Community Service

Civic engagement is one of the keystones of fraternity and sorority experience. Members are empowered to make a positive impact on the community and develop an understanding of civic responsibility through the process of serving others. In the past year, UCSB fraternities and sororities spent more than 10,000 hours giving back to the Santa Barbara, Isla Vista, and Goleta communities. As part of the accreditation program, Student Engagement & Leadership asks that each fraternity or sorority member complete a minimum of 6 hours of community service per quarter. At the end of each quarter, members must submit a community service verification form to their chapter to be turned in to SEAL.

Chapters and/or members are required to submit the following items documenting their community service and philanthropy achievements each quarter.

Community Service Report Submission Guidelines

To access report forms visit Resources.

  • Chapter Member Verification Form - completed via Shoreline by each member every quarter to summarize and verify all community service hours completed
  • Philanthropy Report Form - completed via Shoreline detailing the amount of money raised by the chapter through philanthropic activities and fundraising for charity. One submission accepted per chapter. 

Community Service Opportunities | In-Person Options

COVID-19 threatened the nation's blood and platelet supply.  Please visit the America Red Cross to find out more about how to donate blood and where to go near you.  Your actions could literally save a life! You can also consider bringing the Bloodmobile to campus/your chapter facility.

The Best Day Foundation is an organization that takes kids with special needs on a day to the beach! They have adaptic surfboards, boogie boards, kayaks, and beach obstacle courses. The Foundation is looking for energetic student volunteers to help serve as "beach buddies" for participants. This video provides more information about the Foundation. Please sign up online HERE!

Due to staffing shortages, Adopt-a-Block services are temporarily altered and might not be available. You can try reaching out to see if they can accommodate your group; however, you may need to find alternatives until the vacancy can be filled. 
Contact (805) 968-2017
http://www.ivparks.org/adopt-a-block/get-involved/

This organization works throughout SB County to grow, plant, and care for trees primarily in public areas while also providing educational outreach to school and the community.  
Contact: (805) 252-1952 
http://www.yourchildrenstrees.org
 

This opportunity involves tutoring elementary/secondary level science.  There are a variety of ways to get involved based on your comfort level and time commitment.

Contacts: scitrekadmin@chem.ucsb.edu (behind the scenes volunteering), scitrekelementary@chem.ucsb.edu (elementary tutoring), scitreksecondary@checm.ucsb.edu (secondary school tutoring)
https://scitrek.chem.ucsb.edu/volunteer 

Volunteer to help out at a bunny and guinea pig shelter.  No experience needed - we will provide all the training you need!
Contact: 805-683-0521
https://bunssb.org/volunteer 

Lots of opportunities to get involved.  Currently, walk-ins are not accepted, so please register prior to going to a volunteer event site.

Contact: (805) 403-2471 or email volunteersb@foodbanksbc.org
https://foodbanksbc.volunteerhub.com/lp/southcounty/ 

With many ways to contribute to our life-saving work, we look forward to speaking with you about how you'd like to be involved.  With roles including the daily care and feeding of our shelter animals, as well as everything from being a driver on our transport team to an assisting in our veterinary clinic, from playing and cuddling with the adoptable animals to assisting with behind-the-scenes admin work, we hope to find a role that's as rewarding for you as it is immensely helpful for the animals in our shelters.

Contact: (805) 681-5285 or email PHDAnimalServicesOutreach@sbcphd.org 
https://www.countyofsb.org/1549/Volunteers 

Friendship-Manor offers various opportunities for you to learn and help on-premises, while reaping huge benefits from giving to this senior living facility.

Contact: (805) 968-0771
http://www.friendship-manor.org/volunteers.html 

This community action agency offers numerous was to help SB County residents live healthy, resilient, and financially secure lives. 

Contact: (805) 964-8857 - extension #1109 or Email: jkelly@CommUnifySB.org   https://www.communifysb.org/services/community

You don’t need cooking experience to volunteer with us. If you don’t know how to cook, you’ll learn alongside our students. What you need to have is patience for working with kids and the ability to recognize what needs to be done in a given moment — whether it is corralling kids, creating a game, bandaging a cut, dashing to the kitchen for extra supplies, or just guiding meal-time discussion.

Contact: (805) 452-3497
https://www.atozcookingschool.org/getinvolved

The volunteers here perform an essential part of the daily operations.  We have many areas in which you can help us. Whether it is with our animals, the thrift store, or helping us at our special events, you are integral part of the SYV Humane/DAWG team!

