Volunteer with Sustain DuPage!
If you are interested in being a volunteer for one of the roles below, please email us today!
General Volunteer Opportunities:
Below is an overview of our regular volunteer days for Sustain DuPage throughout the year. All skill levels are welcome! These currently all take place on the grounds of The Theosophical Society in Wheaton. Please check the Sustain DuPage Google Calender before attending for more details and to confirm, as these volunteer days are occasionally canceled due to weather forecasts or conflictng events.
Sustain DuPage Garden Volunteers
What we do:
- Nourish and grow a communal garden where folks can practice, share and experiment with sustainable gardening techniques
- Share and sample local and seasonal plant-based foods
When we do it?
- Saturdays, April through October from 9am to 12pm
- Wednesdays, April through September from 5:30pm to 7:30 pm.
Protectors Volunteers
What we do:
- Rewilding: transforming degraded habitat into biodiverse habitat as a haven for wildlife and the community
- Learn about wild plants and and other living beings native to DuPage county.
When we do it?
- Saturdays, November through March from 10am to 12pm
Protectors Project Manager
Volunteer Type: Core Volunteer
Time Requirement: 2 hours weekly from November through March. Project Managers must also attend monthly leadership meetings via zoom.
Who Will Support Your Success: David Bravos (Interim Protectors Project Manager)
Eligibility Note: Must be a Sustain DuPage Member
Description: Are you passionate about protecting our local plants and animals? Read here about our Protectors Project! We’re looking for folks who are either knowledgeable about effective ways to protect our local ecosystems or committed to learn!
Webmaster
Time Requirement: ~10 hours/month, 1 year commitment minimum
Who Will Support Your Success: Current Webmaster
Eligibility Note: Strong demonstrated written communication skills, experience with WordPress preferred, Sustain DuPage Membership
Description: Are you a computer whiz who would love to contribute your talents to build our movement in DuPage County? The Webmaster works behind the scenes to make sure Sustain DuPage’s website is not only operational but also concise and engaging. We’re looking to build hype for our movement with a badass website. Some edits may be solicited from our Leadership Committee. However, we are looking for someone who can develop a vision for how we can drive user traffic.
Membership Subcommittee, Chairperson
Time Requirement: ~5 hours/month, 1 year commitment minimum
Who Will Support Your Success: The other Subcommittee Chairpersons have offered to support whoever takes on this role.
Eligibility Note: Sustain DuPage Member, experience facilitating consensus-based leadership with a team,
Description: Sustain DuPage’s Membership program is growing in both capacity and complexity! We’re need the help of someone who is gung-ho about our mission and our commitment to remain a community-supported grassroots organization. (Our values make it impossible for us to accept grant money from mega-corporations, so we’re relying on our community to keep this movement growing!) We’re looking for someone tech-savvy and creative who can help us to develop programming for our Membership to perpetually thank them for being the lifeblood of our organization. This role will oversee event planning, engaging outreach, and whatever other visions you dream up at your monthly Membership Subcommittee meetings!
Compost Crew Volunteer
Time Requirement: ~6 hours/month
Who Will Support Your Success: Dr. Stasia Richter, Compost Crew Core Volunteer
Eligibility Note: Ability to lift 50 lbs.
Description: Sustain DuPage has big dreams when it comes to building soil! Not only do we want to be able to amend our communal garden’s soil, but we have a vision for a program so big that we can share nutrient-dense soil to our Sustain DuPage Membership Program for their at home gardens, too! We are expanding our compost program to include donations of leaves from the surrounding community and food scrap donations from local food pantries and local businesses. The more people who volunteer in this capacity, the easier the job gets and the more healthy soil we can generate! The goal of compost crew is to add 4 additional volunteers to our current crew. This would be a great opportunity for high school students who want to volunteer.
Open Mind Events Core Volunteer
Time Requirement: flexible
Who Will Support Your Success: Sustain DuPage leadership
Eligibility Note: Sustain DuPage Member
Description: Are you passionate about utilizing art to galvanize environmental values and actions? Read about our Open Mind Events! We’re looking for creative folks who would like to take this program and RUN with it!
DOFS Volunteer
Time Requirement: flexible
Who Will Support Your Success: Sustain DuPage leadership
Eligibility Note: No experience necessary, but it would be awesome if you have a background in policy or community engagement.
Description: DOFS is looking for folks who are excited to build a grassroots movement for policy reform in DuPage County. We want to eliminate all local ordinances that ban sustainable lifestyle practices and replace them instead with ordinances that protect and encourage sustainable lifestyle practices. This work is critical if we are serious about Sustain DuPage’s mission of growing sustainability in DuPage County.
Community Storytellers/Photographers
Time Requirement: flexible
Who Will Support Your Success: Sustain Dupage leadership
Eligibility Note: It would be awesome if you have experience with communications/theater/vocal performance/extemporaneous speaking, but not necessary. Must have access to a computer/smartphone and have relatively professional written communication skills.
Description: A critical part of movement building is having the stories of the movement be told outwardly. We would love to have folks who would be willing to be trained to represent the movement in social media live posts, blog articles, video creators, and general hype building.
Community Cooking Volunteer
Volunteer Type: Volunteer
Time Requirement: ~3 to 6 hours per month
Who Will Support Your Success: David Bravos, Community Cooking Organizer
Eligibility Note: Punctual, reliable, and ability to lift 50 lbs.
Description: Learn the behind the scenes action that goes into our cooking and foraging events! The Community Cooking Volunteer assists the Community Cooking Organizer in cooking and foraging events through preparing equipment and ingredients and is expected to arrive one hour before the event, and stay 30 minutes after the event for cleanup. As a result, they may attend the respective event for free.
Turners Reading Group Project Organizer
Time Requirement: approximately 5 to 10 hours per month (flexible), 1 year commitment minimum
Who Will Support Your Success: Current Turners Organizer
Eligibility Note: Must join Leadership Committee and attend LC meeting each month
Description: Are you passionate about sustainability and want to engage others in meaningful conversations to strengthen our community understanding and progress on sustainability? We are looking for someone to run regular group discussions on sustainability literature such as books, articles, essays, poetry, and movies.
Graphic Designers/ Video Animators
We would love to be able to have a team of graphic designers and video animators who could offer their skills for Sustain DuPage content. We would be happy to credit t@g all content created as a donation to Sustain DuPage across our social media and website. We have a big vision to begin creating more educational videos, bioregional indie news media, and general day-to-day website content. By crowdsourcing collaborative tasks, we can take the burden off any one specific designer.