As a volunteer with Level, you’ll notice that people are excited to learn, to have something to focus on. They’ll write ‘thank you’ six, seven times. They are so happy to have a resource. They are looking forward to planning for their release. They have the same desires to succeed and gratitude for an opportunity.
Remote online volunteering
Volunteer with Level from anywhere, anytime, online! Using our website, you will review transcriptions of handwritten educational forms sent from people in prison. This volunteer work has a huge impact on our program by making sure that transcriptions are accurate. Plus, you will witness the impact our program has on incarcerated learners across the country.
- Volunteer whenever is convenient for you, from your home or office
- Review and update transcriptions of handwritten educational forms
- See first-hand the impact of Level's prison education program
- Give back to your community and experience the power of education
In-person volunteering in Austin
Come to our downtown Austin location to help assemble shipments of educational and workforce development modules for people in prison across the country. Engage with Level's staff while contributing to your community.
- Our office is at 5th and Red River
- Free parking available
- One weekday per week, most often Thursdays
- Best fit for people who have done some online volunteering first
Specialized volunteering
We also have a variety of opportunities for volunteers who have greater capacity or more specific interests! This includes:
- Corporate partnership development: arrange a one-time or ongoing sponsorship or volunteer opportunity for employees at your company or organization! (Note that in-person events are only available to groups in or near Austin, Texas.)
- Communications internship: are you a student interested in communications, education or criminal justice? Our team is looking for an intern to support our media outreach, social media, public relations and programmatic communications. This intern will get to work closely with Level's leaders and get hands-on experience supporting our unique mission and vision.
- Direct program support: volunteers who have reviewed transcriptions and want to engage more directly with the people we serve may be invited to help with the distribution process that serves incarcerated learners across the country!
Have questions about volunteering with Level?
We've included answers to some common questions below. Please get in touch with any additional questions. Thank you!
There is no weekly or monthly time commitment! That said, we ask our volunteers to attend an info session and orientation to determine whether the opportunities we have to offer are a good fit for them. We are looking for volunteers who are interested and capable of being active as volunteers over time. We try to minimize the number of volunteers we onboard who then do not go on to be active, as this is not a good use of our time.
Yes! You are welcome to track your volunteer activity, and our team can verify that activity on our end. If there is a specific form for verification you require, you will need to furnish our team with the relevant forms and information. Please let us know ahead of time so we can be aware of your verification needs.
For our remote volunteering, you will need a computer and access to the internet. For in-person volunteering in Austin, we provide all necessary supplies.
Level is a popular, independent, nonprofit prison education program that offers education, career training and personal development for people in prison and connects with family members and supporters on the outside. Our unique approach can reach nearly any person at any prison, even those in high security or solitary confinement. 7,050 people in prison have spent 100,400 hours using the Level program inside 1,067 prisons across the country.
Level sends printed educational modules - we call them guides - to people in prison across the country. Our guides are designed to pass the stringent restrictions applied to incoming mail at correctional facilities. People in prison can use our guides in their cells or in common areas. Each of our guides is designed to be a 10 hour study program about one topic. People complete our program at their own pace.
When a learner finishes a guide, they transfer their quiz answers onto a Completion Form and send it back to us. Our system registers their completion of that guide, creates a Certificate of Achievement, and then we send a new guide.
We send updates by text or email to family members and supporters on the outside each time a new guide is sent and each time a certificate is earned. These updates help create connections and break isolation.
We create guides that focus on popular topics most highly requested by people in prison. Our content library is constantly expanding as we add new modules each year. Currently, we offer content on the following popular topics:
- Entrepreneurship
- Financial Literacy
- Computer Science
- Internet Technology
- Food Safety
- Meditation
- Art