Volunteering at EFC is a meaningful and rewarding endeavor, one that we prepare you well for with training and support. Anyone – staff or volunteer – who works with people who come to us for help must first be trained and supervised as a domestic violence/rape crisis counselor. Depending on how you will be volunteering, this may include completing a comprehensive training in order to protect the confidentiality of our clients and ensure quality services.

Volunteers fill a wide range of roles at EFC, taking advantage of the many skills they bring with them. In the past, EFC volunteers have cooked meals for shelter guests, worked in our Money School financial empowerment program, picked up furniture donations from donors, hosted supply drives, served as interpreters, helped plan fundraising events, and joined us for our annual community walks. Whatever you have to offer, there’s a good chance we can put your energy to use.

Recently, we have found that we have an URGENT need for a few strong volunteers with a van, large pickup, or box truck to pick up furniture donations and deliver them to our storage unit.  With the loss of a local resource for furniture donations, we receive many calls where donors have limited time windows for pickups. Our staff also has limited time to be able to perform this task, and these frequently do not align. Orientation is not needed for this volunteer opportunity. Please call for more information. 

2026 was our first complete year of hosting orientation sessions since before the pandemic, with 8 sessions scheduled.  In October we hosted an our last session for the year. Because we have limited meeting space in November and December due to other projects and have found that winter sessions are difficult for people due to the weather, we will continue regularly again in Spring 2027 with a variety of daytime, evening and an occasional Saturday session offerings. These sessions are usually held in our main office in Pittsfield at 66 Allen St. A request may be made for a specific group, and a session held at any time during the year, even at another location, if our schedule can align with yours. These sessions are usually around 90 minutes in length. 

For more information on volunteering or to sign up for one of these orientation sessions, please get in touch – by email at Volunteer@ElizabethFreemanCenter.org or by phone at (413) 499-2425. All inquiries are welcome!