There are so many reasons to volunteer your time, energy, and knowledge. Volunteering can give your mind, soul, heart, and body a jumpstart. When individuals channel their idealism and energy into solving community problems, they build a new respect for themselves and a strong attachment to others. Volunteering can provide you with a sense of fulfillment as well as pride of citizenship in building a more caring, compassionate, and competent society. In addition, volunteering empowers you. Many volunteer jobs require you to act independently and take initiative. When you know your capabilities, you have the power to change your life and the lives of others. When you volunteer, you get as much out of it as you put into it; and often, you get a whole lot more.
 Interns/Students Interested in the Field of Speech and Hearing
At CSHC we love volunteers! Volunteers are a wonderful resource that helps us meet our mission and provide additional services to those in need. They provide support for our staff as well energy and enthusiasm for our clients and organization as a whole.
In order to make the most out of your volunteer experience we have adopted the following procedures and guidelines.
General requirements:
- Every volunteer, including students, must fill out a volunteer information form and submit it as instructed. We will follow up with you in approximately one week, often within a few days.
- We ask that volunteers commit to a minimum of 6 hours, preferably 10.
- Volunteers must be willing to review the HIPAA privacy policy and sign a statement indicating they understand and will follow that policy.
- Volunteers who interact with clients in some cases will be required to submit to a background check.
- Volunteers need to be appropriately dressed and conduct themselves in a professional manner.
Student requirements:
We are contacted by many students and graduate schools interested in participating in our program through observation and/or internships. While we love to support the growth of new professionals in our field our priority is the quality of care given to our clients. We try to minimize disruptions in routine and frequent observations by different people and have developed the following guidelines:
- Graduate students needing clinical hours and committing to a full semester internship will be given priority. Students who have previously volunteered here will be given priority over others.
- Undergraduate students needing observation hours will be considered only if they are willing to volunteer as well. Total time commitment needs to be at least 8 hours. We cannot guarantee a certain number of hours but will try to involve you in therapy where it benefits the client and set up observation of therapy or evaluations where it does not interfere with the client or family. The number of interns we currently have and your availability are factors in when we allow students to volunteer and observe.
- Students of any level who want to volunteer and have no hour requirement are very welcome. We will do our best to also involve you in therapy when appropriate and allow you the opportunity to observe and speak to other SLPs/audiologists around your volunteer time. And of course, when you are in need of hours down the road we will do our best to meet the needs of former volunteers.
- board members (community relations, marketing, medicine, entertainment, estate planning, government, accounting)
- answer phones, filing, copying
- follow up calls to outreach participants
- projects for speech department and marketing efforts
Please fill out our volunteer information form and send it and any additional questions to Jackie Fogartie, volunteer coordinator, at
or call her at (704) 523-8027 ext.32.
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