You can help us make our vision a reality
What you need to know about interning or volunteering with us:
Family Rescue volunteers make a significant difference in the lives of those subjected to domestic violence on Chicago’s south side. Current potential opportunities include:
- Bilingual (English/Spanish) Crisis Line Volunteers at our Shelter
- Children’s Program Volunteer or Intern at Ridgeland (Mon-Thurs 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM)
- New Heights Volunteer and/or Intern (Requires access to a car)
- General Contractor Apprenticeship
- Legal Advocacy Intern
- Clerical Volunteer
- Support Group or Shelter Guest Educators/Workshop Facilitators
- (1) Fall Ridgeland Intern
- (2) Fall Community Outreach Program MSW Interns
- (1) Fall Rosenthal Family Lodge MSW Intern
- Groups of up to 50 interested in helping clean our facilities (e.g. yard work, organizing storage, vacuuming, etc.)
Family Rescue is proud to partner with the Schweitzer Foundation, University of Chicago, Chicago State, Syracuse University, Kennedy-King College, University of Illinois Chicago, and other schools to provide students with opportunities to gain internship credit hours. We have staff available to provide MSW supervision. Our residential programs, counseling outreach program, and legal advocacy program all routinely accept interns.
LEGAL ADVOCATE CRITERIA: We are seeking a candidate with experience in data input/assessment, answering crisis calls, and working with courts or law enforcement.
NEW HEIGHTS CRITERIA: We are seeking a candidate to provide administrative support via data entry. This candidate would have experience and knowledge of Excel to assist the program director with reporting requirements. They would need to be available between 9 AM and 5 PM.
Schedule
EXPECTATIONS: Family Rescue expects interns (those seeking credit hours through a school program) to complete at least 4 hours a day minimally when on site. Volunteers (those seeking to donate their time in a way that is NOT through a school program) are on an as-needed basis, or what their schedule will permit; however, we would like volunteers to commit minimally 2 service hours per visit for at least 2 months. We ask one-time special event volunteers to commit to a minimum of 2 service hours at that event. All interns and volunteers are also required to complete timesheets tracking their service hours.
SUMMER AVAILABILITY: Please note that we are not accepting any Community Outreach Program or Non-Children’s Program Ridgeland interns or volunteers for the summer. We are currently reviewing applications for fall.
EVENING/WEEKEND AVAILABILITY: For the most part, we are unable to accept individuals with exclusively evening or weekend availability. We are only able to accept individuals with that availability for the following positions…
-Bilingual (English/Spanish) Crisis Line Volunteer at Rosenthal Family Lodge
-Clerical volunteer at our Administration Office
-Shelter Guest Educator/Workshop Facilitator (Mondays and/or Thursdays between 7 PM and 8:30 PM)
-Legal Advocacy interns at one of their police station sites (Area South or 3rd District, Mon-Fri between 1 PM and 8 PM)
Pre-Requisites
- Any interns/volunteers wishing to provide direct services to clients (e.g. answer the hotline, conduct one-on-one counseling, independently complete intakes, assessments, service plans, facilitate support groups) MUST first be available to complete the 40-Hour Domestic Violence Training. This is mandated by the Illinois Domestic Violence Act, the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and the Illinois Department of Human Services. You can learn more about the 40-Hour Domestic Violence Training here. Direct service interns/volunteers are also required by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA) to complete the Office for Civil Rights Trainings. According to the Illinois Domestic Violence Service Provider Guidelines, volunteers providing services not requiring domestic violence skills are not required to be 40-Hour trained. To clarify, examples of such volunteers include those conducting periodic workshops to survivors on topics other than domestic violence or who are conducting general outreach services.
- Additionally, everyone except for periodic or one-time special event volunteers must complete DCFS’s Mandated Reporter Training and onboarding paperwork.
- Lastly, those working with children must complete DCFS background check paperwork. Those assigned to our Ridgeland Day Care Program must complete a medical report and get fingerprinted as part of a DCFS background check.
Benefits of serving as an intern/volunteer
With Family Rescue you will be able to…
- Take the 40-Hour Domestic Violence Training free of charge. This training is the first step to eventually be able to become an Illinois Certified Domestic Violence Professional
- Develop and sharpen skills such as: executive functioning, problem solving, communication, safety planning, service planning, crisis intervention, trauma-informed care, client interaction, and more
- Contribute to our mission in eliminating domestic violence in the City and County-wide
Applying
If you are interested in donating your time with us, please fill out this application. Please thoroughly read through all the information on this page before applying. Please also send your resume and any questions to Ms. Murphy, the Training and Volunteer Coordinator, at r.murphy@familyrescueinc.org
If you would like to intern/volunteer at a domestic violence organization but live too far away from the zipcode of 60617, you can put your zipcode into domesticshelters.org to determine the domestic violence organization closest to you.
