Volunteer Resources

Mentors work one-on-one with asylum seekers based in the DMV. The support mentors offer makes a significant difference in HIAS clients’ comfort in their new communities and capacity to face the many challenges related to and resulting from the legal process.

Mentor and client partner relationships often include:

• Support in navigating the American educational system

• Help in professional networking and/or finding employment

• Assistance in accessing and navigating psychosocial and medical systems and services

English Language Partners are matched with asylum-seeking clients who are seeking to learn or improve their English. Through weekly one-on-one conversational practice, ELPs empower and enable asylum seekers to communicate with their neighbors, employers, and service providers. For clients with little to no English language ability, we require previous English teaching experience or ESOL certification.

*All Long-Term Volunteers are asked to meet with their client partners, once matched, for approximately 2 hours per week for 6 months.

Special Project Volunteers work one-on-one with HIAS Legal Services and Asylee Outreach Project (AOP) clients on goal-oriented projects. Each project is unique – volunteers may help a client apply for a replacement social security card, review a resume, submit job applications, or navigate a specific affordable housing challenge. Projects vary in length from a few days to several weeks.

Social Service Volunteers work with our Social Services team to create, update, and expand our resource guides for clients. Guides help clients easily access resources in the DMV, including housing, financial, medical, and job placement assistance across multiple counties.

Volunteer Interpreters and/or Translators provide language support to legal services clients. Under the direction of HIAS staff, the primary responsibility of the interpreter/translator volunteer is to facilitate accurate, culturally competent, and sensitive communication between non-English-speaking clients and HIAS staff. This volunteer role involves communicating directly with clients and/or handling their sensitive information.

Volunteer Letter Writers write monthly correspondence to asylum seekers in immigration detention, offering them compassion and solidarity. Letter writers must be 18 or older.

Volunteers may drive or travel with clients to appointments (hearings, medical appointments, etc.), provide support, and at times interpret for clients at their appointments. The accompaniment program is an optional component of several roles, as requested by the unique and individual needs of clients: 

• Special Project Volunteer (one-off or short term) 

• Mentorship 

• English Language Partnership 

There is no set time commitment for accompanying a client and you do not have to provide accompaniment as a direct service volunteer. You have the chance to opt in or out of accompaniment at any time.

The HIAS Volunteer Coordinators will have on-going, direct communication with volunteers. Volunteers should reach out to set up regularly occurring meetings at whatever frequency suits them – please note that the minimum check-in frequency is every three months until the six-month check-in meeting. Confidential information about clients will be shared with volunteers on a case-by-case and as-needed basis to protect the privacy of clients.

There are multiple volunteer initiatives which can become sources of support for our volunteer network. These include:

• Volunteer Hours

  • Held each Friday, the volunteer team will be available for any volunteer to contact them for any reason. Volunteer hours are meant for thought partnership on a particular issue, further involvement with HIAS, or any other need for support.

• Ongoing Trainings

  • Held regularly, the volunteer team will conduct specialized trainings on relevant and pertinent topics. These deeper dives will provide clarity on our policies and procedures, discuss best practices, and explain key expectations. You can find details about our trainings and further support through our website (which you’re on!) or by reaching out.

• General Availability

  • The volunteer team is available by email or phone – please reach out directly to the program staff member with whom you have had contact or email DCvolunteer@hias.org/NYCvolunteer@hias.org.

Better Impact is the software we use to manage our volunteer opportunities, roles, and events. Volunteers use it to keep track of registered events, see a visual schedule of monthly events, manage their own profiles and keep them up to date with skills, interests, and personal goals, and track their volunteer hours. Important files and documents may also be uploaded to Better Impact for volunteers to have easy access to them.

