Who Can Volunteer
Volunteer Opportunities for Faith Groups
Matching organizations, in a different order on every visit
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.
All-volunteer Central Oregon group that has sent care packages to local service members deployed overseas or stationed at hardship posts since 2003. Volunteers pack boxes monthly at the Bend VFW post, filling them with donated snacks, hygiene items, cards, and letters so troops know their hometown is thinking of them. Families can sign up a service member with ties to Central Oregon.
Volunteers gather once a month to pack and address care packages for Central Oregon service members deployed or stationed far from home. Anyone can write cards and notes to include, and groups and businesses can run drives for snacks, hygiene items, and other comforts from home.
Every Child Central Oregon
also known as ECCO, Marked for Love, NeighborImpact Supportive Services, Every Child Oregon
Local affiliate of Every Child Oregon, mobilizing the community to support children and families impacted by foster care in Deschutes, Crook, and Jefferson counties and Warm Springs. It recruits and supports foster families, provides essentials for kids entering care, and runs a regional diaper bank. Founded in 2019 and later operated by Marked for Love, it joined NeighborImpact in July 2026 as the agency's Supportive Services department, keeping its staff, warehouse, and programs.
There are ways to help big and small: assemble Welcome Boxes for kids waiting in a DHS office, put together Family Fun Boxes and Cleaning Kits for foster families, meet specific requests through My NeighbOR, and donate needed items. Adults can also become certified to provide respite care or open their homes as foster parents. Packing projects are great for families, classes, and workplace groups.
The Salvation Army Bend Corps serves thousands of Central Oregonians each year through a client-choice food pantry, emergency assistance with rent and utilities, holiday food and gifts through the Red Kettle and Angel Tree campaigns, youth after-school programs, and visits to seniors, as part of its faith-based mission to meet human needs without discrimination.
The Bend Corps has roles for almost every age: helping in the client-choice food pantry, visiting residents of assisted living centers, assembling gifts for veterans and people experiencing homelessness, and supporting youth programs. Each holiday season, volunteers ring bells at Red Kettles outside stores in Bend, Redmond, and La Pine; families, groups, and businesses can sign up for shifts.
St. Vincent de Paul Society of Crook County
also known as SVdP Prineville, St. Joseph Conference
Locally organized since 1977, the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Crook County serves anyone in need in the Prineville area with dignity and respect, regardless of faith or background. It runs a food pantry and provides emergency assistance and other social services, powered by volunteers and donations from local individuals and businesses.
Volunteers work shifts in the food pantry packing food boxes and sorting donations, unload and load food trucks, direct guests as parking lot attendants, or sign up as on-call helpers for busy days. Volunteers come from many faiths and backgrounds and are invited to the Conference's regular meetings to help shape how it runs.
St. Vincent de Paul of Bend (St. Francis Conference) serves anyone in need in the Bend area with dignity and respect, without discrimination. Its 1,000-square-foot, shopping-style food pantry is open Monday through Thursday and serves 40 to 100 households a day, and it also provides sack lunches for people without a kitchen, clothing, transitional housing in its low-income units, propane and utility help, ID assistance, and prescription assistance.
Volunteers are at the heart of the shopping-style pantry, guiding clients through the aisles, explaining options, and helping each person choose food with dignity. Others restock shelves and receive food donations, prepare sack lunches, help with the clothing program, and support seasonal drives like Thanksgiving boxes and winter warm-clothing collections.
Redmond Oasis Village Project
also known as Oasis Village
Oasis Village is a low-barrier, cabin-style shelter village in east Redmond for chronically unhoused neighbors. Each resident has a private heated bedroom shelter, with a shared community building for showers, laundry, meals, and mail, plus onsite case management and supportive services to help people move toward stable housing. It grew out of years of volunteer homeless outreach in Redmond.
Volunteers and community groups have supported facility upkeep, in-kind donations, and shelter construction alongside partner churches and civic groups. Contact Oasis Village directly for current volunteer needs.
J Bar J Youth Services, Inc.
also known as J Bar J; J Bar J Boys Ranch
Founded in 1968, J Bar J Youth Services is the largest provider of services to at-risk youth and families in Central Oregon. Its programs include J Bar J Boys Ranch and J5, the J Bar J Learning Center, Cascade Youth & Family Center, Grandma's House, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Oregon, Kindred Connections and the at: project anti-trafficking program. The Oregon High Desert Classics horse show is its major fundraiser.
Volunteering at J Bar J happens through its programs. Adults mentor children through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Oregon. Volunteer families and church communities support families in crisis through Kindred Connections, mentoring parents and providing temporary housing for children. J Bar J does not publish a single volunteer page, so contact the program that interests you or the main office to ask about other ways to help.
Kiwanis Club of Madras
also known as Madras Kiwanis
Madras's Kiwanis club, serving children across Jefferson County. Its signature program is Operation Rudolph, the county's primary Christmas gift program for kids facing hardship, run with the Madras High Key Club. The club also supports youth programs and scholarships throughout the year.
The biggest volunteer effort is Operation Rudolph each holiday season: collecting toys from drop boxes, shopping, and wrapping hundreds of gifts at the fairgrounds, with drop-in wrapping open to individuals, families, and groups. Members also support the Madras High Key Club and other youth projects through the year.
The Nativity Wood Bank provides free firewood to Central Oregon households that rely on wood heat and can't afford fuel, collecting donated wood and relying on volunteers to split, stack, and deliver it through the winter.
Volunteers split, stack, and deliver firewood to neighbors who heat their homes with wood, and help collect donated wood. It's outdoor physical work, well suited to groups and work crews.
Redemption House Ministries is Prineville's faith-based shelter and meals ministry for people experiencing homelessness. It runs Redemption House, a transitional shelter for women and families; Regeneration House, an overnight shelter with nightly dinner for men; and Craig's Compassionate Café, a community café where anyone can get a hot meal for a token price or by trading a chore, with volunteers also bringing meals to people living in camps. It also offers a food pantry and case management.
Volunteers cook and serve at Craig's Compassionate Café, help bring meals out to people living in camps, prepare dinners and sack breakfasts for shelter guests, sort donations and stock the food pantry, and help with facility upkeep and events. Church and community groups can sign up to provide meals.
Mutual aid group, co-led by Warm Springs tribal members, that works with Tribal Emergency Management to deliver clean drinking water to households on the Warm Springs Reservation while its aging water system is rebuilt. When the 2026 Bench Fire struck, the coalition grew to about 130 volunteers, shifting from quarterly to daily water runs and coordinating supply drives from Portland to Central Oregon.
Volunteers deliver drinking water to households on the reservation, run donation drives and drop-off sites around the region, sort and distribute supplies, and help track changing community needs. People can also join the steering committee, and the coalition especially welcomes Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to get involved.
You haven't seen them all yet. There are more organizations below.