Volunteer for the California AIDS Hotline
- The California AIDS Hotline provides information, referrals and peer counseling about HIV/AIDS and STDs. Health education volunteers respond to calls covering a wide variety of HIV-related issues & concerns in English and Spanish, as well as assist with special phone projects.
Volunteers are asked to commit to one 4-hour shift per week (daytime availability Monday thru Friday is particularly needed). Minimum age is 18.
- Entry-level health education volunteers complete 24 hours of classroom training along with tutorials and
practice calls before taking calls on their own. They're required to attend an initial 18-hour classroom training, plus an additional 4 hours of practice calls, 6 hours of tutorial work to enhance computer and resource finding skills, 2 hours of supplementary training and 2 hours of update/graduation exercises for a total of 32 hours.
- Training topics include immunology, virology, epidemiology, risk reduction, harm reduction theory, risk assessment, injection drug use, testing, information access, anti-HIV drugs, natural approaches, news items and theories, crisis and suicide calls, sex roles and power, role
playing and practice calls.
- The training also teaches volunteers communication skills and cultural competency.
- If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area and want to volunteer, please call 415/487-8080 and we'll contact you. You can also email us at volunteer@sfaf.org. For information on volunteering with AIDS organizations in other parts of California, go to the search page, enter the category "volunteering" and type in a zip code.
Page last updated: 4/18/2008