volunteer application

By volunteering in any one of these areas, you can become an integral force in helping Assistance Dogs of the West sustain and expand our programs and client outreach. Please consider downloading and mailing in the Volunteer Application, and feel free to call us with any questions you might have.

Your help would be greatly appreciated! Click To Download Application

(Please note that due to the nature of our organization, ADW Volunteers must be 18 years or older.  Those people who are not 18 who are interested in working with ADW are advised to look into our student programs.)

Volunteering Areas:

• General volunteers
• Specialized Skills volunteers (e.g. pro-bono professional services, legal, accounting, design, PR, etc. and instructor/trainer apprenticeships)
• Board, Board Committee and Advisory Council (see Board and Advisory Council Prospectus)
• Puppy Raisers: Focused weekly training course offered by ADW to learn assistance dog management skills in order to take an ADW dog home for weekends. Contact ADW office for more information.

General Volunteers

Volunteers complete an application, come to the initial ADW volunteer orientation, learn more about what we do and then offer volunteer services that are specific to areas of expertise the individuals have.

Time commitment is commensurate with the job or project requirements.

Example Areas: administrative support, fundraising support, marketing/pr support, special events support, newsletter writing support, after school and summer educational program support, “grunt work”: moving, cleaning, inventory, hauling, photography/video support,

Board, Board Committee and Advisory Council (see Board and Advisory Council Prospectus)

ADW regularly seeks really interested people for ADW Board and Board Committee membership (finance, development, program and marketing/pr). These people have experience and expertise in the field and participate in bi-monthly meetings with project work as required.

Puppy Raisers

A possibility for people who have a very strong volunteer desire to actively work with our program (and this requires a small number of people and a large commitment) is applying for, being accepted and taking a one afternoon a week, 4 month long puppy raiser class, learning the training commands for our assistance dogs and then taking an individual puppy home for weekends…helping ADW to socialize our dogs. These are very small and focused classes which begin three times annually and have no more than four participants per class session. See more information on Puppy Raising here.

Specialized Skills Volunteers

Examples: Capital Campaign Planning for an ADW HQ/Training Facility, there is a lot of strategic support required for a campaign of that nature.
Training Curriculum Project: Support development of formal ADW Curriculum package

Instructor/Trainer Apprenticeships

Experienced and committed folks occasionally become apprentice ADW instructor/trainers. These dedicated individuals volunteer time in school programs to learn the ADW training process, the educational curriculum, how it is implemented and learn how help to teach in ADW educational programs.

People interested in volunteer work with ADW can always contact the office for more specifics, or e-mail us at info@assistancedogsofthewest.org

Current Volunteers:

You may download the Volunteer Hours Tracking Form here.