When you log in to Better Impact, you should see blue tabs at the top. When you click the tab labelled “HOURS,” you will be at the correct page to log your hours. First, you can select the appropriate activity from the drop down menu (under the bolded words Direct Service Opportunities). Then, select the date and the number of hours you spent with or on behalf of your client partner, or engaged in other volunteer events. Please note that you may have to click “Active” rather than “Recent” next to “Activity” in order to view and log hours for your role.

Logging hours gives us a record of your volunteer time with us. If you need a reference or want to refer back to your volunteer role at HIAS, you will have a log of every activity and meeting you’ve engaged in. Furthermore, logging hours allows us to track the time distributions that work for our volunteers (whether people are generally meeting during the evenings, on a specific day of the week, once a week for 2 hours or split over two days a week, etc.). It helps us monitor the effectiveness of our program and highlight the achievements, accomplishments and dedication of our HIAS volunteers.

This instructional video provides additional guidance on how volunteers can log onto their Better Impact page, sign up for events and activities, log hours, change their profile info, and contact HIAS staff

The Volunteer Program is housed within the Social Services team and operates at HIAS Headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland and at our office in New York City. Please reach out to our team with any questions or concerns at any point in your volunteer experience.

Sheri Laigle, Assistant Director of Social Services | sheri.laigle@hias.org

Caroline Wolinsky, Volunteer Program Manager | caroline.wolinsky@hias.org | (301) 844-7290

Lilly Sandberg, Volunteer Coordinator| lilly.sandberg@hias.org

Cyan Jackson, DC Avodah Corps Member | cyan.jackson@hias.org | (646) 438-0698*

Ella Rosenblatt, NYC Avodah Corps Member | ella.rosenblatt@hias.org*

*This position is occupied by a rotating Avodah Corps Member as part of a year-long fellowship

HIAS volunteers are ambassadors of the agency and its programs in the local community. As such, HIAS holds volunteers accountable to the following expectations, policies, and procedures.

Expectations for Volunteers

• Remind client partners of your meetings at least 24 hours before each meeting and confirm attendance

• If you need to cancel or reschedule a meeting, notify your client at least 48 hours in advance

• Do not miss more than three consecutive meetings without rescheduling at least 48 hours in advance. If you have planned travel or know you will be unavailable for a period of one month or longer, notify your HIAS Volunteer Coordinator

• Do not purchase anything for your client partner

• Keep the Volunteer Coordinator advised of any changes in the situation of the volunteer which might affect the volunteer assignment

• Respond to the HIAS Volunteer Coordinator’s requests for check-ins and feedback within a reasonable window of time

• Be sensitive and aware when engaging with your HIAS client partner. Honesty, reliability, respecting a client’s privacy, and maintaining confidentiality are crucial in the refugee resettlement process.

Expectations for Volunteer Program Coordinator

• Provide requested resources when possible

• Present effective and thoughtfully planned volunteer trainings to volunteers

• Provide sound and ongoing guidance and direction to all volunteers

• Design or supplement additional resources or trainings based on volunteer requests or feedback

• Respond promptly to requests for assistance

Best Practices for a Positive & Generative Volunteer/Client Relationship

Encourage Self Sufficiency

In any service, interaction, or appointment, always encourage self-sufficiency. It might feel helpful or more efficient to do tasks for the client, but it is always better to do tasks with the client. Your efforts should educate and empower the client. We encourage you to draw healthy boundaries. The client should learn how to complete tasks independently so they can remain in control of their own life. Help establish a lifestyle for the client that can be maintained without your assistance.

Understand Strengths

Your client partner is the best person to make decisions that affect their life. Be careful not to interpret a lack of English language skills as a lack of experience or capability. Always try to think about asylum seekers through a strength-based lens, instead of focusing on roadblocks or challenges. Create tangible goals with the client that tap into their strengths, and work towards their short-term goals and long-term aspirations.

