Manage Event Logistics and Heavy Equipment Infrastructure on the Setup Crew with Angel Hanz For The Homeless
This hands-on team handles the critical first and last steps of the day. Volunteers pick up and deliver donated goods, set up tables and canopies, and break everything down safely once the event ends. It is the perfect role for energetic individuals who love active work and want to see an event come together from the ground up.
Provide Meals for Ascencia’s Residents, Be Part of the Guest Chef program with Ascencia
The Guest Chef program is central to the resources they provide their residents on a daily basis; and removes the worry about where their next meal is coming from. Volunteers in their Guest Chef Program commit to providing meals for 40-45 people. Chefs will plan the menu, purchase and prep the ingredients, then cook and serve the meal to their shelter residents. They also have many Guest Chefs get food delivered, or pick up food from local restaurants and drop-off!.
Pack with Purpose: Assemble Hygiene Kits from Home with Ascencia!
Purchase and assemble hygiene kits for their Outreach Case Managers to hand out while out in the field! You can host a donation drive to collect items, or purchase travel sized hygiene materials. Assemble them into Ziploc bags at home and schedule a drop-off!.
Pack with Purpose: Assemble Snack Bags from Home with Ascencia!
Purchase and assemble snack bags for their Outreach Case Managers to hand out while out in the field! Collect non-perishable snacks and drinks like protein bars, chips, water, sports drinks, etc., pack them into Ziploc bags, and donate them to Ascencia! Snack bags go quick, so the more the merrier.
Pack with Purpose: Assemble Brown Lunch Bags from Home with Ascencia!
They are asking for volunteers to make brown bag lunches for clients in the shelter to supplement meals not covered by guest chef, or for street outreach to pass out to individuals on the streets. Lunches can include PB&J sandwiches, fruit, chips, protein bars, water, etc.
Behind-the-Scenes Impact: Join Ascencia’s Admin and Operations Team with Ascencia
Support Ascencia by providing administrative or organizational support. Work in their admin office to complete tasks such as data entry, filing, writing thank you cards, organizing the donation closet and food pantry, and more.
Build a Welcoming Space: Help with Maintenance, Cleaning, and Handiwork with Ascencia
They are always looking for folks to help with light maintenance, cleaning, or handiwork at their access center or at the homes of their housed clients. Let them know you are willing and able to help with this, and they will reach out when the need arises.
Celebrate with a Cause: Host a Birthday Fundraiser for Ascencia with Ascencia
Host an online fundraiser for your birthday! Facebook, Instagram, and GoFundMe fundraisers are very easy to set up, and 100% of funds raised go towards their programs and services.
Be a Digital Advocate: Help Raise Awareness with Ascencia
Like, comment, share, and subscribe to increase their engagement and grow their community! @AscenciaCA on Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Youtube.
Host a Clothing and Undergarment Drive with Ascencia
Often when new clients arrive to their Access Center, the only clothes they own are what they are wearing. They’d love to welcome their clients with a fresh new set of clothes to wear while they wash their clothes and to make them feel more comfortable. Currently, they have high need for underwear. New items only please.
Host a Hygiene Kits and Snack Bags Drive with Ascencia
An integral part of Ascencia’s mission is their street Outreach! While their Outreach Case Managers are out helping their unhoused neighbors, they provide them with hygiene kits and snack packs to pass out. Help them by doing a drive with your community to gather some essentials for their clients, or purchase and donate the items. You can donate the items on their own, or assemble them into kits to donate. New, toiletry-sized hygiene items, and non-perishable, unopened snacks only please.
Host a Welcome Home Drive with Ascencia
Welcome their clients as they move into their new homes by providing them with a home starter kit. Supplies for home starter kits can include plates, utensils, cups (dining); toilet paper, bathroom cleaning supplies, soap, shampoo, conditioner, towels (bathroom); laundry detergent, laundry basket, fabric softener (laundry); pots and pans, dishwashing soap, sponges, cooking utensils (kitchen).
