- Program Leads
- About
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- SFU Student Opportunities
- Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver: Group Mentor | Tues
- School's Out: Empower MEdia Mentor | Tues or Thurs
- Bridge Program: Program Activator | Various
- Homework Club: Learning Mentor | Wed
- Racing Readers: Program Volunteer | Tues or Wed
- Book Buddies: Literacy Mentor | Tues or Thurs
- English Conversation Groups: Facilitator (Virtual) | Tues
- Pathways to Education: Volunteer Tutor | Various
- English Conversational Club: Facilitator (Virtual) | Tues or Thurs
- Learning Buddies: Mentor (Virtual) | Various
- Learning Buddies: Mentor | Tues & Thurs
- Start2Finish: Running & Reading Club Volunteer | Thurs
- English Conversation Groups: Lead Volunteer (Honorarium) (Virtual) | Tues
- Diverse Entrepreneurs Program: Facilitator | Sat/Wed
- Surrey Urban Mission Society: Volunteer | Various
- Partnerships
- SFU Student Opportunities
- Programs & events
- Active programs
- Tutoring, Homework and English Support Program: United Way School’s Out (in-person)
- Book Buddies (in-person)
- Bridge Program (in-person)
- Canada SCORES (in-person)
- Central City Learning Garden (on-site)
- Connect Through Homework & Reading (in-person)
- English Conversation Groups (virtual)
- English Language Support Program (in-person)
- Entrepreneurship Programs
- Homework Club
- Learning Buddies (virtual & in-person)
- Let's Do Breakfast (in-person)
- Mentoring with Math (virtual & in-person)
- Our Place Summer Camp
- Pathways to Education
- Racing Readers
- School's Out (in-person)
- SuperChefs
- Events
- Photo gallery
- Upcoming programs newsletter
- Active programs
- Featured Reads
- For Volunteers
- Contact
Volunteer Process
Application and Prescreening
To start your journey volunteering in the community, please ensure you submit an application expressing your interest. You can do this by either emailing community-volunteer@sfu.ca or by filling out the Volunteer Application Form. Some opportunities may require additional documents or materials to be submitted so make sure you read through the particular opportunity application requirements carefully. Once you’ve submitted your expression of interest, you can expect a follow-up email within 1-2 days, asking you to go through a prescreening process to provide more details. The prescreening process is important as we want to make sure you’re the right fit for the opportunity, but also to ensure the opportunity is the right fit FOR YOU.
Onboarding you to Volunteering!
Once you’ve completed the prescreening and met the opportunity requirements, you’ll be moved onto the on-boarding phase. This can include some follow-up discussions with the partner organization, providing additional paperwork (for example criminal record checks), and a training/orientation session. Once you’ve completed the onboarding process, your supervisor will get in touch with you about the next steps to start volunteering!
Looking for games & activities to do with your students?
Click the "GAME TIME" button to check out a resource we have put together for you, using the amazing ideas, activities & games created and discovered by previous program lead and volunteers!
Volunteering
As you complete your time as a volunteer, you’ll also need to fill in your timesheet along with the hours. We strongly recommend that you do this throughout the weeks you volunteer. Hours include the time you put towards the opportunity you’re involved with. Please try not to wait till the end of the experience.
If you have any questions about filling in your timesheet, please email community-volunteer@sfu.ca. Additionally, you can complete the Community Engagement Volunteer training course on Canvas to gain two extra hours that can count towards your Co-Curricular record and to your time sheet. The deadline to complete this course is by the end of the 3rd month of each semester (Fall = November; Spring = March; Summer = July).
While you are volunteering, continue to direct any program-specific questions around your assigned duties and roles to your supervisor of the respective program. Any other escalated issues or concerns can be sent to community-volunteer@sfu.ca.
Please ensure that when you submit your completed timesheet it is an Excel file, not a Numbers, Image or PDF file. Thank you. (SFU students can click here to access Excel for free.)
Submitting your timesheet and completing the reflection survey
Towards the end of the opportunity, you’ll receive a reminder email from the CEC about completing your timesheet, getting it verified by your supervisor, and submitting it by the opportunity deadline.
Here’s how to do it:
- Open your email and create a new message. The email subject should be in the following format: YOUR FIRST AND LAST NAME – THE NAME OF THE PROGRAM YOU VOLUNTEERED WITH – SFU TIMESHEET VERIFICATION (For example: Trisha Dulku – Racing Readers - SFU Timesheet Verification)
- Add your completed timesheet as an attachment into the email. Make sure your timesheet file is named in the following format: YOUR FIRST AND LAST NAME_THE NAME OF THE PROGRAM YOU VOLUNTEERED WITH_THE SEMESTER YOU VOLUNTEERED (For example: JohnDoe_RacingReaders_Fall2021)
- In the TO: section of the email, insert your supervisors email address. This is important as they will need to verify your timesheet is correct by replying-all via this email thread.
- In the CC: section of the email, insert community-volunteer@sfu.ca. This is important as this email address needs to see the verification.
- Make sure you write a clear note in your email explaining what it’s in regard to and how your supervisor needs to provide the verification via email. This is important as it is a polite courtesy and will ensure that your supervisor can immediately understand what your email is about. Are you unsure about how to compose the email or how to write it? Here’s an example you can follow.
- Once you send the email, your supervisor will need to REPLY-ALL and confirm that your timesheet hours are correct and that they verified them. Once that happens, a staff member from the SFU Surrey – TD Community Engagement Centre will reply-back to confirm the verification!
In addition to submitting your timesheet, you need to complete the reflection survey within 2 weeks of completing the volunteer opportunity. This is an important component of reflecting on the learning outcomes of this Co-Curricular Record recognized opportunity. You can access the reflection survey here.