Volunteer Application Form

Become a volunteer today and help support and care for an ill person and their loved ones

If you would like to become a volunteer, please follow these steps:

1. Fill out our Confidentiality/Statement of Understanding Pledge and have it ready to upload before you proceed with this online volunteer form. You can download it by clicking HERE, then choose file “Save As” and place in your documents folder for printing. You will need to fill it out, scan it and have a digital copy avaialable in order to complete this application.
2. Provide two written references from people who know you well and can attest to the qualities you would bring to this work.  Have them available as PDFs to upload as well when completing the application.
3. Once we recieve your completed online form the area coordinator will review your application and contact you when the training is scheduled.
4. Participation in the volunteer training program is mandatory.
5. An interview will be scheduled after your complete the training.
6. A completed criminal record check will also be required before volunteering can begin.

List of necessary qualities as a hospice volunteer:

• Good communication skills
• Ease with people who are ill, including a sensitivity to their special needs
• Willingness to be open and to learn from others
• Ability to grow in self-knowledge
• Respect for philosophical or spiritual beliefs other than one’s own
• Ability to be non-judgmental about others lifestyles and choices
• Ability to define personal time limits and commitments
• Respect for the confidences of clients, family members and their friends
• Ability to be honest with one’s self and others
• Ability to work with others in a team situation

Applications to our training program are carefully reviewed and assessed with the following in mind:

• realistic expectation of what hospice is and is not
• availability of applicant including last minute referrals and crisis support
• unresolved grief issues and/or other issues related to a loss in the past year
• ability to commit to participation in full training 
• self-awareness around personal boundaries, biases, beliefs and motivations regarding providing care to the dying and death in general
• willingness to accept that a client has moved from the medical model of “cure” to the hospice/palliative care model of “care” and to accept a client’s impending death
• ability to separate one’s own experiences of death with an individual client’s death
• ability to establish clear and appropriate boundaries between yourself and a client
• ability to “be” with a client (sometimes in silence) and not “do” when a client is near death
• ability to provide companionship to clients who may be dealing with on-going, complicated pain management issues

Attention: Please ensure you have your completed Confidentiality/Statement of Understanding Pledge and Two References ready to upload before you proceed.