Opportunities From: Berkeley Lab

Intro

Formed in 1996, the Friends recognize that citizen participation—from residents to decision-makers, teachers, and students—is critical to protect the Sausal Creek Watershed as a natural resource.  They conserve, restore, and enhance the Sausal Creek Watershed by educating future generations, involving the community in environmental stewardship, and collaborating with agencies and nonprofits. Friends of Sausal Creek support Oakland's biodiversity and are working toward a climate-resilient future.

Attend a community event

Friends of Sausal Creek host regular volunteer days, monthly tours, and community walk and talks. To learn more and to register for an upcoming event, visit https://www.sausalcreek.org/event-calendar

Berkeley Lab's Community Relations team needs volunteers to join us on Saturday, August 1st to help the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano (FBCCS) sort food donations at their Concord warehouse. 

Read the description below for more information:

Warehouse volunteers will help sort and box food donations and box or bag fresh produce.  Working as a team, volunteers will check food for quality, sort by category, and box or bag for distribution in FBCCS 'warehouse sorting areas. This position does require standing and some volunteers may need to lift filled boxes up to 35 pounds.

Things to keep in mind: 

Location:

FBCCS' Concord Warehouse is located at 4010 Nelson Avenue (94520) in Concord.  Follow the signs to the Volunteer Entrance, located at the back of the building where the trucks are parked. Look for the Volunteer Entrance sign on the far right-hand side of the building. Enter there to get to the Volunteer Sorting Room where you will sign in. Please arrive no more than 10 minutes before your scheduled shift start time.

Upon arrival, you will receive a Berkeley Lab t-shirt. Click the "respond" button to sign-up! 

NPower is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to creating opportunities in the technology sector for those who have traditionally faced barriers to entry. NPower provides free, comprehensive tech training programs for young adults and military-connected individuals from low-to-moderate income communities.

They are currently looking for additional NPowerMATCH mentors to support students in their current cohort, especially mentors in the Pacific and Central Time Zones.  

Mentoring is a simple but meaningful way for professionals to support the next generation of tech talent while also gaining:

Watch their latest info session video to learn more.

Ready to get started? Apply Today! https://npower.volunteerlocal.com/volunteer/?id=111972

The Experiences in Research program is a 6-week internship for high school students to work on cutting edge projects alongside experts at Berkeley Lab. We are looking for projects/mentors from both STEM and STEM adjacent fields (experimental, data science, coding, administration, science communication). Project descriptions for summer 2025 can be found here. Mentors/projects that can have interns on-site for at least 2 days / week will be prioritized for 2026.

Please complete and submit the project planner by January 23rd, 2026 for your internship project to be part of the program. Please visit our webpage for more information on commitments and timeline as a mentor.

For any questions please contact Faith Dukes (fmdukes@lbl.gov).

Be A Mentor is dedicated to empowering youth by connecting them with caring, dedicated adults who can provide guidance, support, and encouragement. Be A Mentor programs include both in-person and virtual mentorship opportunities, where mentors commit just one hour a week for a year to build meaningful relationships that foster confidence, personal growth, and success. We seek volunteers who are compassionate, reliable, and eager to make a positive impact on young people's lives. Whether supporting educational goals, helping with community events, or simply being a consistent presence, our volunteers play a vital role in helping youth thrive.

Meals on wheels need volunteers to pack or deliver food to help ensure nutritious, fresh meals get to Berkeley’s homebound seniors. 

Sign up to volunteer with Meals on Wheels by reaching out to them by phone or email:

Volunteer by yourself or with a friend, and help brighten up a senior’s day.

Volunteers help pack and deliver meals for seniors across Berkeley. You can choose to pack meals, deliver meals, or do both.

You can expect to make 8-15 deliveries during your shift, which should take about an hour of driving.

You can also request a walking or biking route to make deliveries without a car.

Meals on Wheels volunteer shifts are on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. To volunteer to help pack meals, please arrive by 8:00 am. To volunteer to make deliveries, please arrive between 10:00 – 11:00 am.

