Volunteer Opportunities

Engage youth with individual and group support, provide a positive adult role model, and mentor in the classroom and/or in the outdoors, while supporting staff.

• Academic/in-class volunteers will assist staff in day-to-day activities, which include helping youth with their schoolwork and achieving their academic goals for the year.
• Outdoor volunteers will support youth and staff on outdoor field trips and will have a strong interest and ability in activities like hiking, paddling, etc.
• Trip volunteers have experience in multi-day backcountry trips, personal or through work/volunteer. WFA is an asset.
• Specialty volunteers have a special skill or talent that they would like to offer to the program(s), in one or a short series of sessions. They will be able to provide a detailed outline of the activities.
• Office volunteers would like to support our Basecamp office in areas of administration or professional services.
• Event volunteers support our fundraising events and will be contacted in the planning and/or execution of the events.

• Strong communication skills 
• Positive attitude; ability and interest in dealing with complex youth needs 
• Experience working with youth in an academic setting, and/or experience in back-country/outdoor activities 
• Applicant age requirement: 21 years old

• Volunteers should commit to volunteering with the Take a Hike program for a minimum of half a school year (September–December or January–June). We encourage volunteers to stay for the full year. Take a Hike youth often lack continuity in their lives, and we want to provide a stable and comfortable environment for our youth. This will also help ensure there is time to develop positive relationships among youth and volunteers.
• Ideally, in-class and outdoor volunteers will volunteer on a weekly basis for approximately 2-6 hours per visit.
• As our program is embedded in a full-time school setting, our volunteer hours will take place from Monday through Friday between 8:30 am and 3:00 pm. We follow the same schedule and breaks as the school district, and summer school is sometimes offered but not guaranteed. Multi-day trips will sometimes span weekends.
• Specialty volunteers are an exception to this, as this can be a 1-hour activity.
• Events and office volunteers are an exception to this, as this can be during evenings and weekends for events, or the volunteer’s schedule depending on the work.

Once the volunteer has completed the engagement process with a Basecamp team member, a Take a Hike program staff member will be their main point of contact, and depending on the volunteer role, accountability may shift between staff members. 

• Same as above; however, we look for practicum students that are doing a three-week to one-year placement and we are adaptable to what your requirements may be.
• Acceptance into a Take a Hike placement requires documentation and information on your practicum outline and requirements.
• We can accept up to 2 volunteers/practicums at a time, per classroom. Space is limited so early application is encouraged (>3 months before placement to begin).

Take a Hike Youth Mental Health Foundation is the sole owner of the information collected on this site. We use your information only to assess your suitability as a volunteer. We will not share your information with any party outside of our organization. If at any time you have questions about the data we have about you, how we use our data or would like to correct or delete the data we have about you, please contact us at volunteers@takeahikefoundation.org or 604 638 3385.