Service Opportunities From: North Carolina Central University

If you have experience with grant writing or you are serious about wanting to learn and make a difference for a local non-profit serving Durham youth, this may be an opportunity for you.

We are currently working to assemble a team of three people to be a part of our Grant WriteHERs team. The responsibilities would center around researching and submitting grants. We need grants to support summer camp, college readiness, extracurricular learning, literacy and general programming. 

Our organization has been impacted by shifts in DEI policies as we are a gender-centric organization focused on girls. As a result, our grant efforts and focus are changing. We can use a small team of individuals who understand the landscape and would be serious about helping us pursue funding.

The vision is for each of the individuals on this team to submit one grant per quarter for a team total of 12 grant submittals per year. 

In terms of the work itself, everything would be remote, with anticipated zooms about every 4-6 weeks just to be sure that everyone has what they need, we have the grants prioritized based on due dates, etc and that the work is distributed equitably.

If you are a strong writer and you want to contribute your efforts toward the ongoing progress of a grassroots  non-profit serving girls in the Durham community, let's connect!

For the past 3 years, we have held a silent auction in the Fall to raise funds for our general programming. This funding is super important to us, especially as we've seen financial impacts from DEI policy shifts, since we are program for girls. So...this year we are gearing up for our auction and we could use some extra support.

Here's basically what's involved. We need people to help us with the following:

1. Donors and Deliveries - so we have a good list of people who have donated to us in the past. Now we just have to reach out to all of them to see if they're willing to donate to us again. Plus if we think of new donors that we can reach out to as well. This team is responsible for getting the item from the donor and then making sure it is delivered after the auction is over. Right now, we just have 2 people on this team and we need 5. We would LOVE to have some Eagle support on this one!

2. Technology - The auction itself has to be built into a platform we have called ClickBid. We have a high school student who worked on this last year, and she's going to help again, along with an adult from our board, but here again...we could use 1-2 more folks to make these inputs easier and not such a big lift for our student, who is amazing btw!

3. Communications and Marketing - if you are a wiz with canva or marketing type stuff, we could definitely use a hand with some organized marketing initiatives that center around social and mass emails, plus any other ideas you might have to help us spread the word. We could probably use another 2-3 people on this team.

Anyway, that's the long and short. We try to star the auction on the same day as we have our Welcome Picnic, which this year is 9/19. So that means we would have a good amount to do between now and then. The auction lasts for one week. And then there's the deliveries. So bottom line, this opportunity would be completely done probably no later than mid-October.

If you're an Eagle looking for a dive-in-and-out volunteer opportunity and you would love to help raise some funds for a grassroots non-profit like ours...please reach out! We would so love to have your help and support and learn from you, too! 

The Durham Book Club is a part of StrongHER TogetHER that brings 5th-8th grade students together to read books April - July. The season has just ended but will crank up again around October as a team of student leaders start getting together to pick books for the 2027 season. The student leaders pick the books and plan activities for in person sessions. The adult leaders oversee this, manage registrations in Jan-Feb, deliver books in March and coordinate / attend the book sessions April - July. The busiest time for this opportunity is really Jan-May.

Bottom line, this one is in a quiet moment now, but it should crank up again in a couple of months. Oh also...the leaders do a combination of text/email planning, occasional zooms and we have gone to dinner a couple of times, too. 

If this sounds like an opportunity for you, reach out! We would love to have you on the Durham Book Club Leadership Team!

VillageHERs is an initiative that is a part of StrongHER TogetHER. Through VillageHERs, we provide funding to girls in our program for extracurricular learning. We pay for their activities, equipment and supplies and transportation as needed. This program is run by a leadership team of about 5 people. We recently had a couple of folks to rotate off after 3 years with us. So we need to replace them.

The VillageHERs leadership team plans two in person lunches a year for the mentees, their families and their mentors. One lunch is in the early fall and the other is in May. Outside of that, they work to be sure that the mentor / mentee pairings are "working" and communicating throughout the school year. And most folks on the leadership team also manage the administration, ie signing kids up for activities, ordering what they need, etc. The team also organizes a zoom at the start of the season to orient mentors, mentees and families prior to the lunch and there is a mid-year zoom in December that the team also leads. The leadership team zooms together to plan things out, and the frequency tends to depend on the time of year. ie just before lunches, we might meet every two weeks, but after the lunches are over, it could be once a month. Just to give you an idea.

If you are looking for an experience where leadership and initiative are key AND you're working for a program whose mission you believe in, ie helping these girls have opportunities outside of school to pursue their interests, passions and curiosities...then this may be a great fit for you! Thanks for your interest, Eagles! 

We almost have enough volunteers for this need. If you would be excited to help our program, please take a look at some of the other opportunities posted! We have quite a few. Thanks, Eagles!

One of the biggest obstacles to participation in activities outside of school for many youth is transportation. To address this for our participants, the StrongHER TogetHER Driver Pool assists youth with transportation needs to our program's activities and/or extracurricular learning activities that are funded through our program. We typically try to maintain a pool of about five drivers. When opportunities arise to assist the students, we send out a group text with the details to see who is available to help.

Priority for participation in the pool is given to drivers who have been licensed for 3+ years. Drivers in the pool must complete a background check, a DMV check, and provide proof of a valid license and insurance information. This is a paid position with a time commitment of ~6-10 hours per month. We are posting this as an urgent need as we typically have 5 people in our driver pool, however many have recently moved or graduated, leaving us with vacancies as we enter the school year. Thank you for considering if this opportunity is a fit for you!

As a ST Group Co-Leader, you will help organize and lead activities for a group of 6-10 Durham girls representing various schools, backgrounds, cultures, and socioeconomics. All group leaders must complete a background check, participate in the Stewards of Light online training, and review and sign a Child Safety Policy form. Position available as current leaders rotate off. Time commitment: Every 4-6 weeks on weekends for about 2 hour activities. Access to a car will make this volunteer opportunity easier.

Responsibilities include (1) researching and planning activities, (2) communicating with families, (3) leading activities and (4) post-activity administration, ie activity overviews, social media, etc.

We currently have volunteer vacancies for our 5th, 7th and 11th grade groups. If you enjoy mentoring and hanging out with younger girls to do anything from have ice cream in a park to roller skating to community service projects or organizing talks with amazing leaders in our area....this is a fun volunteer opportunity for you. The only thing we ask is that you are good with prioritizing this commitment to the girls. In the past, we have struggled a bit with leaders who don't plan activities, wait until the last minute to communicate plans with families and cancel in the 11th hour. We are working hard to give these girls and their families a consistent, strong, fun and inspirational support system via our volunteer Group Leaders. If this sounds like something that you would be excited to do, please reach out. We are still in need of about four leaders to help us as the school year begins. Thanks Eagles...You're the BEST!