You will begin your shift at the Meals on Wheels office:

1925 9th St.
Berkeley, CA 94710

 Requirements

You must be 18 or older to volunteer on your own. Volunteers under 18 are also welcome with adult supervision. Meals on wheels will conduct a background check on all volunteers.

To volunteer, you must provide proof of up-to-date COVID-19 vaccination. You are up-to-date on vaccinations if you meet one of the following conditions:

Please wear a mask while volunteering to protect the safety of our staff, seniors, and fellow volunteers.

To volunteer as a driver, you will need a valid driver’s license, a vehicle, and current auto insurance. You should be able to lift at least 25 lbs.

To start volunteering, please reach out to us by phone or email:

We will ask you to fill out a volunteer application form. We will also ask you to give consent for us to run a background check. Once those steps are complete, Meal on wheels will coordinate a day for your first delivery shift!

Meals on Wheels delivers meals to homebound seniors across Berkeley. These healthy meals help ensure that seniors are able to get the nutrition they need while living at home. Volunteers play a vital role in providing reliable and friendly delivery service.

The number of clients enrolled in Meals on Wheels has risen from about 140 in 2019 to around 220 today. In our 2021 fiscal year, we served 86,670 meals—a 33% increase from the previous fiscal year.

The program is open to any senior 60 and older who is unable to prepare a balanced meal for themselves. Learn more about how to sign up for Meals on Wheels and other nutrition programs for seniors.

Help Students Learn About Robotics

Ygnacio Valley High School’s robotics team in Concord needs mentors. You can make a huge difference in the lives of some really great kids — even if you’re not a robotics expert.

Why?
• Be the reason a student finishes high school, or goes to college, or likes learning
• Advance your own skills in EE, MechE, software, or project management
• Playing with robots is fun!

What qualifications do I need?
• No robotics or engineering knowledge required! If you’re able to circulate and help keep the students focused, or tell them where to put tools away, or remind them to wear their goggles in the lab, or figure out who isn’t asking for help they need, that’s valuable. If you’re good with project management, even better. Of course, if you want to learn about robotics so you can mentor more, we’re happy to teach you!
• Some availability 3:45pm-6pm on weekdays. We suspect this will be the sticking point for most people. See “What’s Involved” below for details.
• Reliability and communication. If you pride yourself on doing what you say you will, and on letting others know in advance when you won’t be able to deliver (because it happens to everyone), you’ll be a huge help to our understaffed team!

More Info
FIRST (“For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”, www.firstinspires.org) promotes STEM education by sponsoring robotics competitions at several levels, culminating with the First Robotics Competition (FRC) for high school students.

YVHS created an FRC team, named Project 212, in 2018. We lost some institutional knowledge with the pandemic, but gained another mentor in 2022. Now our founding mentor is moving out of state, and our new mentor needs some help.

The FRC season involves teaching students engineering principles, lab safety, proper use of power tools, and many other skills from September through December. In early January, the rules for the new year’s competition are announced. Robots will compete in a
game with new rules, completely different from the previous year. In only 6-8 weeks, each team will figure out a game strategy, figure out how to build a robot to implement that strategy, program and debug their robot, and then compete against other teams. The robots
are entirely student-designed and student-built: Mentors only advise – we aren’t allowed to build, repair, program, or design any robots that compete. It’s impressive and inspirational to watch students take on that challenging timeline and build robots that work!

What’s involved?
• Project 212 meets after school Mondays and Fridays from 3:45pm-6pm (ish). It would be great if you could generally attend at least twice a month. (Arriving late or leaving early is fine.)
• During the “build season” (January through March), we also meet after school on Wednesdays, and also for 8 hours on Saturdays. You aren’t expected to be there every Saturday start to finish, but it’s valuable if you can show up more to help.
• Not required, but fun: Attend competitions with the students and cheer like crazy! (And, yes, help with team logistics.)

