Age Group
Volunteer with Children & Youth in Central Oregon
Matching organizations, in a different order on every visit
Central Oregon Volunteer Connect
also known as COVC, Volunteer Connect, Volunteer Central Oregon
Central Oregon Volunteer Connect is a program of Connect Central Oregon representing one of their four pillars - alongside Mentoring, Innovation, and Partnership. It's a regional infrastructure, shaped and stewarded by community leaders over more than two decades connecting organizations, volunteers, emerging leaders, and community energy across Central Oregon. Along with direct partnership outreach across the region, most notably the Connect Central Oregon Volunteer & Board Fair — the in-person event connecting volunteers and organizations face to face, their Volunteer Central Oregon directory allows browsing or searching to find organizations across Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson Counties, and Warm Springs looking for volunteers, donors, and community partners.
Connect Central Oregon is always looking for leaders who want to help connect individuals, groups, and organizations to each other and strengthen our community. One of the most important roles within the entire organization, serving as a "Connector" represents the very purpose of ConnectCO and serves as the primary method of our community engagement...using very literally every resource ConnectCO and its leadership team have to offer.
Catalyze Central Oregon makes it simple for residents to discover, support, and engage with local nonprofits — so giving becomes part of everyday life.
Tower Theatre Foundation, Inc., The
also known as Tower Theatre
The Tower Theatre is downtown Bend's historic performing arts center, a 460-seat Streamline Moderne landmark whose neon tower has lit up Wall Street since 1940. Saved from closure by the nonprofit Tower Theatre Foundation and fully renovated in 2004, it hosts concerts, theater, dance, film festivals, lectures, and community events, along with its LessonPLAN youth education programs. The Doug Watson Scholarship for Performing Arts honors Doug Watson, the Foundation's longtime board chair and a co-founder of Connect Central Oregon, by helping graduating seniors across Central Oregon pursue the arts in college.
Tower Theatre relies on a large crew of volunteers to keep the venue running. Opportunities include ushering, photography, giving tours, administrative support, hospitality, community liaison work, and helping with special events, with weekly trainings offered.
Furnish Hope is a Bend-based nonprofit furniture bank working to end furniture poverty in Central Oregon. It collects gently used furniture and household essentials and delivers them to individuals and families moving into stable housing, turning empty houses into furnished homes that foster permanency, comfort, and pride. Its boutique resale store, Furnish Hope & Home, along with home staging and design services, helps fund the mission.
Volunteers drive and co-pilot furniture deliveries, connect with recipients as community liaisons, gather and sort donations at the donation center, staff the Furnish Hope & Home resale store, and help remotely with admin work, events, and fundraising. Regular weekly shifts are offered, many roles don't require heavy lifting, and groups can schedule a team volunteer day.
Connect Central Oregon is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that strengthens communities in Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson counties (plus Warm Springs) by connecting people with volunteer opportunities, board positions, and mentorship. It promotes civic engagement, community leadership, and innovation through platforms like Central Oregon Volunteer Connect.
Volunteers help run CCO's community events, from volunteer and board fairs to robotics and drone expositions, support community media production, and help keep the Volunteer Central Oregon directory accurate by reviewing organization listings. Students and groups are welcome, and CCO can sign off on community service hours.
Caldera, founded in 1996 by Dan Wieden and Priscilla Bernard Wieden, inspires and supports youth from underserved urban and rural communities by awakening the potential of their creative voice. Its free, long-term youth program pairs kids with artists and mentors for seven-plus years through school-year programming and summer camps at its campus on Blue Lake west of Sisters, blending art, music, dance, writing, film, and time in nature. It also hosts an Artists in Residence program. In 2015 it was the first Oregon nonprofit to win the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, presented at the White House.
Volunteers support events and workshops that bring the community together, help in operational roles that keep programs running, and take on youth program support roles, sharing their knowledge and creativity with students ages 12 to 18. Commitments range from a few hours a month to more, year-round, in Central Oregon communities and the Portland area.
Redmond Area Park And Recreation District
also known as RAPRD; Redmond Parks and Rec; The Hub; Cascade Swim Center
A special district providing aquatic and recreation programs, facilities, parks and trails in the greater Redmond area. RAPRD runs The Hub, its aquatic and recreation center, and offers swim lessons, youth and adult sports leagues, fitness, art and enrichment classes, summer camps and adaptive recreation.
