VOLUNTEER

Get Involved

MWA is a 100% volunteer-run,
365 days-a-year membership
organizing drive

The more volunteers we have, the stronger voice we create to put forth our demands for systemic change. Jobs with wages we can live on, adequate food, safe and secure housing and utilities are necessities to end poverty for all working people.

Weekly Activities

Annual Calendar

Organizer Training

  • MWA volunteers organize donated food

    ORGANIZE...

    MWA’s 11-point self-help membership benefit program of emergency food, clothing, preventive medical and non-emergency dental care, legal advice, utility bill advocacy and more. Volunteer as part of the benefit staff and learn to coordinate and fill benefits, or become a lay benefit advocate, assist as a driver or an interpreter.

  • An MWA volunteer speaks to a room full of college students

    MOBILIZE...

    campaigns with MWA members to end government policies that undermine the survival of working families, while fighting for full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 goals now!

  • An MWA volunteer leads games with children a Halloween event

    JOIN…

    MWA members in organizing self-help seasonal and holiday campaigns in the spirit of solidarity and mutual benefit, so low-income workers can celebrate the season with decency and dignity.

  • 11 MWA volunteers and members work together filing cards and writing letters

    INVEST YOUR SKILLS…

    in organizing day-to-day activities in MWA’s office including clerical work, phone calls, group publication and letter mail-outs, driving and more.

Illustration by Laura Salafia showing women workers and organizers with one in the front reaching out her hand

MWA’s Method Of “On-The-Job” Training

See One, Do One, Teach One

MWA teaches basic organizing skills to all who dare to care and invest the time to learn. No prior experience or special skills are needed.

Ask about our organizer training programs, including classes in organizing method and lessons from the history of labor and political organizing in the U.S.

Learn How to Organize

Full-time, Part-time or Any Time Organizers Needed!

MWA provides organizer training through all its activities, thus giving volunteers the opportunity to become professional volunteer organizers. We use “on-the-job training,” so you can learn while taking action and making a difference.

Volunteers are needed daytimes and evenings, whether for a day, an hour, a week, a summer, a year, or for the rest of your life! We own a strategy, a method and have a track record of success. The only missing ingredient is you! Call MWA today at (614) 262-0567!

Below is a sampling of routine weekly activities.

Please ask for more details when you call MWA at (614) 262-0567.

  • 2 MWA volunteers sign up a new member

    Membership Canvass

    Saturdays 10am to 4pm

    Alone and isolated we cannot achieve anything; united we can win! Volunteers canvass door-to-door in low-income neighborhoods where members and potential members live, to build organization where it’s needed the most.

  • 2 MWA volunteers meet with and listen to an MWA member

    Benefit Advocacy

    Tuesdays & Thursdays 10am to 4pm

    1 out of 6 Ohioans are threatened with a utility shutoff each year. Columbus is the 2nd worst city in the nation for wage theft. Volunteers learn how to fill benefit requests from MWA members ranging from recovering stolen wages to stopping illegal evictions or utility shutoffs to resolving unmanageable medical bills and other forms of advocacy.

  • Volunteers work together on designing an MWA publication

    Graphic Design

    Sundays 10am to 2pm

    Don’t trust the mainstream media? 96% of the population doesn’t. Volunteers produce an independent newspaper, eye-catching flyers and posters to aid the cause of low-income workers. Professionals with skills or complete beginners are welcome!

  • 9 MWA volunteers work together on sending letters

    Mailout Session

    Tuesdays 1pm to 5pm

    Volunteers prepare and send letters about our current campaigns to people who have joined MWA and have expressed an interest in volunteering or supporting MWA. We need volunteers to help with the daily letter mailout as well as to assist with the mass mailing of MWA’s membership newspaper and Sponsors Guide.

  • MWA volunteers doing outreach to sign up volunteers

    Community Outreach

    Fridays 3pm to 7pm

    Volunteers set up information tables in front of grocery stores, local community events and other locations to promote MWA so that others can join our cause. This is one way MWA enlists new friends and participants to come in and make a difference. Please call if you can volunteer or if you know of a location where MWA can set up a table.

  • MWA members conduct a phoning session

    Phoning Session

    Sundays, Mondays & Wednesdays 6pm to 9pm

    Volunteers are essential to all of MWA’s activities year-round. Volunteers conduct group telephone sessions to re-contact interested individuals met on community outreach and word-of-mouth about participating with MWA’s organizing activities scheduled each week.

Help keep MWA on the road to victory!

Volunteer drivers are urgently needed to pick-up and transport MWA volunteers and members for a variety of organizing and benefit activities as well as to deliver food and other resources throughout central Ohio.

Annual Campaigns & Events

  • 2 MWA volunteers sign up a new member in the winter

    January - March

    Winter Survival Campaign

  • 11 MWA volunteers work together rolling tamales

    February

    Super Bowl Sunday Tamale Benefit

  • MWA volunteers wearing bunny ears seated with a dozen children at a Spring Brunch Event

    March - April

    Spring Brunch & Children’s Egg Hunt

  • Musical performers on stage at an MWA Anniversary Celebration

    July

    Anniversary Celebration

  • 4 MWA volunteers unloading donated school supplies from a car

    August

    Back-to-School Campaign

  • 4 children with painted faces at an MWA Halloween party

    October

    Safe & Sane Halloween Party
    & Chaperoned Trick-or-Treating

  • 2 MWA volunteers prepare donated food for distribution

    November

    Thanksgiving Food Distribution

  • 7 children pose with Santa Claus at an MWA Holiday Party

    December

    Family Holiday Party & Toy Distribution;
    Holiday Food Distribution