Always wanted to do something for the homeless? And available for at least one evening and one night per month? We are looking for new volunteers.
In our building underneath the Marnix parking garage, we offer shelter to 45 visitors. From September through April we provide over 10.000 night stays and meals. Our crew of over 75 volunteers, provide our visitors with shelter, food, coffee, and a chat. Does that sound like a good fit to you? Apply to become a volunteer!
As a volunteer you'll be doing all sorts of things, from pouring coffee, washing dishes, handing out meals, or a chat with our visitors.
Beside that, volunteers keep an eye out on safety issues and make visitors aware of the house rules where needed.
17:30 - 23:00 — 3 volunteers
The first visitors arrive at 18:00. You'll make coffee and tea and hand out meals.
At 21:00 all visitors for the night will have arrived and no new visitors will be let in. You'll do the dishes, make some more coffee, chat with visitors, or just play a game.
At around 22:30 the night shift crew will take over.
22:30 - 08:00 — 2 vrijwilligers
Most of the visitors will already be asleep when your shift starts. The lights are dimmed and you'll prepare tomorrow morning's breakfast.
One of the night shift volunteers will now usually take a nap in a separate room, while the other one keeps an eye out, and relaxes in our lazy boy chair.
At 03:30 you may swap places, and at 07:00 the light go on. Breakfast is served and at 08:00 all visitors will have left.
Being a volunteer at the Stoelenproject requires good social skills, a solid personality, and good vibes.
You don't a specific education but we do require our volunteers to have a home themselves.
We offer all volunteers a solid onboarding and an anti-aggression training.
Twice a year, we organize a meetup with all volunteers but, of course, it's the knowledge that you're helping our vulnerable visitors that is the biggest return you'll get.
"All volunteers are different. Some are actually pretty weird. They do have one thing in common: a big heart. I'm grateful for all those cups of coffee and the chats."
It's only two shifts per month, but it means the world to our visitors. I can truly do something meaningful for others. One night shift makes so much difference for our visitors; it's truly worth it."
"I discovered a side of Amsterdam that I'd never seen before. It's safe to say that it enriched my life."
Beside safe shelter, a healthy meal is a basic need. The Stoelenproject has limited fund and thus relies on awesome volunteer cooking crews to provide healthy meals every single night.
Cooking crews often come from clubs such as Rotary, Roteract, JCI or companies like Rabobank, Ballast Nedam, Ymere, Orange, but also groups of friends, families, and churches.
The recipe is simple and works like this:
