At Lazarus House, we rely on volunteers 24 hours/day, 365 days/year. We simply couldn’t survive without your help.

Each year, approximately 1,900 volunteers have provided up to 19,000 hours of service to help us keep our doors open and serve our community.

Whether you’re an individual who simply wants to give back, or a community group looking for an impactful service project, we need you.

Won’t you join us in our mission to give people in need a helping hand up?

How You Can Help

• Overnight volunteer at our emergency shelter
• Be a daytime household volunteer
• Offer child care while parents attend on-site classes
• Help plan and coordinate our special events
• Provide office support, including mailings
• Fundraising
• Have an idea not on this list? Talk to us and let’s make it happen!

Special Volunteer Needs

Our two most needed Volunteer Opportunities:

• Overnighter Volunteers: Individuals (ages 21+) provide back-up to Lazarus House staff at night in the case of an emergency. You are provided a private room with a bed, access to a private bathroom, and are only awakened if an emergency situation arises.
• Dinner Preparations: We need individuals, groups or families to prepare meals off-site, and bring them in hot and ready to serve at dinner time, by 6:00pm.

We also need meals for freezing to supplement our times of extra need.

Other Volunteer Opportunities:

• Tutoring: We need individuals to help tutor children with homework and tutor adults preparing for the GED; or diverse language speakers to translate.
• Professional Services: We need business professionals to provide services such as haircuts, medical and dental care, personal accounting, counseling, job training, and to teach life skill classes to adults (such as job search skills or budgeting).
• Fun Events: We need help planning and orchestrating meaningful moments for our Guests, such as birthday celebrations or family game nights.
• Sack Lunches
  Schedule a date with Megan to make up to 20 sack lunches off-site and deliver them to Lazarus House. Pack a sandwich, chips, fruit, cookie/granola bar and water, juice box or sports drink. Please keep all the sandwiches and fruit together so our staff can put them right into the fridge.

Family & Service Group Opportunities

We welcome volunteers to help with special projects. Contact our Volunteer Coordinator at volunteer@lazarushouse.net or call 630-587-2144 to schedule an activity.

Some ideas are listed below:

• Craft Night/Game Night
  Coordinate a fun craft activity or plan a game or two for a group. Please bring all the supplies needed. A few craft ideas are beading, painting/watercolors, canvas embroidery or decoupage. We welcome your creativity, so let us know if you have another activity in mind. Consider providing some healthy treats too!
• Nacho Bar
  Provide and prepare all the fixings and set up a tasty nacho bar in the kitchen area. Be a part of the fiesta and dine with our guests. Please also allow time for clean-up.
• Cleaning Crew
  Come ready to mop, wash, scrub and sanitize so the house feels squeaky clean. All cleaning supplies will be provided, but please bring extra mops, buckets, rags and paper towels.
• Corporate Volunteer Service Days
  We invite your business to plan a service day with us. E-mail the Volunteer Coordinator to discuss details.