Be Aware: Trauma-Informed Care

Many HIAS clients have experienced trauma associated with threats, violence and persecution in their home countries. Forced migration for our clients and their loved ones constitutes an added layer of trauma and loss, and may manifest in a relationship in different ways. Trauma affects an individual’s physical, emotional, cognitive and spiritual well-being and outlook. Some behaviors associated with trauma may include:

• Excessive fear and worry

• Avoidance and withdrawal

• Sadness and hopelessness

• Physical symptoms and impaired immunity

Helpful responses to trauma include:

• Being consistent and predictable

• Listening and offer non-judgmental support

• Following your partner’s pacing

• Creating a calm space

• Practicing self-care

If you are concerned about a particular client partner at any time, please contact a HIAS volunteer coordinator. We respectfully request that you not ask your client partner about the particulars of their legal case and/or their experience of persecution. If a client feels comfortable enough to share details of their legal case and/or their experience of persecution, practice empathetic listening whenever possible rather than shutting down uncomfortable conversations, and be honest about your own limitations with your client partner.

Find Balance between Cultural Environments 

Asylum seekers come from a variety of cultures, traditions, legal systems, family structures and living conditions that may conflict with their new environment in the United States. Sometimes families need to make considerable modifications to their ways of life in new and unexpected ways. It is important to respect their culture and tradition, while still ensuring that they understand their new environment and its rules and policies (e.g. laws, leases, contracts, bill payments, expectations around child protection, etc.).

Set Realistic Goals

Both you and your client partner will approach your relationship with a set of expectations. Remember to meet the client partner where they are. Be open to the type of relationship that may be formed, and be patient with your partner and with yourself. Approaching your relationship with humility, openness, and understanding will yield the best chances of a strong, meaningful connection.

Be Mindful of Privilege and Vulnerability

In forming a relationship with a HIAS partner, it is important to consider your association as a HIAS volunteer and the space that both you and your partner occupy in your identities. Racial, linguistic, educational, socioeconomic, and other factors impact your partner’s perspectives about your role and capacity for social leverage. Centering activities around identified goals and your partner’s needs and requests will help you engage with your partner mindfully and respectfully. Always reach out to a Volunteer Coordinator with any questions or concerns about your relationship with your partner.

Be aware of potential situations in which a client partner may feel compelled or obligated to act outside of their comfort zone out of a perceived need to meet your expectations or those of other volunteers. For example, expressing a strong preference to meet in person may place your partner in the position of balancing the health and safety of their family while trying to meet their volunteer’s expectations and wishes. Consider the purpose and goal of the function and how it would benefit your client partner before proposing any activity. Furthermore, HIAS volunteers are asked to refrain from purchasing any items for their partner, including buying coffees or snacks during meetings, or inviting a client partner for meetings at your home (a neutral meeting place, like a public library, is a great option!). If clients request in-kind donations, volunteers can (with the client’s permission) share this with a HIAS Volunteer Coordinator.

Your client partner may or may not have work authorization. They may choose to share this information with you during a meeting or as you work together on career readiness. Be cognizant that a client’s lack of work authorization may affect the kinds of mock interviews or job application materials you work on collaboratively. Finally, romantic or sexual relationships of any kind between volunteers and clients are expressly prohibited.

Record Volunteer Time and Donations

Throughout your time as a volunteer, it is important to track your volunteer hours and donations as directed and instructed by HIAS staff. Please note that all material donations are tax deductible. HIAS staff can provide tax receipts upon request.

If you are concerned about the safety of your client partner or their loved ones outside of office hours, or you have reason to believe your client partner is in immediate danger, please contact the appropriate emergency services as listed below. While we ask that you contact your Volunteer Coordinator in the event of any emergency, we recognize that we may not be able to provide an immediate response, particularly outside of office hours. Please note that these numbers are shared by our staff with all of our Social Services clients, and you are not expected to provide crisis intervention services as part of your role as a HIAS volunteer. However, these resources are provided here in the event that an unexpected emergency should arise.

