JOIN OUR TEAM!
If you’re currently an undergraduate student at UCLA, Bruin Shelter would be delighted to have you on our team to help further alleviate the struggles with houselessness that individuals face on a daily basis! Our shelter fully operates on volunteer support, so we are always looking for passionate and dedicated bruins to help us out. We generally have application cycles twice a year, every Fall and Spring quarter.
Application Process
We are currently recruiting! Our next shelter staff recruitment is expected to take place Winter 2024. If you have any questions, please reach out over email to volunteer.bruinshelter@gmail.com or over Instagram DM at @bruinshelter!
2024 Winter Zoom Info Session!
Shelter Staff Position
Shelter staff oversee daily operations at the shelter. In this position, you will be tasked with running overnight shifts (7 pm – 7 am) with two other staff members about twice a month (for a total of 5 nights per quarter). Staff members are free to sleep once all duties have been completed at midnight. These duties include taking attendance of nightly residents, preparing dinner for the residents/staff, sharing a meal together, handling logistics, ensuring the safety of all occupants, locking and unlocking the shelter, and maintaining general upkeep of the shelter. Staff members are integral to daily shelter operations; therefore, we require individuals who display strong management skills, trustworthiness, and a genuine passion for addressing student houselessness!
Advocate Position
Advocates engage in Bruin Shelter committee work without physically going into the shelter. This is a great way to become involved in our community-based projects to combat houselessness and to help spread awareness about the intersectional struggles tied to it. We have four amazing committees available for you to join, and generally, each committee meets once a week during the quarter system. See their descriptions below.
Committees
Engagement Committee
Our Engagement Committee aims to emphasize community-building within our organization, both within our volunteers and amongst both volunteers and residents. This includes organizing socials, shelter activities, and other avenues through which our volunteers can get to know each other on a more individualized basis.
Media Committee
Media Committee strives to combat student houselessness by facilitating discussions about the intersectional struggles and issues surroudnbing housing insecurity. The aim of our podcast, “One Roof, Many Stories,” is to illustrate some of the many different experiences and stories of our unhoused and housing-insecure neighbors. The media committee drives awareness about student houselessness through its Instagram presence and other creative projects. By utilizing visual content interactive projects, the committee educates students about the rising issues and mot8ivates them to support solutions through volunteering, donating, and advocating.
Advocacy Committee
Our Advocacy Committee endeavors to educate on topics related to houselessness with the ultimate goal of reforming policy beyond the shelter. We aim to facilitate conversations within our organization and conduct research, which will subsequently help inform our advocacy for improvements in local policies regarding houselessness.
Mutual Aid Committee
Our Mutual Aid Committee seeks to broaden the impacts of our student coalition by reaching beyond the physical shelter to bring support to organizations and communities in need. In emblematizing the ideas of community-wide collaboration and caring for one another's needs, this committee spearheads the annual Backpack Project, Bruin Shelter's annual care package initiative, and seeks to bolster other mutual aid efforts within and beyond the campus community.