Volunteering at Children's
How Can I Volunteer at Children's?
At Children’s, our mission is to make kids better today and healthier tomorrow. From assisting with patient care to customer service and administrative support, our dedicated team of hospital volunteers is at the heart of everything we do. Whether you’re helping at the gift shop, making a delivery to a patient’s room or interacting at the bedside, you will positively affect a family’s hospital experience.
Children’s offers many hospital volunteer and educational opportunities for a variety of ages and groups:
Support Children's From Home
While in-person volunteer opportunities are currently more limited, there are still many ways you can help from the comfort of home. Your donations will help fuel, clothe and entertain patients and families during their visit or stay in one of our hospitals.
How you can help:
- Decide which Children’s hospital you’d like to support: Egleston, Hughes Spalding or Scottish Rite
- Decide how you want to help:
- Host a toy drive
- Assemble craft kits and create other activities for patients
- Provide meal kits or grocery items for the food pantry
- Donate pajama packs or family care kits
- Provide shout-outs for staff
- Have your donation pre-approved to help make sure you are meeting our hospital’s most urgent needs. Contact the volunteer coordinator at the hospital you’d like to support for specific guidelines.
Join Our Family and Youth Advisory Councils
We know that the parents of our patients can bring unique insights to the care we provide. Children’s is tapping into this resource with its Family Advisory Council (FAC) and Youth Advisory Council (YAC), a collaborative venture with parents that gives them a formal opportunity to help us enhance our caregiving efforts.>/p>
Made up of parents of Children's patients—both past and present—as well as staff members from various divisions of our hospital, FAC provides us with an invaluable patient-family perspective on our care.
Mission
FAC has a clearly defined purpose, centered on enhancing children’s lives and promoting relationship-based care that:
- Helps improve relationships between patients, families and staff.
- Creates a welcome forum for family input.
- Gives families the opportunity to review recommendations referred to the council by hospital staff.
- Offers families the chance to have input in program and policy development.
Provides an outlet to channel information and the needs and concerns of patients and families to hospital departments.
The council meets regularly to help guide Children’s on a variety of topics—from hospital parking and patient billing to hospital services, procedures and amenities. FAC members serve for at least two years, attend bimonthly daytime meetings and carry out requests as needed.
Thank you for your interest in the Youth Advisory Council (YAC). We look forward to having you apply to the YAC. Please review the criteria below to see if you are eligible and if this is the right fit for you.
Youth Advisory Council mission:
- Provide opinions and suggestions to improve the hospital experience through the eyes of teen patients.
- Make recommendations and suggestions of ways to enhance the quality and quantity of programs and practice that affect the teen population through self-advocacy.
Purpose and goals:
- Help create a better environment for pediatric patients.
- Give back to the community.
- Provide teens with committee and leadership opportunities.
Criteria:
- Candidate must be age 12-18
- Candidate must be a patient or sibling of a patient or an employee’s child (must have had some type of experience with Children’s)
- One letter of recommendation must be emailed to thefamilyvoice@choa.org (cannot be a family member; must be a teacher, a coach, medical staff, an employer, a minister, etc.)
- Candidate must commit one year and attend four meetings in the school year.
- Candidate must be able to contribute ideas and communicate in a team atmosphere.
- Candidate must be an active listener, participant and collaborator who is respectful and open to the ideas of others.
Process to apply:
- Once you have completed the application, send one letter of recommendation to thefamilyvoice@choa.org.
- Family Advisory Council staff will review and process applications.
- Complete an in-person mandatory interview.
- All candidates will be notified of acceptance decision via email.
- If chosen, must submit consent form signed by legal guardian that will be collected at first meeting.
Additional information:
- Meetings will be held once a quarter on Sunday afternoons from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
- Additional volunteer opportunities may occur throughout the year.
- Location: Scottish Rite Hospital, 1001 Johnson Ferry Road, Atlanta, GA 30342
At Children’s, our mission is to make kids better today and healthier tomorrow.
Children’s is the largest healthcare provider for children in Georgia and one of the largest pediatric clinical care providers in the country. With generous philanthropic and volunteer support, we provide care for more than half a million children and teens every year.
Who We AreWhat are Other Ways to Get Involved?
Contact Us
For more information about volunteer opportunities, donation guidelines or to reach out with questions, please contact us:
- Egleston Hospital Julia Ward
- Scottish Rite Hospital Melanie Turner
- Hughes Spalding Hospital Charice Holt
Contact Us 404-785-VOLS