Contact: (805) 688-8224
https://www.syvhumane.org/help-us/volunteer

There are many volunteer opportunities available throughout the year and we want you to join our team. Consider volunteering at a fundraising or program event, in our office, or becoming an intern.

Contact: (805) 962-7466
https://www.teddybearcancerfoundation.org/volunteer

As a college student, you have the power to mobilize other university students to become advocates for nutritious and sustainable diet change within your community. You can join a chapter as a volunteer instructor at existing KIN chapters or volunteer with KIN headquarters for behind the scenes operations.

Contact: ucsb@kidsinnutrition.org
https://www.kidsinnutrition.org/join-the-movement

Community Awareness, Responsibility, Education helps to prevent suffering and ensure pets can stay with their families, we distribute four tons of pet food weekly and provide critical wellness services to a record-number of animals in our mobile veterinary clinic. We also offer refuge for pets of domestic violence survivors as well as humane education programs that promote compassion for animals and empathy in our community.

Contact: (805) 335-7524 or email wendy@care4paws.org
https://www.care4paws.org/

Santa Barbara Channelkeeper is a registered 501c3 environmental nonprofit (EIN: 91-2151460) and is pleased to offer validated community service credits.  Channelkeeper’s Watershed Brigade provides COVID-safe opportunities for volunteers to benefit the environment and earn credit. Watershed Brigade volunteers remove trash from trails, neighborhoods, creeks, rivers, and beaches and serve as environmental stewards.  Clean-ups can be conducted anytime, anywhere and our team is happy to support student efforts by identifying litter hotspots and providing volunteers with clean-up supplies.

Contact: (805) 563-3377 or email molly@sbck.org
https://www.sbck.org/brigade/

Community Service Opportunities | Virtual Options

Find local service opportunities you can do from home, no matter where home might be for you at this moment. There are opportunities all around the world you can check out HERE.

Operation Warm offers a list of several organizations to virtually volunteer for from your home!

Be a digital volunteer with the Smithsonian for their transcription center or update their Wikipedia material. 

Volunteer with Catch a Fire for a variety of projects depending on area type and time to completion.

Join a global network of digital volunteers helping to research and expose human rights violations with Amnesty Decoders. 

Translators without Borders works with volunteers who are fluent in more than one language to translate a variety of documents for those in need.

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.

Volunteer with Project Gutenberg to proofread eBooks for those who don't have access to paper books.

DoSomething members join volunteer, social change, and civic action campaigns to make real-world impact on causes they care about. 

Governing Council Opportunities

United Sorority & Fraternity Council

  • USFC holds elections at the beginning of winter quarter. To be eligible to apply to serve on the executive board, members should be an active member in good standing with their organization, should not currently serve as the Chapter President, should maintain a 2.75 GPA, and should not be in their first year of membership.

Professional Fraternity Council

  • PFC holds elections during spring quarter. Any member of a PFC organization (other than chapter presidents) is eligible to apply.
  • Each chapter elects or appoints Representatives to attend weekly council rep meetings on behalf of their chapter.

Interfraternity Council

  • The Interfraternity Council (IFC) holds elections at the beginning of winter quarter. Active members in good standing of a recognized IFC organization who are not the Chapter President are eligible to apply. 
  • There are potential opportunities to serve on the judiciary committee as well as the programming committee that will be shared with Chapter Presidents; however, these representatives are determined by the member organizations.

Collegiate Panhellenic Council

  • CPC holds elections at the end of fall quarter. Members of a CPC organization who have been initiated for at least one year and who do not hold an executive board position in their own chapter are eligible to apply. 
  • There are some committee opportunities (judicial board, programming committee, marketing committee, etc.) that will be periodically shared by Panhellenic Delegates. 
  • Recruitment Counselors (Rho Gammas) are selected in the spring to serve in their roles during Fall primary recruitment. Applications are released early spring quarter.

New Member Conference
 

The New Member Conference is held each fall and spring quarter to provide an introduction to the Fraternity & Sorority community for its newest members. Programming includes a keynote and breakout sessions.

For IFC & CPC breakouts, we use peer facilitators to provide educational content and a more experienced student perspective to set younger members up for success in their memberships.

  • Peer facilitators are trained and receive community service hours for their involvement.
  • Peer facilitator sign-ups will be available a few weeks prior to each New Member Conference.