Service-Learning and Community-Engagement Resources for Faculty

The Zooniverse is the world’s largest and most popular platform for people-powered research. Project disciplines include: Arts, Biology, Climate, History, Language, Literature, Medicine, Nature, Physics, Social Science, and Space

Launched in July 2013, the Smithsonian Transcription Center seeks to engage the public in making our collections more accessible. Citizen scholars are invited to transcribe historic documents including diaries and working papers of prominent Americans and records associated with the Smithsonian's vast scientific collections. Transcription makes these important materials more accessible to researchers around the world, as well as the general public.

Do you love gardens and the thrill of the hunt? The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Gardens has images of numerous gardens across the United States that need a bit of sleuthing to be positively identified.Some images belonged to slide lectures that were dismantled over time or simply never were labeled. Regardless of how it happened, they are a mystery!

Our knowledge of the many life-forms on Earth - of animals, plants, fungi, protists and bacteria - is scattered around the world in books, journals, databases, websites, specimen collections, and in the minds of people everywhere. Imagine what it would mean if this information could be gathered together and made available to everyone – anywhere – at a moment’s notice. This dream is becoming a reality through the Encyclopedia of Life.

LibriVox volunteers read and record chapters of books in the public domain in the USA, and make them available for free on the Internet.

Opportunities include translation, art and design, research, healthcare services, administration, and more.

If you’ve ever looked underneath a dock, you’ve probably noticed that it is covered with living things! This group of organisms, known as a fouling community, contains a wide variety of invertebrate animals, algae, and bacteria. Through Invader ID, you can help us to track changes in fouling communities and look for new occurrences of invasive species. With your help, we’ll be able to track fouling communities in more places, and hopefully see early warning signs of environmental changes.

Crisis Text Line is the free, 24/7 text line for people in crisis in the United States. The service is powered by volunteer Crisis Counselors who work remotely—anywhere with a computer and secure internet connection works. Crisis Counselors answer texts from people in crisis, bringing them from a hot moment to a cool calm through active listening, collaborative problem solving, and safety planning.

Translators without Borders depends on volunteers to translate millions of words, but also to help us run the organization. We work with volunteers who have all kinds of great skills – and many learn new skills that they can use in their jobs.

Explore hundreds of virtual volunteer opportunities in cause areas like health and medicine, education, and community building, that you can do from a computer, from home or anywhere.

A curated list of remote volunteer opportunities, both ongoing and dated.

This resource page includes Higher Ed prompts under its Get Project Ideas heading

A co-created list of ways to engage in acts of kindness and service during COVID-19.

YSA's mission is to activate young people, ages 5-25, to find their voice, take action, and acquire powerful civic and 21st Century skills as they solve problems facing their communities.

VolunteerMatch connects people with organizations in their community, providing lists of volunteer opportunities and nonprofits in a specified geographic area.

All for Good is a digital hub for volunteerism and community engagement, and a service of Points of Light. Volunteer opportunities from many sites around the web are pulled into All for Good by feeds to provide the most comprehensive database of volunteer opportunities around the world.

Catchafire strengthens the social good sector by matching professionals who want to donate their time with nonprofits who need their skills.

Led by the state’s Chief Service Officer, Josh Fryday, California Volunteers is the state office tasked with engaging Californians in service, volunteering and civic action to tackle our State’s most pressing challenges while mobilizing all Californians to volunteer and serve in their communities.