National Mental Health and Crisis Hotlines 

National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline  | 9-8-8 (call, text or chat) | 988lifeline.org

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (Options for Deaf and Hard of Hearing) | 711 (or preferred relay service), then dial 9-8-8

National Domestic Violence Hotline | (800) 799-7233 (SAFE)

Domestic Violence Support | thehotline.org

National Sexual Assault Hotline | (800) 656-4673 (HOPE)

RAINN National Human Trafficking Hotline | 1-888-373-7888/text 233733

Trevor Project Hotline (LGBTQIA+ youth support) | 1-866-488-7386/text 678

Maryland Crisis Hotline | 1-800-422-0009 or 9-8-8

DC Access Helpline | 1-888-793-4357 (7-WE-HELP)

Virginia Mental Health Hotline | 1-866-903-3787

Baltimore Crisis Response: 410-433-5175

Baltimore County Crisis Response: 410-931-2214

Montgomery County Crisis Center: 240-777-4000

DC Rape Crisis Center: 202-333-RAPE

DC Safe Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-844-443-5732 or 1-800-407-5048

Virginia LGBTQ+ Helpline (24 hour): 1-866-356-6998/text 1-804-793-9999

If you become aware of any behavior by HIAS staff or volunteers, or otherwise would like to raise any other complaint, please direct them to the Volunteer Coordinator. If the Volunteer Coordinator is the subject of the report, please direct the report to the Volunteer Coordinator’s supervisor, the Volunteer Program Manager. You may also submit reports to ethics@hias.org or visit our webpage: https://www.hias.org/ethics

Frequently Asked Questions

Because the immigration and asylum legal process is specific and complicated, the wait time for clients varies, often dramatically. Our clients may fall under one of several categories: asylum seeker, humanitarian parolee, SIJ (special immigrant juvenile), TPS (temporary protected status) holder, & more. They may be applying for asylum either affirmatively or defensively. They may have been in immigration detention at a point in their immigration journey, or they may have another legal issue come up at some point while waiting for their claim to be adjudicated. Complicating things further, the Biden administration recently announced several large changes to asylum policy, including a policy whereby asylum seekers who most recently submitted applications are heard earlier than those who have been in the backlog, which has now reached almost 2 million asylum seekers. All of these factors and more affect our client’s asylum timeline. Please be assured that our immigration attorneys have years of wisdom and knowledge, and they are effective legal advocates for their clients. For more information about asylum backlogs, please click here.

Similar to our answer about asylum wait times, a person’s specific legal status, history of detention, and their filing timeline, the wait time for an asylum seeker to receive their work permit varies. Asylum seekers are prohibited from applying for their work permit for at least 180 days after they file their asylum claim, and many asylum seekers face further delays. Our clients work with their attorney to get their work permits as soon as possible for their individual timeline. If your client partner has questions or frustrations regarding their work permit wait time, they should consult their attorney.

When a HIAS volunteer is paired with a client partner for long-term direct service, they commit to a working relationship of six months. At the end of six months, the Volunteer Coordinator will schedule a check-in meeting, during which both the volunteer and client partner will provide feedback. Following the six month meeting, the volunteer may choose to: 1) continue working with the same client partner, 2) close the current experience and ask to be matched with a new partner, or 3) stop volunteering at HIAS altogether.

There is only one scenario in which a volunteer would need to be retrained. If a volunteer has attended the mandatory training session and been onboarded but they do not match with a client and instead continue to wait in the pool of volunteers for a period of over one year, we ask that they participate in or watch the most recent volunteer training in order to understand how the volunteer program has evolved or changed.

