Current opportunities

How to become an IRC volunteer

Thank you for you interest in welcoming refugees to your community. By volunteering with the IRC in Charlottesville, VA, you use your skills to help people who have fled violence and persecution to rebuild their lives in America. See below for the latest volunteer opportunities and how to apply. 

Volunteer process

  1. Familiarize yourself with the IRC and review our current available volunteer positions. Choose 3 that best fit your interests, skills, and schedule.

  2. Complete a volunteer application by following this link. Once your application has been received, the Volunteer Coordinator will contact you regarding upcoming Volunteer Orientation dates within 10 business days. All Volunteer Orientations take place on Zoom.

  3. After you have attended a Volunteer Orientation and your application has been reviewed, you may be selected for a brief phone interview to discuss potential placement options.

  4. Once the interview is confirmed and conducted, successful interviewees will complete the necessary background checks.* To protect our clients, we require background checks for all our volunteers, and we ask volunteers to make a $35 donation to cover associated costs. Currently, 92% of our funding goes directly to our clients, and your help to cover this cost allows us to continue providing the best service possible. This step can add 1-2 weeks to the process, but is typically very fast.

  5. Once cleared, you're ready to get started! Depending on your role, you'll either receive further training from your in-office department or will be invited to attend a tutor training before being matched with a family to tutor and/or mentor.

Additional information

*You must be 18 years or older to volunteer and complete a background check. For High School Opportunities, please email [email protected].

All staff and volunteers are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.  For our purposes, this means two doses of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. At this time, we are not requiring boosters, but do encourage all staff and volunteers to receive a booster if they are eligible.

Most positions require at least a 3 month volunteer commitment with up to 5 hours per week. If this is not feasible for you, please email us about our on-call opportunities.

Please email [email protected] with any questions.