Host a Food Pantry Drive with Ascencia
Donate dry goods, canned food, and breakfast items for their food pantry in their Access Center. This food helps to supplement meals in their emergency shelter and help their housed clients with immediate needs. Items must be unexpired and unopened.
Host a Blanket Drive with Ascencia
No matter the weather, blankets are an essential item to give to their clients and for their Outreach Team to pass out to individuals living on the street. You can collect new bed sheets, comforters, throws, quilts, etc. Some volunteers even buy fabric and make their own tie blankets!.
Your Contribution Makes a Difference, Donate Today with Ascencia.
Seven people die every day in Los Angeles County due to homelessness. Ascencia is working to prevent this tragedy by providing wrap-around care to their unhoused neighbors, helping them get housed, and stay housed. They rely heavily on their community to fund their life-saving services, including interim shelter, case management, mental health support, clinical services, housing retention services, and more. Their work results in a 97% housing retention rate. Consider a gift today to further their mission to lift people out of homelessness, one person, one family at a time.
Are you a Dedicated Birder? Become a Volunteer Banders for MAPS @ Starr Ranch Bird Observatory with Audubon California: Starr Ranch Sanctuary
Dedicated birders who would like banding experience are invited to apply to become volunteer banders for a MAPS (Mapping Avian Productivity and Survivorship) station at the Starr Ranch Bird Observatory. MAPS is a growing network of hundreds of songbird banding stations in North America run by the Institute for Bird Populations (IBP). Long term banding data from MAPS stations help track changes in populations and migration patterns. In 2005, they became part of an international monitoring network that tracks birds in their wintering grounds, MoSI (Monitoreo de Sobrevivencia Invernal) with stations from Mexico to Columbia (and Starr Ranch!). Starr Ranch ornithologists offer beginning and advanced bird banding workshops every several years to train citizen scientists in songbird banding, ageing, and sexing.
Be a Citizen Scientist: Help Monitor Starr Ranch Songbirds with Audubon California: Starr Ranch Sanctuary
Besides bird banding, Starr Ranch manages other songbird monitoring projects that utilize volunteer citizen scientists who are trained by ornithologists. Monitoring usually targets rare species and habitats such as coastal sage scrub but they also use songbirds as indicators of restoration success and climate change. New monitoring projects help them make decisions on which invasive plant species they will work to control.
Join the Research: Long-Term Wildlife Monitoring at Starr Ranch with Audubon California: Starr Ranch Sanctuary
Currently Starr Ranch biologists train citizen science volunteers to help them monitor wildlife that serve as good indicators of habitat quality and help them decide which invasive species they will work to control. These are long term projects that will also aid in detection of shifts in wildlife populations that may be associated with a changing climate.
Defend the Lands: Join the South County Fire Watch Team with Audubon California: Starr Ranch Sanctuary
In partnership with the Reserve at Rancho Mission Viejo and the Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA), Starr Ranch runs a volunteer fire watch. Each year since 2008 volunteers are trained in late summer by the OCFA to deter arson and report behaviors that could lead to fires and to detect fires quickly if they start. Volunteers work in pairs during Red Flag Warnings, periods of high winds and dry conditions, usually in the fall. Lookout locations are at the edges of south Orange County preserved land from Starr Ranch south to the Reserve at Rancho Mission Viejo.
Become a Stream Bioassessment Volunteer, Help Protect the Creeks with Audubon California: Starr Ranch Sanctuary
Since 2003, Starr Ranch biologists have trained volunteers to use a standardized protocol to gather data on stream water quality and the impacts of urban run-off on the physical, chemical, and biological components of water quality in the creeks of Starr Ranch. Their results are sent to a statewide database. If you would like to volunteer with the annual stream bioassessment project, please contact Sandy DeSimone.
