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We are looking for a very part time volunteer to serve as administrative assistant to our Executive Director.
Volunteer with our Overground Railroad
Asylum-seekers crossing our southern border are released by I.C.E. in the border towns. Local charities provide necessities such as a warm shower, fresh clothes, and a hot meal. They assist them with purchasing their bus or plane tickets and help them contact their families or sponsors. These asylum-seekers will travel to cities where their immigration hearings are scheduled. Volunteers send them off with sandwiches, snacks, some water, and a most important envelope with their documents.
If traveling by bus, they often travel up to four days and what they’ve been given will not sustain them. Before long, they run out of food, water, diapers, formula, and more. Usually without money or cell phones, they will do without. Many bus transfers, ticketing issues, wrong destination tickets, missed buses, chaos, and language barriers make it a daunting journey.
Traveling across our country, asylum-seekers need a friendly face,
assurance, guidance, and a warm welcome. …Grannies Respond!
Grannies Respond volunteers:
Meet buses and provide a smile and warm welcome
Help travelers find their next bus and understand their routes.
Sometimes meet plane arrivals
Provide food, water, toiletries, diapers, clothes, and toys
We are "on-call" for emergency assistance
How you can help:
Form a Grannies Respond Chapter:
If you wish to form a group to assist at your local bus station or do advocacy work in your town, we will train you and help you get volunteers for your group. Each group needs a lead or co-leads. We also invite your established volunteer group to partner with us.
With COVID and frequent changes in immigration policy, we have seen the rise and fall of numbers of asylum-seekers traveling across the U.S. Many travel from the border to where their hearings are scheduled or where they have sponsors or family. Once at their final destination, they still need our help. So, whether assisting at your bus station, or helping families register their children for school, teaching basic ESL, helping furnish an apartment, providing guidance to community resources, we are sure you will find the work of restoring dignity to asylum-seekers a rewarding experience!
Join a Grannies Respond group near you:
Grannies Respond groups welcome your participation and support!
Activities include greeting buses, making toiletry kits, fundraising, and more.
We are established in the following areas:
Atlanta, GA
Boston, MA
Columbus, OH
Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX
Grass Valley, CA
Gulf Coast, FL
Hudson Valley, NY
Houston, TX
Memphis, TN
Mobile, AL
New Orleans, LA
New York, NY
Philadelphia, PA
Pittsburgh, PA
Portland, ME
Sacramento, CA
San Francisco Bay Area, CA
Volunteer at the Border
Volunteer at the Border
Volunteering at the border is a life-changing and very rewarding experience!
We will coordinate your trip and you will be very well received by our humanitarian friends at the border!
You must be vaccinated and not recently exposed to Covid-19. You must be able to lift 40 lbs. and have no medical conditions that would prevent your participation.
Activities may include greeting asylum-seekers and preparing them for their bus journeys, assisting with ticketing, making airport runs, shopping, cooking, cleaning, organizing storage facilities, making beds, driving, and more.
Depending on location and work, Spanish (fluent or a little) may be required.
Grannies Respond provides volunteer opportunities with
our border partners with a one-week minimum commitment:
If you would lie to volunteer at the border, please contact us here
If you are not physically able, but would like to contribute, please consider making a donation here
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