Start 2025 by giving back to Fort Worth: Here’s where to volunteer
If one of your Near Year’s resolutions is to spend time giving back to your community, there’s no shortage of opportunities to help your neighbors in Fort Worth.
A resolution to volunteer more in 2025 could help in lots of ways. Numerous nonprofit groups in Fort Worth depend on the time and energy of volunteers to serve the community. And volunteering could also help your own mental and physical health, too. Last year, the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy warned the nation about an epidemic of loneliness. Too many Americans, Murthy said, were socially isolated and not spending enough time with loved ones or community members. That isolation, in turn, had a profound negative impact on their physical and mental health.
Volunteering with an organization is one of multiple ways to decrease loneliness, while also making Fort Worth a stronger community.
Find some opportunities to volunteer in Fort Worth below. Does your organization need volunteers? Do you have other suggestions for this list? Email cmccarthy@star-telegram.com or call or text 817-203-4391 and we’ll add your opportunity to the list.
Share a meal, and a smile, with Meals on Wheels
Meals on Wheels needs volunteers who can deliver meals to clients throughout the county. Volunteers usually deliver meals for about one hour, one day each week, said Philip Gonzalez, spokesperson for Meals on Wheels of Tarrant County. Meals on Wheels tries to assign volunteers a delivery route close to where the volunteer lives, he said.
“All of our volunteers play a pretty vital role as far as the wellness of our clients and making sure that the clients get a nice smile every day,” Gonzalez said.
In addition to delivering meals, volunteers check on the clients to make sure they’re doing OK, Gonzalez said. A typical volunteer route delivers meals to between five and eight homes, he said. Volunteers are essential to Meals on Wheels’ ability to keep its clients fed, and are the reason why Meals on Wheels of Tarrant County has no waiting list.
You can also volunteer to deliver pet food for clients’ pets once a month, or you can sign up for Meals on Wheels’ “Friend to Friend” program. That program allows Meals on Wheels’ clients to spend time each week with a volunteer in a social setting.
Interested volunteers can learn more and sign up on the organization’s website.
Help a domestic violence survivor at SafeHaven
At SafeHaven, Tarrant County’s only state-designated family violence center, volunteers help women and children who have survived domestic violence feel safe and at home.
The greatest need is for volunteers at the organization’s emergency shelters in Fort and in Arlington, said Chelsea Derbyshire, SafeHaven’s community engagement coordinator. At the shelters’ programs for children, volunteers can play with the kids, help them with homework, and engage in other activities to keep them occupied and entertained. The shelters typically house about 150 women and children at any given time, and usually about half of the shelters’ residents are children, Derbyshire said.
Volunteers can also help adults in the shelter through its client service center by doing anything from answering the phone to helping a survivor get something she might need.
Volunteers must complete a background check and undergo training before beginning their volunteer opportunity. Most volunteers complete at least 20 hours of service every six months. Men are allowed and encouraged to volunteer, Derbyshire said, and can be particularly helpful for children who would benefit from a positive male role model.
Groups of volunteers can also sign up to cook and serve meals at one of the shelters.
The work of volunteers is critical to SafeHaven’s work, Derbyshire said. Volunteers allow staff to quickly respond to emergencies.
“Our volunteers really free up our staff to respond to those things that our staff is trained to do,” Derbyshire said.
In total, between 1,500 and 2,000 women and children will stay at SafeHaven throughout the year, said Micah Thompson, Safe Haven’s director of communications.
You can learn more and sign up at SafeHaven’s website.
Advocate for children in foster care with CASA of Tarrant County
Those who are looking to work with kids should consider volunteering with CASA of Tarrant County, which advocates for children in the state’s foster care system.
CASA requires about 33 hours of training, but most volunteers have a full-time job and fit in the work with their schedule, said Natalie Stalmach, the chief development officer for CASA of Tarrant County. Volunteers usually work between five and 10 hours per month, Stalmach said.
When a child advocate is involved, children are more likely to return to their families, Stalmach said. But not every child in foster care has a CASA advocate, because there simply not enough volunteers to work with every child in foster care.
“Kids have better outcomes in Tarrant County when they have a CASA volunteer,” Stalmach said.
Of the Tarrant County children who had a CASA volunteer and and left foster care last year, 93% found a permanent family, and 64% with their own families, Stalmach said, an outcome that has shown to have lifelong physical and mental health benefits for the child. Of children without a volunteer, 86% found a permanent home, and 58% were reunited with family.
“We think every child in foster care in Tarrant County county should have those outcomes,” Stalmach said. “We just don’t have enough volunteers.”
Advocates work with the child’s case manager and attorney, both of whom are appointed by the state, to ensure the child or sibling group is getting the care and resources they need.
Although working as an advocate might seem intimidating, Stalmach noted that it’s many of the same skills people use in their daily life.
You can learn more and sign up on CASA’s website.
Drive a client in need or tutor refugees for Catholic Charities Fort Worth
Catholic Charities Fort Worth provides a range of services to those in need in Tarrant County, and likewise has multiple volunteer opportunities.
Volunteer drivers can provide rides to clients so they can get to work, doctor’s appointments, and other meetings, said Kelly Smith, the organization’s volunteer specialist, in an email. Those interested can sign up for a three-hour shift during the week, and must commit to volunteer for three months.
Catholic Charities also has a high need for English literacy tutoring for children and adult refugees. The nonprofit is looking for volunteers to tutor small groups or individual refugee students in elementary and high school. Volunteers would read with students and guide them through lessons. Volunteers typically commit to one session per week for at least one semester. Volunteers can also work with adults providing online or in-person ESL tutoring. These volunteers commit to at least two hour per week for at least three months.
Catholic Charities has additional volunteer and educational opportunities available across its different programs.
You can fill out the online application to become a volunteer on Catholic Charities’s website.
Help a neighbor file their taxes and advocate for those in long-term care with United Way of Tarrant County
The United Way of Tarrant County is recruiting volunteers who want to help Tarrant County families file their income taxes for free through its Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program, Deanna Titzler, the group’s executive vice president and chief spokesperson, said in an email. Volunteers can work as a certified tax preparer, a runner and office assistant, a savings ambassador, an intake specialist, a quality reviewer or as an interpreter. Volunteers can work at 12 sites throughout Tarrant County from late January through April.
Volunteers can also advocate for residents of long-term care facilities by working as an ombudsman. The United Way of Tarrant County provides the necessary training to become an ombudsman. Ombudspeople work to support those living in long-term care facilities and to advocate on their before. Volunteers can also support older adults by working as a senior Medicare patrol member, who help Medicare beneficiaries learn how to keep their personal information safe and to avoid scams and fraud.
You can find more volunteer opportunities and sign up on the United Way of Tarrant County’s website.
This story was originally published January 7, 2025 at 11:58 AM.
