Needs From: United Way of the Lakeshore

How it works

Every day, sighted volunteers lend their eyes to solve tasks big and small to help blind and low-vision people lead more independent lives.

Blind or low-vision person requests assistance

As a blind or low-vision person, whenever you need visual assistance, our volunteers are happy to help. Through the live video call, you and a volunteer can communicate directly and solve a problem. The volunteer will help guide which direction to point your camera, what to focus on or when to turn on your torch.

Sighted volunteer receives a video call

As a sighted volunteer you can help just by installing the Be My Eyes app. A blind or a low-vision user may need help with anything from checking expiry dates, distinguishing colors, reading instructions or navigating new surroundings.

 

Download for iOS (Apple Products) Download for Android 

Digital Fraud Fighter

Digital Fraud Fighters are volunteers that will utilize fraud content shared by the AARP National Fraud Team to broadcast information across a multitude of digital platforms. Digital Fraud Fighters will help raise awareness of the latest scams targeting people of all ages with an emphasis on the 50+.

While the minimum expected time requirement is only 1-2 hours a week, you are invited to share as much content as you choose while you are online.

Reliable phone, internet access, and an email address are required.

Organized By:AARP

Contact:FWN@aarp.org, Jeff Abramo

About 7 Cups

We live in a world where you can be surrounded by people, but still feel lonely, with nobody to turn to when things get rough.

But being heard is an important part of being human. Psychologist, Glen Moriarty saw that there was great power in listening, but he knew not everyone had someone to talk to. He started to wonder. “How can I make being heard a reality for everyone?”

That’s why 7 Cups was born.

Thanks to thousands of volunteer listeners stepping up to lend a friendly ear, 7 Cups is happy to say, “We’re here for you!”

No matter who you are or what you’re going through, this is a place where you’ll be heard and cared for. We might be strangers on the surface, but underneath we’re just the friends you haven’t met yet.

Chat online with caring listeners

Need to talk to someone? Our trained volunteer listeners are available 24/7 to give emotional support over online chat.

It’s anonymous and completely free.

When you need someone to talk to, we’re here to listen and help you feel better.

We are building a world-class listening service made up of compassionate, caring individuals like you. Thank you for offering to lend an ear to those in need of support. How does it work?

Getting started as an active listener is easy and rewarding in many ways. You’re in complete control over your displayed availability, so you can listen as often as you like.

Here is the two-step registration process: Complete the active listening course - Course takes about 30 minutes after your profile is set up.  Create your listener profile

Sign Up Today! 

Volunteers can serve as narrators, listeners and quality assurance volunteers. Narrators are asked to use their voice talent to bring juvenile fiction books to life, or they can also record high school and college level textbooks. Auditions are required. Listeners will provide feedback to narrators, highlight issues with fluency and tone, audio quality, and more. Finally, quality assurance volunteers will perform a final check to ensure the audiobooks will provide an enjoyable experience to the recipient.

Join the Learning Ally Volunteer Nation

Become part of our team and empower dyslexic, blind, and visually impaired students to succeed in school, and in life. Whether you have a lot of time or just a few minutes, there are meaningful ways you can help students who struggle to read, learn, and thrive. Please join us.

Help Make our Audiobooks

You can help us produce audiobooks! Volunteer opportunities include:

Narrators

Do you have a friendly voice? Use your voice talent to bring juvenile fiction books to life! If you are a subject matter expert, we also record high school and college level textbooks. Auditions required.

Listeners

Do you love audiobooks? You could be a good “Listener” for Learning Ally and help us deliver a positive audiobook experience for students. You can listen to juvenile and popular fiction or use your subject area expertise to listen to textbooks. You'll provide feedback to narrators, highlight issues with fluency and tone, mispronunciations, and audio quality.

Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance (QA) is the final step in the process of creating an audiobook. In a nutshell, it means playing our books back just like our students will, and checking for anything that interferes with enjoyable reading experience.

Click Here To Get Started! 

The Ancestry World Archives Project has allowed thousands of people around the world help to preserve history that would otherwise be lost. Would you like to give back to the genealogy community? Would you like to help families discover more of their stories and share them with future generations?

We welcome whatever contribution your time and circumstances allow.  It’s as easy as 1-2-3!

 Login using your Ancestry.com user account or register here. Download the World Archives Keying Tool here. Select which collection of records you would like to work on and follow the simple instructions to help create the index.

These indexes are then made available to the public for FREE.

Do you want to be notified when new record collections become available to key or when completed projects are published for searching?  Become a fan on Facebook or follow us on Twitter!

 

Digital Volunteers Smithsonian Digital Volunteers at a Wikipedia Editathon

The Smithsonian benefits from the work of thousands of passionate volunteers who support the organization on-site in our museums, zoo, and other facilities.

Today, digital technology makes it possible for people who believe in the Smithsonian mission to make significant contributions online. "Digital Volunteers" can now take on important assignments to expand access to the Smithsonian's massive collections, and can participate in a variety of research programs. Some roles require special knowledge or skill, but many do not.

Selected opportunities are described below.

Smithsonian Transcription Center

Launched in July 2013, the Smithsonian Transcription Center seeks to engage the public in making our collections more accessible. Citizen scholars are invited to transcribe historic documents including diaries and working papers of prominent Americans and records associated with the Smithsonian's vast scientific collections. Transcription makes these important materials more accessible to researchers around the world, as well as the general public.

To date, more than ten thousand citizen scholars have come to the Transcription Center and engaged with the wide array of documents posted there by Smithsonian archivists and curators—from field notebooks surveying snakes and reptiles in South Dakota in 1894 to the diaries of Leo Baekeland, the American chemist and founder of the modern plastics industry.

To learn more about this opportunity and get involved as a citizen scholar, visit the Smithsonian Transcription Center.

Smithsonian Wikipedian Volunteer Program

The Smithsonian seeks digital volunteers to assist in contributing content to Wikipedia related to our collections and areas of expertise. Improving the quality and quantity of reliable information on Wikipedia, as well as usage of Smithsonian resources on the site, helps meet our mission, the "increase and diffusion of knowledge." We seek experienced and motivated Wikipedia editors who are technically proficient in both the software and the norms of the Wikimedia community. To find out more about how to become a Wikipedia volunteer for the Smithsonian, visit the Smithsonian Institution's WikiProject.