Donate & Volunteer
Volunteer
Your gift of time helps People's Community Clinic provide healthcare services to underserved workers and their families in Central Texas. Most patients are low-income working singles or families without healthcare insurance. Be sure to read our profile of longtime Clinic volunteer Sheri Overton.
Volunteer Guidelines
All volunteers must be at least 18 years of age and willing to commit to two hours per week for at least four months. Depending on their level of interaction with patients, volunteers will be required to show proof of up-to-date immunizations, including measles, mumps and rubella, Tdap, varicella (chicken pox) and tuberculosis. Volunteers are also required to attend a brief interview/orientation and submit to a criminal background check. For reasons of patient privacy and lack of space, we do not typically accept requests to shadow doctors. We receive more requests to volunteer than we can fill. Volunteers who demonstrate commitment to the PCC mission will receive priority consideration.
Volunteer opportunities vary based upon the needs of the clinic and the expertise of the volunteer. People's Community Clinic has an on-going need for volunteers in specific areas. Listed below are brief descriptions of tasks for which we use volunteers on an ongoing basis. We accept professional health providers with appropriate credentialing as volunteers. If you have questions, please contact Allison Jones, Volunteer Coordinator, at 512-708-3156 or via email.
Volunteer Forms
Please contact the Volunteer Coordinator to discuss volunteer openings before submitting. We may not have openings at the immediate time of your interest. Return your completed application via fax (512-542-9940) or via email.
Current Volunteer Opportunities
The Center for Adolescent Health at People's Community Clinic is seeking someone to increase the follow-up of teens using contraception. This person should be at least 22 years old and have good communication and organizational skills. Fluent in Spanish is preferred. The work will require tracking and calling teens with the teens' permission. Hours are flexible, but generally 1-3 hours per week with a minimum of 4-6 months commitment. Calling could be done outside the clinic.
Cooking Class Assistant - Committed volunteer needed for nutrition-based cooking class from August to December 2010. Volunteer will be responsible for assisting the Class Facilitator with: class set up, food prep, in-class assistance, and clean up. Volunteer time commitment will be 3 hours a week. Cooking classes will teach low-income at-risk participants how to eat healthy on budget. It is a great opportunity for volunteers interested in the fields of nutrition, cooking, health & wellness, chronic disease, and/or nonprofits.
Medical Records Assistant - The Medical Records department is looking for volunteers to provide assistance in managing patient records. Volunteers work with staff to ensure that patient records are correctly organized and available to Clinic providers.
Waiting Room Storytime Volunteers - The Storytime initiative is based on the success of our pilot program with the Austin Public Library featuring storytime in the clinic waiting room. This position requires a desire to be the center of attention, comfort with young children (ages 1-8) and a willingness to be theatrical in 30 minute spurts. As many of our young patients are Spanish speaking, this is an excellent opportunity to practice Spanish language skills before an easy-to-please audience. This position has wide availability: Mon-Thurs, 9a-noon, 1-7 pm and Friday, 9a-noon, 1-4 pm. A storytime training session with the Austin Public Library is required, date and time TBA.
Volunteer Spotlight - Strength in Numbers: Clinic Volunteer Sheri Overton
Clinic Volunteer Sheri Overton knows firsthand that there is strength in numbers. Sheri has contributed much to the Clinic by volunteering regularly since 2006, but perhaps her greatest contribution is that she motivates so many fellow First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin's (FUUCA) members to become involved with PCC alongside her. When FUUCA chose People's Community Clinic as a church-wide social action project, Sheri signed on to promote and coordinate the project.
The partnership between FUUCA and the Clinic is a perfect fit for church members because of the church's emphasis on social change, service in action and inclusiveness. At last count, at least seventy-five church members have volunteered time with People's since the partnership began in 2006. Many more have contributed financially through the church's "Split-the-Plate" donation program that supports area non-profit organizations. Church members have contributed thousands of crucial dollars to PCC through this program.
FUUCA members like Sheri are involved in a wide variety of Clinic efforts. They prepare hundreds of prenatal and family planning education packets for patients each month. They have staffed the Back-to-School immunization clinic and volunteered for fundraising events. They have gathered baby supplies for new mothers, and have donated items to our Season for Caring efforts. FUUCA member involvement includes young people, too: youth involved with the Church's Campfire Club regularly collect used children's books for the Clinic's waiting room.
This diversity of opportunities is intentional: Sheri works closely with clinic staff to find volunteer activities requiring varying skills and types of involvement so people with diverse schedules and interests can contribute as they would like. Many opportunities are group activities - even the most repetitive task can be made fun and fulfilling through conversation and company with others.
In her organizing role, Sheri ensures church members know about upcoming volunteer needs through their monthly newsletter, Sunday service bulletins, and email messages. She also makes sure members feel welcomed and encouraged to join in.
Sheri is motivated to find ways everyone can serve. Sheri says, "People want to help-it feeds your soul-but they have to do it within the constraints of the many demands on their own lives. Part of my job is finding a wide variety of opportunities to help PCC so that our members can find their own way of helping that matches their talents and other demands on their lives." Sometimes that means Sheri looks for tasks that can be done sitting down in order to accommodate a church member with difficulty standing. Other times she ensures that a Spanish speaking volunteer is put in a direct-service position where their skill will be most put to use.
Sheri was drawn to the work of People's Community Clinic because of its service to those in our community for whom the healthcare system does not work. She and her adult son are both disabled with muscular dystrophy, and Sheri has spent many years advocating for the health and educational services her son needs. Something she's learned from that experience is that "our health care system just doesn't work for people with the most need or with fewer resources...when I learned that PCC provided services to those for whom the system was essentially broken, I thought it might be a good fit for me..."
Having retired as a professor of special education in Oklahoma, Sheri's flexible schedule allows her to do several things she loves: traveling to visit family and friends, and camping throughout the U.S. She moved to Wimberly from Oklahoma four years ago and enjoys birding and gardening at her country home.
PCC is thrilled to have energetic, committed volunteers like Sheri. Sheri's capacity-building approach to service has several special benefits to the clinic. Volunteers in groups can tackle some of the more daunting but critical tasks that Clinic staff are hard-pressed to find time to accomplish while enjoying one another's company. Dozens of people are now supporting People's Community Clinic where before there was one. Thank you, Sheri, for your service and for motivating and organizing others to become involved with People's Community Clinic.