Featured Projects
Join Big Sunday for Relaxation and Community Care at Wellness Mondays
Big Sunday,
dom@bigsunday.org,
(323) 549-9944
If you're feeling like you could use a holiday – or a way to relax and recharge while meeting great, helpful folks -you're going to love Big Sunday's Wellness Mondays. Every Monday at 10 AM, we'll be hosting a different, fantastic sound bath here at Big Sunday HQ. Every Sound Bath is wonderful, designed to help you relax, recharge, and reconnect with yourself and others. They're all incredibly relaxing, totally free, and everyone is invited! We want everyone to be as comfortable as possible and suggest that you bring your own mat, cushion, pillow, blanket, eye cover, etc. – whatever you need to feel relaxed and cozy!
Create Mosaic Suns With Big Sunday at our Art Tuesdays
Big Sunday,
josh@bigsunday.org,
(323) 549-9944
Every Tuesday, volunteers join us at Big Sunday HQ to decorate mosaics in the shape of a sun. These beautiful works of art are then donated to schools, shelters, food banks – anywhere in need of a little more sunshine and warmth! This wonderful project is the brainchild of our old friend Cathy Weiss and led by Cathy and our own Big Sunday staff. You don’t need to be a brilliant artist to participate – just friendly and sincere. Just about everybody who’s worked on one tells us the mosaic suns are their favorite Big Sunday project!.
Join Big Sunday for our Accessible Wednesday at 10am Event
Big Sunday,
passion@bigsunday.org,
(323) 549-9944
A spin-off of our flagship weekly event TM@10, Accessible Wednesdays @ 10 (AW@10 for short) hosts volunteers every Wednesday to work on hands-on projects to help local nonprofits. The difference? The projects we do on Wednesdays are specially geared to be accessible to folks of all ability levels! Our guests of honor at each AW@10 are groups of volunteers with intellectual and developmental disabilities from some of our partner organizations like AbilityFirst, ETTA, PassAbility, Partners For Potential, and Arroyo Development Services. At Big Sunday, we firmly believe that everyone has something to give, and that everyone has fun helping others! Anyone and everyone is invited to join us for AW@10, whether it’s with a group or as an individual who wants to help out and hang out with some of the best volunteers in the business. From assembling goodie bags for unhoused people and their dogs to decorating pumpkins for underserved kids at Halloween, there’s always something fun going on at AW@10. This week we will be sorting cloths for donations.
Join Big Sunday for our Thursday Morning at 10am Events
Big Sunday,
nicolo@bigsunday.org,
(323) 549-9944
TM@10 (Thursday Morning @ 10) is not only one of our favorite programs, but it’s one of our most popular, too! Every Thursday morning from 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM, volunteers gather at Big Sunday HQ to work on hands-on projects that help local nonprofits. We’ve assembled birthday gifts for folks in shelters, written letters to soldiers stationed overseas, packed backpacks for ex-gang members starting college, made fleece blankets for shelter kittens, and done about a thousand other fun and meaningful things. In classic Big Sunday fashion, it’s a great way for people to meet new people, work together, and enjoy some laughs while helping someone else. It’s no wonder we have so many regulars who come every single week! We’re regularly joined by groups like AbilityFirst, Partners For Potential, and of course the famous TM Ladies! Projects we’ve worked on have benefited organizations like Covenant House, Carlos Santa Ana Academy, PATH, Exceptional Children’s Foundation, Angelus Plaza, and countless others.
Join Big Sunday for our Food Pantry and Food Fridays @ 10am
Big Sunday,
madison@bigsunday.org,
(323) 549-9944
Big Sunday has given away mountains of food over many years, but now we’re going to make it a weekly event. Our Food Pantry will be open year ‘round and will contain both perishable and non-perishable food. We’re also introducing Food Fridays. Every Friday morning we’ll be open from 10-11:30 to sort and pack food. We’ll also distribute to nonprofits and schools from all over town who will distribute the food to hungry and grateful people in their communities. All ages are welcome. Groups, too! We need volunteers, collectors, donors and sponsors.