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volunteer with us! 
​At the Community Ecology Institute, we offer year-round volunteer opportunities for individuals, families, scouts, schools, community groups and businesses. We also welcome the time and talent of people who have "behind the scenes" skills, such as administration, social media content, grant writing, etc.

Individual Volunteering

All interested volunteers should register and fill out our volunteer application in Better Impact, our volunteer management platform*. Approved volunteers will then be able to schedule their volunteering by viewing our Opportunities on Better Impact and signing up for open shifts during our open hours. Please ensure you have followed these steps before arriving onsite. We can't accommodate volunteers who show up unscheduled or who have not registered in Better Impact.
*Please note that our Better Impact system includes a demographic data section that is entirely optional but included to make sure we are achieving our goal of supporting diverse members of our community and to be able to share summary information about our community engagement with organizations that support our work with grants. 

Group volunteering

If you would like to schedule a group visit, please start by filling out the Group Volunteer Visit Request Form with your group name and description, the size of your group, your requested dates, any accessibility needs, and more. Please note, that we are unable to take groups requiring more than 15 cars or comprising more than 20 people and we typically schedule groups at least four weeks ahead. Groups primarily comprised of youth in elementary school or younger are primarily considered field trips rather than volunteers, please contact Angela Nichols at [email protected] to learn more. We will get back to you directly to schedule your visit and provide you with more information.
Looking to volunteer in a non-garden work capacity? CEI sometimes has a need for volunteers with other professional skills, let us know if you would like to volunteer in a non-traditional capacity:

​learn about CEI

If you have not yet volunteered with CEI, we encourage you to attend one of our monthly “New to CEI” tours that alternate between Freetown Farm and the Green Farmacy Garden (with a break over the winter). See tour dates on our Upcoming Events page (search "Tour" to see all the upcoming dates). Currently our onsite volunteer opportunities are primarily at Freetown Farm, but weekly opportunities are now available at the Green Farmacy Garden.
CEI Volunteer Shift Calendar
Wednesdays: 
  • 10AM-12PM at Green Farmacy Garden
  • 1-3PM at Green Farmacy Garden
  • 4-6PM at Freetown Farm (Starting April 2nd)
Thursdays:
  • 10AM-12PM at Freetown Farm
Fridays
  • 9AM-11AM at Freetown Farm
Saturdays
  • 10:30AM-12:30PM at Freetown Farm
Sundays
  • 1-3PM at Freetown Farm
​Our volunteer handbook is a great resource for new folks to orient themselves to our volunteer program.

Scouts seeking a project should visit our:

If you have a skill you want to share, we could probably put it to good use!