Family Integrity Volunteer Sign-Up

VECINA is relaunching the ReUnite Project and expanding our work to protect immigrant family unity through our new Family Integrity Project!

If you are an existing ReUnite volunteer, we may have reached out to you recently to gauge your capacity! If you are new to VECINA, we will be seeking volunteers to support our Family Integrity Project.

We are deeply grateful to the hundreds of dedicated ReUnite volunteers, partners, donors, and supporters who have made this work possible over the last four years. Thank you for standing with us and with immigrant families.

Breaking Barriers, Reuniting Families, Restoring Hope

Current Need

We are currently in the process of rebuilding, expanding, and launching our client and volunteer onboarding processes. While the precise number of cases we will receive is somewhat unpredictable due to the ever-changing immigration landscape, we want to be as prepared as possible to meet family reunification needs as they arise.

As we begin to receive new case referrals, we will be making announcements regarding our volunteer needs. We are very grateful to those of you who have supported VECINA in the past and will be reaching out with updates soon!

With recent shifts in Office of Refugee Resettlement policies, escalated enforcement tactics, and increased emphasis on detention, we anticipate a high need for new attorney volunteers and, in particular, attorneys with federal litigation and habeas petition experience and family law experts. Please make sure to check back with us, as we will continue to update this page as our volunteer needs evolve.

Thank you for your understanding!

VECINA’s volunteer opportunities are entirely remote! As a reminder, work with this project is on a volunteer basis. This is not a paid opportunity.

Time Commitment and Case Length

Changes in laws, regulations, and policies are having a profound impact on client needs. We will be providing updates on support needs based on volunteer opportunities as they are posted.

Historically, each volunteer could expect to spend approximately 8-10 hours over the duration of a ReUnite case, which includes the ~1.5 hour online training and the case work. With the addition of habeas petition representation and new obstacles to reunification, we are reassessing case cadence. Because these cases involve detained children, it is important for volunteers to work as efficiently as possible on their cases. Once we place a case with a team of volunteers, we ask that volunteers contact the client within 24 hours to begin working on the case, given that these cases involve detained children and time is of the essence.

Training and Mentorship from VECINA

Keep your eyes peeled! We are working hard to relaunch our ReUnite family reunification training, as well as new training and support materials for other volunteer opportunities.

Should you accept a volunteer opportunity, VECINA staff are on deck to check in with volunteer teams throughout their case to provide technical support for any questions or issues that arise. It is NOT necessary to have any background in immigration law to volunteer with this project.

Getting Started

We are always looking to have our new volunteers sign up to be ready to dive in when we have a case to place with you. To get started, please complete the sign-up form below. We will be providing updates on volunteer onboarding soon!

Take a look!

Watch a client reunite with her two young grandchildren in the airport after her ReUnite volunteer team helped secure their release from government custody.
Watch another young child reunite with his grandmother after a ReUnite team worked on this reunification case. The two were separated at the border by immigration officials.
Watch the reunification of this young child and his mother. Thanks to the efforts of one of VECINA’s pro bono ReUnite teams, the two were reunited just before Mother’s Day.
Read this LA Times article featuring the ReUnite Project.
Read this Time Magazine article featuring a ReUnite story.

Questions?

Anyone who has questions about this volunteer opportunity is welcome to contact our Family Integrity Project team at Family@vecina.org.

Thank you again for volunteering! We look forward to working with you on this project!

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Name

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Name*

First Last

Pronouns

Phone Number*

Privacy Policy: VECINA will not share, sell, or convey to third parties any Personally Identifiable Information (or PII) for marketing purposes. In the event that we contact you via SMS message, you will have the option to opt out of that communication at any time.

Email Address*

City, State and Country where you are located*

City State / Province / Region Country

*Even though this volunteer opportunity is fully remote, please do not list your location as “remote.” We need your location to assess what time zone you are in, as we do our best to match volunteers with a client and other volunteers who are in the same time zone. This is not always possible, but we do try.

Employer

Role

In what role would you like to volunteer?*

We are very fortunate to already have many volunteer Spanish interpreters lined up to help with these cases, and we are grateful to have a good number of volunteer attorneys and administrative support volunteers in our queue as well. With the recent presidential election results and likely changes ahead to policies targeting immigrant families, we anticipate that we will need to reopen our volunteer opportunities to additional attorneys, administrative support volunteers, and Spanish interpreters in the coming months. Please make sure to check back with us, as we will continue to update this page as our volunteer needs evolve. Thank you for your understanding!

State of bar admission

Bar number

Please list any languages you speak, read, or write well enough to comfortably communicate with a client without an interpreter. (Note: If you are applying to be a Volunteer Interpreter, we are currently only accepting languages other than Spanish.)*

Interpreters: You do not need to be a professional or certified interpreter to help, but you must be fully fluent in both English and your listed language. Attorneys and Admins: If you only speak English, you can leave this blank and we will make sure your team is paired with a volunteer interpreter if your client needs language support.

Do you already work or volunteer with any of the following groups or organizations? Select all that apply.*

The Department of Homeland Security

The Office or Refugee Resettlement

An organization/program funded by Office of Refugee Resettlement to work with unaccompanied minors

An organization in the Acacia network that provides legal services to unaccompanied minors

None of the above

*We need to ensure that you are not affiliated with any groups or organizations that would create a conflict of interest for you to work on this project. If you are unsure if there would be a conflict, please email the Family Integrity Project team at Family@vecina.org.

Do you have any experience working on immigration matters?*

*This is not required to work on this project.

What projects are you interested in?

Are you able to begin working on a case right away?*

If you answered 'yes' to the previous question, do you agree to sign the volunteer agreement and complete the online training course (~1.5 hours) for this project right away, so that you are ready to begin a case? You will be linked to both of these items after you click "Sign up" at the bottom of this page.*

Yes, I will review and sign the volunteer agreement and complete the online course for this project right away.

No, I am unvailable to complete these items and begin a case right away.

If you answered 'no' to the previous question, when will you be able to begin working on a case?

Would you like to be paired with anyone specific for your team?

*If you would like to be paired with a specific volunteer on a case, please let us know who that person is and whether that person would be volunteering as an attorney, administrative support, or interpreter. Please note that we generally assign one attorney, one administrative support, and one interpreter for each case.

Are there any periods over the next three months when you know you will be unavailable to work on a case?

*This would include things such as vacations, etc. You can always let us know later if your availability changes.

How did you hear about VECINA?

We love to recognize the incredible work and dedication of our volunteers. If VECINA would like to give you a public recognition or "shout out" for your efforts at some point using your name and describing your volunteer work, including a post on VECINA's social media, VECINA's website, and/or in a VECINA newsletter, would you be okay with this?*

Yes, this is fine with me. I have no issue with VECINA acknowledging me publicly, including the use of my name and a description of my volunteer work.

No, I prefer not to be recognized publicly.

Is there anything else you would like to share with us about your experience or your reasons for choosing to volunteer with VECINA's Family Integrity Project?