Become a volunteer at Free Geek Vancouver
Free Geek depends on volunteers. Over 9,000 people have registered as volunteers with us since we opened in 2006! No prior experience of any kind is needed: we will teach you everything you need to know. If you already have relevant skills, that's great too!
Apply
Prospective volunteers can come to our facility or contact us by email. From there, we will schedule you for an orientation. Orientation lasts an hour. Please note, spots are limited (maximum 8 per day), and you must sign up for an orientation in advance. We are not able to accommodate drop-ins.
From there we will schedule you a training session and you will fill in our volunteer form at this training session, please bring one piece of photo id with you.
For volunteers under the age of 14, a parent or guardian must accompany them during the orientation. After the orientation, at the training schedule a parental consent form will be necessary, a parent or guardian will need to volunteer as well. Only after we have seen the volunteer at regular shifts will staff discuss the possibility of the volunteer participating in Free Geek activities independently.
We can not accept volunteers under the age of 8 due to safety.
From there we will schedule you a training session and you will fill in our volunteer form at this training session, please bring one piece of photo id with you.
For volunteers under the age of 14, a parent or guardian must accompany them during the orientation. After the orientation, at the training schedule a parental consent form will be necessary, a parent or guardian will need to volunteer as well. Only after we have seen the volunteer at regular shifts will staff discuss the possibility of the volunteer participating in Free Geek activities independently.
We can not accept volunteers under the age of 8 due to safety.
Hours
We have two volunteer shifts per day: 11 am - 2 pm, 3 pm - 6 pm. Open Help Night volunteering is from 6:15 pm - 9:30 pm on Wednesdays.
Activities
We take great pride in being able to teach our volunteers skill sets that are applicable in the real world. You will work with our dedicated staff and other volunteers who are all willing to share and learn new skills with you! Here are some of the tasks you can help with:
If you have skills in other areas or there are other ways you can help us out, let us know!
- Electronics Dismantle: Take apart electronics for recycling and reuse
- E-waste Processing: Receive e-waste, process metals, circuit boards, and wire for material recycling
- Refurbishment: Refurbish computer components and electronics for reuse
- Building: Build and refurbish desktop and laptop computers
- Cleaning: Help keep the facility clean
- Thrift Store: Provide customer service, and help keep the store neat and stocked
- Open Help Night: Provide free tech support to the community at large
- Outreach: Promote Free Geek to the public
- Testing Electronics or Computer parts
- Wire Sorting
- Hard-Drive Destruction
If you have skills in other areas or there are other ways you can help us out, let us know!
Benefits
There are lots of good reasons to volunteer at Free Geek Vancouver:
Once you volunteer 24 hours at Free Geek, you are entitled to a free desktop computer, called the Adoption Box. If you're not not interested in the Adoption Box, you can instead opt to receive a $50 gift certificate that goes toward anything in our Thrift Store.
- Make connections, build relationships and find friends with similar interests
- Gain experience and skills with computers and electronics
- Learn about the computing industry, e-waste and recycling practices
- After 24 hours of volunteer time, qualify for the Adoption Program (see below)
- Thrift Store: 20-40% discount off most items
- Save the Planet!
Once you volunteer 24 hours at Free Geek, you are entitled to a free desktop computer, called the Adoption Box. If you're not not interested in the Adoption Box, you can instead opt to receive a $50 gift certificate that goes toward anything in our Thrift Store.