoors.