Volunteer Opportunities
There are many ways to serve as a Hospice of the Northwest Volunteer. You may print and send us your Volunteer Application or contact our Volunteer Manager, Erin Long, for more information.
Erin Long: (360) 814-5588 or elong@hospicenw.org
Hospice of the Northwest volunteers strengthen our team by providing care and comfort to patients and their families. The biggest impact they make is by just being there for patients—holding hands, reading, preforming small tasks and empathetic listening.
Our volunteers often share that what they provide is an honor. Serving patients and their loved ones during end-of-life allows volunteers to meet a wide variety of people who are inspirational. Patients and their loved ones often share amazing life stories while our volunteers share their compassionate presence and usually feel they gain more than they are able to give.
Hospice of the Northwest volunteers are offered a flexible schedule and typically serve between 1-4 hours per week, based on their availability. With allowances for personal time away as needed. We are grateful for each of our volunteers and their service to hospice patients in the communities we serve.
Ways our Volunteers make a difference:
- Patient support: companionship, visits, active listening, bedside sitting, letter writing.
- Sharing hobbies: reading, gardening, listening to music, watching sports, crafts.
- Assisting caregivers: enabling caregivers to run errands, grocery shop, pick up prescriptions or just have time off.
- Household tasks: light housekeeping and snack prep.
- Administrative: help at the Hospice of the Northwest office, serving many different departments.
- Volunteer Leadership: leadership roles which allow us to expand our volunteer programs.
- Pet Peace of Mind: pet care and companionship in patient homes.
- Veteran to Veteran: veteran volunteers honoring and supporting our veteran patients.
- Animal Assisted Interventions: coordinating with licensed therapy animal teams for one-on-one visits.
Downloadable Forms
Why I volunteer for Hospice of the Northwest
Judy: “I feel as a volunteer we receive the greatest reward of all by being with these patients and just listening to their needs or wishes.”
Pat: “Hospice volunteers do have a heart for those in a sudden, unexpected place and wish to make it better, if only by respectfully walking with them and helping in any way that soothes.”
John: “The greatest compensation of volunteering comes from inside ourselves as an achievement of gratitude for helping others.”
Kathy: “Human relationships are the heart of the matter, and Hospice of the Northwest offers a very carefully and thoughtfully designed way to provide meaningful relationships during a fundamental time of transition, death.”