Although we expect you to commit to at least six months of service, we recognize that unexpected circumstances may occur that impact your availability. Sometimes life happens, and you can no longer meet with your partner. If this is the case, the first step is to reach out to the Volunteer Coordinator before reaching out to your partner. Make sure that your partner knows that they are not the reason you can no longer work with them. Be transparent about your reason for ending the relationship and be honest about your capacity for remaining in contact. Encourage your partner to reach out to the Volunteer Coordinator if they are interested in being matched with a new volunteer. If you are worried about how your partner will respond to you leaving, please reach

Quite possibly! We center the Volunteer Program around the wellbeing of our clients, so we ask you to follow their lead. Many of the asylum seekers that we serve must work in person and often do not have consistent, reliable access to health care. If your client partner expresses a desire to meet in person, you are welcome to do so. If they appear uncomfortable at the mention of in-person meetings or explicitly say that they would like their meetings to take place virtually, we ask you to accommodate those wishes. If you feel strongly one way or the other, please let the Volunteer Services team know. We will do our best to accommodate your preferences by matching you with a client who feels similarly. Please note that making these requests may extend the wait time for a match.

We know that you have dedicated many hours to HIAS as a volunteer and we are so appreciative of your dedication to supporting our work. Because of the nature of the work that we do and HIAS’ needs-based approach to direct service, we cannot guarantee that you will match with a client within a specific time frame. Clients are referred to the volunteer program by the social services team or their attorney. The Volunteer Coordinator meets with the client to determine their specific needs and goals. We then look through our volunteer cohort and decide on a match based on the volunteer’s specific skills and experiences, such as one’s job or fluency in the client’s native language. This could happen two weeks from the general training, or sometimes months, depending on clients’ needs and how many referrals we receive.

This is a very common challenge that asylum seekers face – HIAS attorneys are very diligent about filing for clients’ work authorization, but there is an average wait time of several months. Unfortunately, there is nothing HIAS attorneys can do to expedite the process.

Here are some ways you can work with your client as they await their work authorization:

You can work with your partner to identify what their career goals are, and set them up to hit the ground running when their authorization arrives. That could involve doing research on certain fields together, working on application materials such as a resume and form cover letter, arranging for informational interviews in relevant fields, or gathering materials like references, proof of address, etc.

Your client partner may confide in you that they are unhappy with the conditions in their current job. Everyone, regardless of ability to work in US legally, has resources if they’ve been mistreated in their workplace, and you can share those with your partner. That includes the Legal Aid Society in New York and the Workers’ Rights Clinic in DC.

You can guide them towards jobs that may be a good fit for someone who is new to the US, and can help them figure out where to look and what questions to ask of potential employers to set themselves up for good temporary employment (for example, inquiring about consistent hours, method and frequency of payment, and safety measures in the work environment.) Jobs that may be a good fit include: childcare or home care provider, salon technician, auto mechanic, home repair, food service or delivery worker.

My partner is struggling to find housing:

We are working on developing a resource guide for partners to help their clients find housing! In the meantime, please reach out to HIAS volunteer program staff and we can share resources and provide guidance.

My partner is struggling to set realistic goals:

The work you’re engaged in with your client partner may be slow going! Goals like becoming fluent in English, getting a job like the one they had in their country of origin, or building a new community take a long time to achieve, and working towards them with no smaller intermediary goals may make both you and your partner grow frustrated. It’s important to set goals that allow both of you to see the process you are making.

You can use this worksheet to set general goals with your client partner, and this worksheet to set goals with your partner if you are focusing on English Language learning.

My partner and I are facing communication barriers:

When working with an interpreter, when speaking in a language that is not one of your first languages, or when you’re getting to know each other, it may take some time to begin comfortably communicating with your partner. This is normal, and silence and pauses are okay. Your partner may not be particularly talkative, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want to work with you. In addition to getting comfortable with silence, you can come with topics for discussion prepared, while understanding that your partner likely has their reasons for their communication style that likely are not about you and more about their set of experiences and cultural norms. If you are concerned that your client partner is not comfortable with you after several meetings, you can ask a member of the volunteer program staff to check in with them and check in about how they’re feeling in your match.

If you have questions about best practices as a volunteer interpreter or translator, you can take a look at our Interpretation and Translation handbook