Volunteer Advocates for National Advocacy Hotline

Help Now! Advocacy, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation that has been based in Oregon and was founded there in 2004, is in the process of establishing the first-ever national advocacy hotline to assist individuals and families through crisis situations. Over the course of its 18 year existence, Help Now! volunteer advocates have assisted over 9000 individuals and families through a myriad of crises, all at no charge. The services that Help Now! provides to people in crisis are nationally-unique, hence the importance of the hotline’s spreading the benefits of Help Now!’s services to people across the nation. We are in need of volunteer advocates to staff the hotline. A legal, paralegal, mediation-conflict resolution or other background involving speaking up for others and/or problem-solving is extremely important to your being able to help our clients successfully. However, training is provided, and many advocates without such training have been very successful in assisting out clients.

Help Now!’s advocates serve to “level the playing field” with more powerful others—landlords, merchants, creditors, government agencies, etc.—for those ill-equipped to speak up for themselves. In doing so, Help Now!’s advocates create social justice “in the trenches” on a case-by-case basis.

Volunteer advocates can assist from their homes or offices anywhere in the country. All phone services for the hotline have already been donated by a national phone company. Calls for assistance will be routed to home or office phone numbers at times the advocate chooses to be “on call” to assist. Any call coming into the advocate’s phone will reflect the hotline number so he or she will know that it is a hotline call. If the advocate is unable or does not wish to take the call when it comes in, it will pass to another advocate or go to voicemail, later to be distributed.

Unlike legal cases and mediated matters which can take months to years to resolve, the crises presented to Help Now! for assistance can frequently be resolved through a single telephone call immediately following client intake. And the advocate will know, as a result of his or her effort, a result will have been accomplished for an individual or family that could not have been achieved without the advocate’s intervention. Please consider giving a few hours a week to be “on call” as a Help Now! volunteer advocate.

Job Types: Full-time, Part-time, Internship (at least one semester)

This is a remote job from anywhere in the country.