Focus Area
Volunteer Opportunities for Disabilities & Accessibility in Central Oregon
Matching organizations, in a different order on every visit
Destination Rehab helps adults living with neurological conditions such as stroke, Parkinson's, MS, and brain injury build confidence and independence through skills training, therapy-based programs, and adaptive adventures in the community and outdoors.
Volunteers assist adults with neurologic conditions during community outings and adventure-based activities, working alongside physical therapy staff to help participants build skills, confidence, and independence. No physical therapy background is required, just a willingness to actively support participants.
Healing Reins Equine Assisted Services
also known as Healing Reins
Healing Reins provides people of all ages and abilities opportunities for emotional and physical healing through a range of professionally recognized therapeutic services.
Volunteers support therapeutic riding lessons directly — as horse leaders, side-walkers who assist and stay close to the rider, or barn keepers helping care for the facility and horses — plus behind-the-scenes administrative support. No horse experience is required, just the physical ability to keep pace in the arena and a genuine interest in helping riders succeed.
ALS Northwest supports people living with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and their families across the region with care services, equipment loans, support groups, and education, while advocating and raising funds for research toward a cure.
Volunteers help with Walk to Defeat ALS and other events, support families with practical help, and assist with outreach and office tasks.
Guardian Partners is a statewide Oregon nonprofit protecting the dignity and safety of people under court-appointed guardianship, including older adults and adults with cognitive or developmental disabilities. It educates newly appointed guardians and trains volunteer Case Monitors who review guardianship cases for county probate courts, recommending resources or court intervention when needed.
Volunteer Case Monitors are appointed by the Deschutes County probate court to review adult guardianship cases. Monitors read the case history, meet the protected person and guardian, interview involved professionals, and write a report with resources or recommendations for the court. Scheduling is flexible, about 1–3 hours a week, and monitors commit to at least 10 cases. Training, mileage reimbursement, and ongoing staff support are provided.
Central Oregon Guardian Assistance Program
also known as COGAP
Bend nonprofit providing pro bono court-appointed guardianship and conservatorship services to incapacitated adults of limited means across Central Oregon, helping people who can't make their own medical, housing, or financial decisions move out of hospitals, jails, or unsafe situations into appropriate care. It also offers community education on planning for incapacity and end-of-life decision-making.
Visitation volunteers regularly visit clients living in care facilities so they feel cared for and not forgotten, with training and shadowing provided and a background check required. Volunteers can also help with donation drives and fundraising, community outreach, and administrative support.
Samara Learning Center is a nonprofit private alternative school in Bend for students who learn differently, including children with dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, ADHD, and high-functioning autism, as well as kids who have been bullied, experience school anxiety, or are moving from homeschool back to a classroom. It offers individualized, multi-sensory, research-based programs that strengthen areas of need while helping each child discover and build on their strengths.
Volunteers support students who learn differently by reading with students, helping in classrooms, sharing a skill or hobby as an enrichment session, and helping with school events and fundraisers like Central Oregon Gives. Volunteers working with students complete a background check.
The Oregon Long-Term Care Ombudsman program advocates for residents of nursing facilities, assisted living, and adult foster homes, protecting their rights, dignity, and quality of care through trained volunteer ombudsmen who visit facilities and help resolve residents' concerns.
Certified volunteer ombudsmen are assigned to local nursing homes and care facilities, visiting residents regularly, listening to concerns, and advocating for their rights and quality of care. The state provides training and certification, and volunteers set a few hours a week to their own schedule.
Treehouse Therapies Associates is a Bend nonprofit providing physical, occupational, and speech therapy for children, offering compassionate, comprehensive care based on each child's needs regardless of the family's financial or insurance limitations.
Adapt & Triumph is a nonprofit that removes barriers to fitness for people with disabilities, chronic conditions, and other adaptive needs. Partnering with local gyms, coaches, and healthcare professionals, it offers coached small-group strength and conditioning with built-in modifications, youth programs for kids and teens with adaptive needs, and a referral-friendly pathway from physical or occupational therapy into long-term fitness, with sliding-scale and scholarship pricing so cost is never the barrier.
Opportunity Foundation of Central Oregon
also known as The Arc of Central Oregon, Possibilities Thrift Store
Since 1965, the Opportunity Foundation of Central Oregon has empowered people with intellectual and developmental disabilities across Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson Counties to build skills for independent living, work, and community life. It operates eight 24-hour residential homes and supported-living homes, provides job training and job coaching with 25+ local employers, and runs Possibilities Thrift Stores in Redmond and Madras and a coffee kiosk as on-the-job training sites. Since 2019 it has also carried on The Arc of Central Oregon, supporting families with resources and training.
Volunteers support people with developmental disabilities alongside staff, helping with recreation and community outings, life-skills activities, and special events and fundraisers.
Madras-based nonprofit, founded by autistic self-advocate Sam Robinson, that empowers people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and unites communities to break down the barriers they face. Inspired by the Japanese principle of wa (harmony), it shares advocates' stories, hosts inclusive community events, partners with the High Desert Self Advocacy Group, and does international disability outreach with Japan.
As a young, growing nonprofit, it needs founding board members and skilled volunteers (finance, outreach, event planning), plus helpers for inclusive community events like dances and memorial gatherings that bring people with and without disabilities together.
StirrUp purpose is an equine-assisted organization with the mission to provide purpose of healing through meaningful equine experiences. Our service is to people with special needs, veterans, first responders and more.
Volunteers sidewalk in lessons and hippotherapy sessions or serve as horse handlers leading and grooming horses. No horse experience necessary; training provided. Ages 14 and up welcome.
You haven't seen them all yet. There are more organizations below.