Volunteer coaches are always needed for youth sports leagues; coaches complete a background check, concussion training and a pre-season clinic. Volunteers also support adaptive recreation programs and other youth programs, and roles range from coaching to grant writing. Community members can serve on the district's budget committee. Apply with the district's volunteer application; volunteers under 18 need a parent or guardian signature.
BendFilm is a Bend nonprofit, founded in 2003, that celebrates independent cinema's power to enrich lives, amplify diverse voices, and inspire change. It presents the annual Bend Film Festival each October, which brings more than 100 independent and student films, filmmaker Q&As, panels, and parties to venues across town. Year-round, BendFilm owns and operates Tin Pan Theater, the downtown arthouse cinema, and runs Free Movies in the Park, the Basecamp filmmaker program, and youth filmmaking camps and workshops.
Volunteers run nearly every part of the Bend Film Festival, including box office and ticketing, theater and venue operations, guest and filmmaker hospitality, event and party support, and distributing the festival guide. Year-round, volunteers also help with screenings, special events, and parties. Perks include a festival volunteer tee, screenings when seats are available, and free Tin Pan Theater tickets.
Think Wild is Central and Eastern Oregon's only public wildlife hospital and conservation center, located on four acres on Bend's east side. Its veterinary staff and volunteers rescue, treat, and release hundreds of injured and orphaned native animals each year, from hummingbirds and flying squirrels to bald eagles and bobcats. Think Wild also runs a wildlife hotline, humane wildlife conflict help, Beaver Works Oregon habitat restoration, and education programs and camps for youth and the community. Found injured or orphaned wildlife? Call the hotline at 541-241-8680 (8am–6pm daily).
Volunteers help in the wildlife hospital with animal care, diet prep, and enclosure upkeep; rescue and transport injured wildlife; care for ambassador animals; support education programs, camps, and community events; and assist with humane wildlife conflict projects. Youth and family volunteering is available for kids and teens, and families and groups can join habitat restoration through Beaver Works Oregon. Training is provided.
Heritage Apple Corps, a fiscally sponsored project of Discover Your Northwest, is a volunteer-run initiative to revive, protect, and maintain Central Oregon's pioneer-era fruit trees, planted by homesteading families more than a century ago on what is now the Crooked River National Grassland and other public lands. Working with the U.S. Forest Service and community partners, it restores historic orchards, runs a public Heritage Fruit Tree Registry with DNA-identified varieties, and is establishing a preservation orchard so these living pieces of local history survive.
Volunteers restore and protect historic homestead orchards on public lands: clearing brush and juniper to reduce fire risk and free up water for old trees, hands-on pruning and tree care at restoration workshops and field days, propagating cuttings for a living preservation orchard, and helping document heritage trees. No experience needed; arborists and orchardists teach techniques on site.
Central Oregon Disability Support Network, Inc.
also known as CODSN
Central Oregon Disability Support Network (CODSN) offers no-cost, peer-delivered support to people with disabilities and their families across Central and Eastern Oregon; every team member has been touched by disability. CODSN provides one-on-one support after a new diagnosis, disability education, advocacy coaching, parent support groups, and family events, and hosts the annual Breaking Barriers Conference.
Volunteers help at family events and programs as their schedules allow, with no ongoing commitment. Roles include Jason's Run & Recharge respite care (looking after kids with disabilities so parents get a few hours to recharge), supporting riders at a summer adaptive bike camp, running games and treats at family celebrations, and helping at trainings, resource fairs, and the Breaking Barriers Conference.
Wild Side Rehabilitation is a Central Oregon wildlife rehabilitation nonprofit that cares for orphaned and injured wild mammals, from fawns and elk calves to raccoons, squirrels, and rabbits, until they can be released back to the wild. It is led by a licensed wildlife rehabilitator and veterinary technician and supported by trained volunteer caregivers.
Volunteer caregivers work under the licensed rehabilitator's supervision to feed, clean, and care for orphaned and injured wildlife as they recover, and help with transport and releases. Training is provided; volunteers legally care for animals only under the rehabilitator's license.
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