Service Opportunities
Education, civic engagement, and community service help individuals take a positive and active role against health disparities.
- Get involved in the community with the Center on Health Disparities! Stay up to date with engagement and outreach opportunities with our monthly Volunteer Newsletter (see sample here). You can also follow us on Facebook for daily news and updates. If you would like to sign up for our Volunteer Newsletter or other communications, participate in a particular service opportunity or have a service event to recommend, please contact Alisa Brewer alisa.brewer@vcuhealth.org
- Hands On Richmond is a local and trusted provider for linking individuals, families, teams, and corporate groups to join together and engage in meaningful volunteer opportunities. Look to them for leadership training, resources and guidelines, and a wide variety of service opportunities across the Greater Richmond region.
- Don't forget to follow student and campus-wide opportunities sponsored through the VCU Center for Community Engagement and Impact (formerly the Division of Community Engagement).
Community Networking 
Trainees, faculty, and staff often ask for recommendations to connect with community partners for longterm engagement and training. Now, you too can have access to this growing list of contacts. Explore your interests and support your quest with resource links and a few guiding questions.
Guiding Questions - Part 1:
Becoming a community partner is a new experience for many people and it is always a good idea to look at partnerships from the perspective of those within the community who know firsthand what their needs are.
Ask yourself:
(1) What is your passion?
(2) What do you want for your community?
(3) What does your community need from you?
Your passion will help lead you to the appropriate health target, a common goal. As for what you want and the community needs, be prepared to support partners even if these answers do not match up initially. With time, needs and opportunities, and perspectives may change (yours included). Stay connected. Contribute. Collaborate with existing resources and assets for jointly desired outcomes.
Guiding Questions - Part 2:
Once you have identified your networking opportunities of choice, consider the following:
- What was the most important thing you learned?
- What surprised you?
- What makes this resource a trustworthy source (i.e. credible, accurate)? Are other sources needed to verify or contribute to content shared?
- How was the/your community represented?
- What questions do you have now?
- How can you follow up?
- What can you do now with what you have learned?
Recommended Community Health Networks and Contacts:
Grow your own community network via exploration and participation in education, training and service that best matches your interests. The following attempts to categorize recommended opportunities by primary target interest (category overlap exists).
Calling All Volunteers!
Work at VCU (academic campus)? Eligible faculty and staff have paid community service leave in order to volunteer with community organizations during your normal work hours! For more information: email leave@vcu.edu or call 804-828-1712.