Frequently Asked Questions

We take security seriously. Your information is being held in a private database shared only with the creators, and is only shared externally with your permission. We are also working with tech security professionals to ensure that we have the protections we need in place and different data managers that would be even more secure.

Short answer: Maybe?!?!

Long answer: It’s very possible that there’s something similar to what you want to do that you should get connected to before you build something on your own. There’s a lot of knowledge and experience in this movement and new projects will only be successful if they have relationships and buy-in within the community. It’s important that projects be built knowing what already exists and making sure to be filling unique needs. All that said - it’s very possible that it doesn’t exist in your specific community, and needs someone to take up the mantle! Feel free to reach out to us and we’ll talk you through what you’re imagining, how realistic it is, and who you should get connected to in order to build it.

“Reproductive Justice (RJ) means the human right to control our sexuality, our gender, our work, and our reproduction. That right can only be achieved when all women and girls have the complete economic, social, and political power and resources to make healthy decisions about our bodies, our families, and our communities in all areas of our lives.”

- In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda

Many organizations - especially ones that do direct service work to abortion seekers (i.e. abortion funds, practical support services, emotional support services) - need volunteers who are willing and able to live and work in anti-racist and reproductive justice centered ways. This helps ensure the emotional and physical safety of their clients, many of whom will be coming from very different places (geographically, demographically, etc) than the volunteers. If that’s not you, that’s ok! There are many other ways to get plugged in.

In order to ensure that the people volunteering with an organization are trusted allies who will keep the safety of abortion access workers and seekers paramount, organizations will go through a vetting process with applicants. In its simplest form, this means reviewing things like social media pages and other public websites to ensure that the person applying to volunteer is who they say they are. Sometimes, the process goes deeper, including things like character references and background checks. Once that is determined, the vetting moves from practical to interpersonal, to ensure that there is values alignment. This is particularly true for direct service organizations who are working one-on-one with abortion seekers and need to know that the volunteers interacting with them will treat them with the respect and care they deserve.

There are many things that could be going on! Here’s a couple options:

1. The vetting just discussed - that process can take a long time (read: weeks to months) to complete, especially if an organization is understaffed.

2. Client crises are taking priority over volunteer requests.

3. They’re already working through a backlog of volunteer requests from the last few years and haven’t gotten to you yet.

4. They don’t have capacity to manage volunteers but are working on it.

Currently we’re listing volunteer opportunities from organizations that have shared their request forms through our partner survey or have been shared with ineedana.com. That may get expanded in time.