NY Volunteer Child Advocate Training

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We are recruiting for our next training on March 2-3, 2024. Both days are required to complete the training and begin volunteering. Only express interest if you are available for those training dates as you will have to complete an extensive screening and clearance process before becoming a Child Advocate. Once you express interest through VolunteerMatch we will reach out to you with next steps shortly thereafter. In the meantime, please review our volunteer page and fill out our application form here: https://www.theyoungcenter.org/volunteer-at-the-young-center

The Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights is a non-profit organization whose mission is to advocate for the rights of unaccompanied immigrant children. The Young Center provides Volunteer Child Advocates (guardians ad litem) for trafficking victims and unaccompanied immigrant children. These advocates are adults who volunteer to spend time with, and advocate on behalf of, an individual unaccompanied immigrant child while he or she is in federal custody and subject to immigration proceedings. Volunteers from all cultures, professions, races, ethnicities, and social backgrounds are welcome to become Child Advocates.

Once assigned to an individual child, each Advocate receives continued training, support, and supervision from the Young Center. Currently, our NY office needs bilingual volunteers who are available to conduct in-person weekly visits for one hour as a Child Advocate.

Volunteer requirements:

• Must be 21+ years of age.
• Must be fluent in Spanish, Mam, K'iche', Kekchi, or Chuj.
• Other languages considered at this time are fluency in Arabic, Dari, Farsi, French, and Portuguese.
• Must be able to travel to at least one of the facilities served by the Young Center in Westchester County, Harlem, and the Bronx.
• Must attend a two-day in-person Child Advocate training
• Must be able to clear a federal and state background check.
• Must provide proof of a negative tuberculosis test within the past 12 months to enter a detention facility
• Must provide COVID-19 vaccination record.
• Must be willing to commit approximately one hour per week to visit with an unaccompanied child.