TLC’s Community Resistance Network, powered by incredible volunteers, allows TLC to expand the range of direct legal services provided for our community.
Whether you’re interested in fielding requests that come in through our Legal Information Helpline (as a Helpline Intake Volunteer), supporting our Spanish Helpline (as a Spanish Helpline Volunteer), or sharing policies and advocacy guides with trans people in prisons and jails (as a Detention Project Volunteer), you will play a critical role in helping Transgender Law Center connect community members with information, resources, and legal representation.
All positions can be remote, and volunteers set their own schedule. The Helpline Intake Volunteer position requires approximately four hours a week, and volunteers will need to have at least some availability at least three days in any given week. The Spanish Helpline and Detention Project Volunteer positions require approximately three hours a week. Find more information about the positions below the form.
If you are an attorney and are interested in providing legal assistance, please join our Legal Resistance Network.
NOTE: Due to a high level of interest in volunteering, it may take several months to follow up with new CRN members about specific volunteering opportunities. We appreciate your patience!
1) Helpline Intake Volunteer
TLC’s Legal Information Helpline provides basic information about laws that affect transgender people in the areas of employment, healthcare, civil rights, family law, and access to identity documents. Each year, TLC’s Legal Information Helpline receives over 2000 calls and emails from transgender and gender nonconforming community members and their families seeking legal information, resources, and referrals, and the number keeps growing. We rely on trained volunteers to meet this significant need.
Specific responsibilities of a Legal Helpline Volunteer may include:
- Help process incoming calls and voicemails, perform intakes, and gather information from transgender and gender nonconforming community members looking for legal assistance
- This is a great position for volunteers who have at least some time (20-60 minutes) to contribute a few different days over the course of the week (the specific days can vary week to week)
2) Spanish Helpline Volunteer
TLC’s Spanish Helpline provides in-depth legal information, referrals, and support to Spanish-speaking transgender and gender nonconforming community members.
Specific responsibilities of a Spanish Helpline Volunteer may include:
- Help process incoming calls and voicemails, perform intakes, and gather information from Spanish-speaking transgender and gender nonconforming community members looking for legal assistance
- Conduct basic research to identify resources and legal information to help respond to the requests we receive
3) Detention Project Volunteer
Transgender Law Center’s Detention Project works to end the abuses transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people experience in prisons, jails, immigration detention, state hospitals, and other forms of detention, and at the hands of law enforcement.
Specific responsibilities of a Detention Project Volunteer may include:
- Respond to letters sent by trans and gender nonconforming people in prisons and jails requesting legal information and resources
- Draft case summaries for incarcerated trans people to help us connect them with attorneys that can represent them
- Scan, file, and sort incoming letters and print and mail responses (if able to volunteer from our Oakland office)
- Help process incoming calls and voicemails, perform intakes, and gather information from incarcerated transgender and gender nonconforming community members looking for legal assistance (if able to volunteer from our Oakland office)
As a volunteer for TLC’s Community Resistance Network, in any position, you will:
- Learn about the legal rights of transgender and gender nonconforming people
- Help us provide information and resources to community members
- Help individuals navigate our often complex and confusing legal system
- Help connect people with knowledgeable pro bono lawyers in their area
- Support TLC’s legal team in identifying potential impact litigation cases
- Make a difference in the both the movement for transgender civil rights and the day-to-day lives of individual community members!
Required qualifications to be a volunteer (any position):
- No prior legal experience or education is required!
- Familiarity with transgender and gender nonconforming communities
- Commitment to racial justice and transgender rights
- Enthusiasm for the work of the organization and its potential
- Willingness to keep up with volunteer commitments and communicate any schedule changes
- For the Spanish Helpline Volunteer position: fluency in spoken and written Spanish