Interested in giving a few hours of your time each week to uplift others?
An in-person or Zoom orientation will be scheduled after online training completion.
Volunteers with Hawai‘i Care Choices complete a 10-hour online training course and one day of virtual instruction. Volunteer training covers many topics including—the palliative and hospice philosophy of care, communicating with the dying, boundaries, and grief support for patients and families.
Why I Volunteer
What Can Volunteers Do?
Our biggest need is for volunteers to provide companionship for patients while giving a much needed break to the family caregiver. Visits are made in the patient’s homes and nursing centers. When you volunteer with
Hawai`i Care Choices, you can make a meaningful difference in the final stages of a patient’s life.
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Be a companion & Sit with Patients
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Give Caregivers a Break
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Provide Transportation
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Provide Yardwork Assistance
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Comfort the Grieving
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Help with Light Household Chores and Errands
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Write Letters and Stories
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Assist in Office Clerical Tasks
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Participate in Community Events
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Share your Talents or Skills
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Make a Difference Across our Community Every Day
Need
We are especially in need of volunteers willing to do the following:
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Offer Massage (must be a Licensed Massage Therapist)
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Provide Transportation (must have Insurance)
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Work with veterans
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Give support for community events and outreach activities
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Gardening/Maintenance (Exempt from volunteer training course requirement)
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Participate in Our Veteran to Veteran Program
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Currently our greatest needs for volunteers are in Hamakua, North/South Hilo, Puna, and Kau.
Contact
If you are interested in becoming a HiCare Volunteer, please complete our online volunteer application.
For questions about Volunteering, please contact:
Taira Kapahu
(Volunteer Coordinator)
Tish Lopez
(Clinical Support Manager)
(808) 969-1733 Volunteer@hawaiicarechoices.org
Featured Volunteer Story
The Power of Flowers
Lady Bird Johnson once said, “Where flowers bloom, so does hope.” And so, every Friday the volunteer team of Hawai'i Care Choices picks up anthuriums (generously donated by Green Point Nurseries) to deliver to patients and their families, in hopes that the flowers add beauty to their day.
David Kohara (in the left photo), who has been a volunteer with Hawai'i Care Choices since 2017, visits extended care facilities and residences like Yukio Okutsu Veterans State Home, Legacy Hilo Rehab & Nursing, and Life Care Center of Hilo, to deliver the fresh flowers to Hawai'i Care Choices patients who are receiving care there. Providing companionship for patients has been David’s passion and inspiration for years. He shared, “I think that volunteers have a very important role in this organization. I feel that we are the heart of the organization. We provide comfort and compassion to the patients. We may not know all the medical terms, but we know that the patients can sometimes feel loneliness, confusion…and volunteers do an excellent job filling in those holes and helping them along their journey. Sitting with the patients when I’m called in to do a vigil, to me, is the most touching and rewarding of all. I may not see them in their healthiest condition, but I see them when they are transitioning, and I am there to remind them that there will be someone waiting for them at the end.”