Sounds great! How do I get more info?
Please note: This is not a Berkeley Lab hosted program but through a third party (Ygnacio Valley HS). Please email Alyssa Brand at abrand@lbl.gov or lead mentor Jon Solera at  jon@emufarm.org and learn more!

Be a mentor — make a difference

This year, Pinole Valley High School is seeking volunteers from ALL areas of Engineering to support activities. These activities include speaking opportunities, mock interviews, judging and more.  

A highlighted event includes their Engineering Day/Week being held from September 25-29. Sophomores are taking a course called Principles of Engineering, where they are introduced  to as many engineering/trade disciplines as possible. They are looking for those that may be interested in attending as guest speakers.

Students will be divided into 4 groups, and each group will rotate rooms where they listen to a speaker or participate in a hands-on activity. During the rotations, speakers will stay in the same room. Each speaker would do a 30 minute presentation per group. The Academy would like to have 2 speakers per room to switch off. Hands-on activities are also very welcome.  

We have roughly 55 Sophomores in total. For details on our academy, see the attached.

If you are interested in supporting Engineering Day or supporting us in any other activities we may have, please complete the attached participating form. It includes the list of times for Engineering Week. 

Please respond to this note AND complete the participation form linked above. 

Become a Tech Volunteer for Ashby Village

Ashby Village is a vibrant East Bay nonprofit organization that harnesses the power of a peer-to-peer approach to connect older adults with each other and resources to age well and to remain active and engaged in the places they call home.

Tech volunteers provide technical assistance to members who need support. Even if you consider yourself a basic technology user, your skills are valuable!

Here’s how you can help:

Volunteers get to meet and learn from other great volunteers with a wide range of skills and backgrounds, and have the opportunity to strengthen and broaden their skills by teaching others. Share in the joy villagers' experience when they learn something new or solve a problem, and get to know the wonderful people in the village community! Volunteer for as little as an hour or two a month. Those you help will be deeply appreciative.

To learn more about volunteering with Ashby Village contact Jessica Sterling, Volunteer Services Coordinator, at jessica@ashbyvillage.org or complete a volunteer application online here.

Homies Empowerment is an independent, grassroots community-based organization out of East Oakland. They started as a volunteer-run, Jefferson Award-winning, after-school program taking on an approach and a way of seeing gang-impacted youth through an asset-based lens. To provide spaces where youth can heal, thrive and self-actualize, they mirror the positive assets that attract young people to gangs: a sense of belonging, protection, rites of passage, and meeting basic needs. Their after-school program evolved to full-fledged Ethnic Studies and Leadership courses offered throughout Oakland schools.

With the onset of COVID-19, they went from being exclusively a youth-development and educational-focused organization to one that stands in solidarity with the entire community to help meet their urgent food and basic needs. Their Block Clean-Up Crew also came together to contribute to a clean and dignified community environment.

Currently, Homies is operating a Community Care Center, Learning Center, and several food access programs out of their FREEdom Store: Tuesday food distribution, Love Packages, and Loaves and Fishes.

Interested in Volunteering with Homies? Email VolunteerAtHomies@gmail.com or fill out the Volunteer form using this link. 

This opportunity block will be used to capture activities that were not previously advertised on the galaxy digital site and/or are ongoing opportunities with community organizations.

Managers can assign this block to users for previous volunteer opportunity hours. Please respond to this opportunity and email Faith Dukes (fmdukes@lbl.gov) to update hours. 

LEAP is a free program sponsored by the Richmond Public Library in which tutors and learners work one-on-one or in small groups. LEAP's purpose is to help adults develop the skills and confidence they need to achieve their individual goals.

In 1984, The Richmond Public Library started one of the original library-based adult literacy programs.  With the startling recognition that 1 out of 5 adults in our country lacked the basic literacy skills for full participation in community and economic sphere, funding became available for new programs.  Since that time, Richmond residents enrolled in LEAP for a variety of purposes. At first it was to improve basic reading and writing skills, but as time passed LEAP recognized community needs, expanding its services to GED preparation, English as a Second Language, math literacy and computer literacy.

To learn more about this opportunity, visit the LEAP website