Community Inclusion Services

San Diego Humane Society is proud to have volunteers who participate in our programs with the assistance of an independence facilitator. That facilitator can sometimes be hired through an agency or can be a close friend or family member.

Individuals Volunteering with a Facilitator

To learn more about the tasks we need most help with, please click here and then select the location where you’d like to volunteer.

Because our volunteer program is incredibly independent, we want our volunteers to be supported by someone who is fully trained in the volunteer guidelines and expectations. For that reason, we ask the following:

• Both members of the facilitated team must submit an online volunteer application.
• Facilitators will complete all required online and in-person trainings to volunteer alongside the volunteer.
• Both members of the team must be on the schedule for all shifts they will be volunteering together.
• We are not able to guarantee a set schedule or a specific quantity of hours. Shifts are posted a month at a time, and volunteers sign up for any open shifts that meet their availability. On average, volunteers sign up for two or three shifts a month, each about two hours long.
• If an existing facilitator needs to be replaced, there may be a pause in the volunteer’s service while a new facilitator is trained. The new facilitator will need to complete the required onboarding steps prior to serving their first shift. Agencies or individuals can email [email protected] to arrange setting up a new facilitator.

Facilitator Led Groups

We have limited availability for recurring service groups of one or more facilitators supporting multiple volunteers. Tasks typically include projects like helping with dishes, laundry, making enrichment items, or bagging food for community distribution.

We currently have availability for inclusion groups at the following locations:

• El Cajon Campus

If you are looking to volunteer as an Inclusion group, please email [email protected] to inquire about getting started.

Please keep in mind the following expectations:

• All facilitators and supported individuals will submit a volunteer application.
• Facilitators must complete all required trainings to volunteer alongside the individuals.
• Supported individuals may or may not be asked to complete required trainings, depending on capabilities and determined jointly by the facilitator and Volunteer Engagement.
• If the makeup of your group changes (new facilitators or new supported individuals), there may be a pause in the group’s service while new members are caught up on required trainings. Please email [email protected] to arrange setting up a change in the group makeup.
• In order to provide service opportunities to the many organizations in our community who request to volunteer with us, we typically offer inclusion groups up to three months of shifts. At the end of that time, they are welcome to be added back to our waitlist and we will contact them when we have another opening in our group rotation schedule.