With devastating news everyday and a constant bombardment of terrible laws being passed, many may feel like they have no voice, no power, and no ability to change things whatsoever. However, there are plenty of ways to make change in your community, and beyond. These Seattle organizations make a difference everyday, and rely on volunteers, like students at Garfield. 

Teen Feed: Teen Feed works to better the life of homeless youth through continuous support and free meals to help get kids off the streets. They believe that everyone deserves the basic human rights of safety and housing, and that homelessness can happen to anyone and isn’t a reflection of one’s character. They recognize the importance of maintaining a balance between helping and serving the youth they care about while respecting their boundaries and personal beliefs. They also strongly believe in dismantling the institutionalized racism in many care providing services. Teen Feed accepts a wide variety of volunteer work from short term services to longer term services where individuals can build meaningful connections with the people they serve. People who want to help can join outreach teams, help serve food to teens, work remotely, or join as a group with their company, religious organization, or families. Any and all contributions are appreciated. 

Nature Conservation:. From planting trees to monitoring salmon populations to measuring water qualities in lakes and ponds, there are many ways to care for the environment in King County. King County has made a goal to plant three million trees by the end of 2025 to help ecosystems, reduce CO2 levels, and bring more nature into the city. They plan to conserve 6,500 acres of land where two million trees already grow, and focus on planting trees in communities that lack nature in order to help those communities gain access to more clean air and water. By planting more trees, the city will have an improved salmon population, more resilience to hot, dry summers, and overall a healthier habitat. The salmon population of Miller and Walker creek has been monitored every single day from October to December since 2010 by the Community Salmon Investigation. They focus on the number of live salmon in the creeks and dissect the salmon carcesses found to determine the number of fish able to spawn. The reason for monitoring the number of live salmon is because these numbers directly reflect the health of the city’s ecosystem and ocean and freshwater conditions. Despite being oftentimes overlooked, salmon are crucial to a healthy and functioning ecosystem. 

Mental Health Helplines: Seattle has many 24-Hour Crisis Lines that rely on volunteers to help keep them running. Volunteers are required to go through basic training before being able to answer calls and are able to ask the more experienced staff if they have a question about a call. Although this work is difficult, it’s vital to the community to have safe and non-judgemental support for everyone who needs it. Volunteers will help with building safety plans, problem solving, community resource navigation, and self-care practices. They work people through difficult emotions, crisis intervention, and suicide prevention. By creating a community where people feel welcomed and supported, countless lives are saved.