Interested in becoming an HCEF volunteer? Complete our registration form!
Already a volunteer? Log in to our Volunteer Information Center!
HCEF partners with homeless housing facilities throughout Allegheny County to provide educational resources and programs for children and youths who are homeless.
Through its redesigned afterschool program in HCEF Learning Centers, children will be assessed by a professional Afterschool Instructor to determine a child's interests, aptitudes, and needs with regard to literacy. The Afterschool Instructor will then complete a one-page Customized Learning Plan (CLP) for each child, and the volunteer tutors will then set learning goals for the children with whom they will be working. The focus will be on helping each child achieve her or his CLP goals.
In addition to a love for children and a passion to help them succeed, all volunteer tutors must have the required clearances and all will participate in three hour, bimonthly training sessions led by knowledgeable practitioners. The Volunteer Manual will be their tutoring "bible." Past trainings have included Homelessness and Poverty; Diversity; Domestic Violence; Addiction; Mental Illness; Reading; Teaching Strategies; Parent Engagement; Special Needs.
Our vision is that all children and youth experiencing homelessness will receive the necessary educational resources, guidance, and opportunities to launch them on a path of success in school and in life. As a trained volunteer tutor, you will be helping to make this vision a reality for the child with whom you are working.
A couple examples of other ways individuals and groups have volunteered to help make a difference for the kids:
Junior League of Pittsburgh members and friends helped HCEF Education Programs Manager Laura Bailey restore and reorganize the library of the HCEF Learning Center at Bridge to Independence. This team of Done in a Day volunteers set up the bookcases, sorted and arranged the usable books by grade level and reading competency, and then arranged them on the shelves.
The employees of a local business rebuilt (in one day!) the maze at at Hundred Acres Manor.
Some volunteers help with special fundraising events like the annual Haunted House at Hundred Acres Manor and our signature March Champions for Children Benefit. Others
provide the skilled hands and donated supplies needed to address "fix-up" projects identified by staff of family housing facilities. Still others join with HCEF to provide an end-of-the-school-year party celebrating the children's educational milestones.
See photos of volunteers restoring a Learning Center.
Thank you for your interest in volunteering for the Homeless Children's Education Fund. We rely upon the commitment and passion of dedicated volunteers to fulfill our mission: "To provide advocacy, community engagement, and direct service programs that support the education of children and youth experiencing homelessness in Allegheny County."
For more information about becoming an HCEF volunteer, please contact our Outreach and Volunteer Services Manager, Susy Robison, at 412.562.0154, srobison@homelessfund.org, or register online.
See also Volunteer Recognition Celebration under our Recent Events
Funding support for the Volunteer Program has come from Calvary Episcopal Church, Child Health Association, Estelle Campbell Foundation, GlaxoSmithKline, and Westminster Presbyterian Church.
