Get Involved
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!Bikes Not Bombs simply couldn't function without our tremendous volunteer support! Volunteers earn credit by the hour, which can be cashed in for used parts, frames, or even whole bikes. Join our volunteer email list and we'll keep you updated with opportunities as they roll around! To join the email list, or for more info on volunteering, contact Arik Grier, 617-522-0222,
Special Events
In addition to the ongoing volunteer opportunities, below, check out the Events & News on our home page for special events and one-time volunteer needs.
Wednesday Volunteer Nights
Get your hands dirty with a wrench, flattening bikes to
prepare them for international shipment, stripping bikes for parts, or sorting used parts. Or, help our office staff with database updates or mailings. Sometimes special projects will come up on Wednesday nights, such as large mailings, carpentry, banner-making for events, etc. Anyone is welcome to drop in to our Center between 7pm and 10pm, on every Wednesday night (barring special events and holidays). A supervisor will show you what to do, and no experience is required. This is the best introduction to volunteering at BNB, so if you are confused or overwhelmed by the rest of this list, just come in on a Wednesday night to get started, and you can move into other areas later!
Office Volunteering
Help us send letters to our supporters and record information in our database. Help with mailings, do web research, and answer email. No experience necessary, we'll train you! Join our group of office volunteers on Wednesday nights 7-10pm, or if this doesn't fit your schedule we can arrange daytime or evening hours during the week, just for you - contact Jasmine Laietmark at or 617-522-0222 to schedule office work. We also sometimes need help with our website, restructuring the database, scanning photos, and graphic design - let us know if you have skills or interests in these areas.
International Bike Shipments
Come help load a 40-foot container with bicycles and parts to send overseas. 5 times a year we bring in lots of volunteers for most of a weekend day to do this. We'll let you know by email when these happen, and you can also check our Special Events listings here on the web. Our shipments support partner organizations in Guatemala, El Salvador, Ghana, South Africa, and New Orleans.
Earn-A-Bike Instructors - work with youth!
We'll give you a full course in bike mechanics, and then you will help teach young people to rebuild and earn a bike to be their own! Go on fun rides and teach safe riding and environmental issues. Female and male volunteers needed. Spanish language skills or youth-work experience are helpful, but no experience required.INSTRUCTOR TRAINING:
Every Satuday from January 26th through March 29th.
11:00 am - 2:00 pm each Saturday.
This is a free course in which you learn a complete overview of bike mechanics, theory and methods for teaching young people, and safe riding skills and guidelines for leading youth rides. No experience is necessary, just commitment! You also get credit for volunteer time, which can count towards earning a bike or parts for yourself.
THE TEACHING:
Once you have the skills, choose 1 day a week to teach in Earn-A-Bike (for the duration of at least one session) For youth, the training also gives you the potential to work as a paid instructor during the summer. Teachers who want to run this class in your own schools are also welcome to apply!
*Earn-A-Bike(EAB) meets Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays 3-6pm.
The first Spring EAB session runs March 31st - May 2nd.
The second Spring EAB session runs May 12th-June 13th.
Fall EAB sessions are not yet scheduled.
*There are also opportunities to use your skills helping out in other youth programs. The Youth Drop-In Program (YDIP) meets on Wednesdays 3-6pm, Girls In Action meets Fridays 4-6:30, and we can use help leading Saturday morning rides.
INTERESTED?
Contact Elijah Evans at 617-522-0222 or elijah@bikesnotbombs.org.
Download the application to fill out and return to us.
Download the poster with the program details, to remind yourself or to pass on to others.
Tutoring for Teens, Lead Fun Bike Rides
We have Youth Drop-In times Wednesday afternoons, and we can use tutors for academic subjects and homework help. Saturday mornings we can use volunteers to help lead fun rides for young people. Contact Matt Soycher at or 617-522-0222.
Girls Group Volunteers
The Girls In Action is for 10-13 yr-old girls, and the group does mechanics, rides, arts & crafts, sleepovers, and discussions of girls' issues. The group meets Fridays 4:00-6:30, with occasional Saturday outings, and can use women volunteers. Contact Christina Illarmo at or 617-522-0222.
Community Outreach
Choose some shops and community/social centers in your neighborhood, or places at your school, and put up posters and drop off newsletters or brochures for our Bike-A-Thon, youth programs, or special events!
Drop-off Points for Bike Donations
If you are outside of Boston proper, you can make it easier for distant folks to donate bikes to us by opening up your extra storage space. We'll route donors in your area to you. When you build up a van-load or more of bikes, you can transport them to us, or we'll find another volunteer to do it.
Van and Truck Drivers
We need drivers who will pick up bikes from donors on a very occasional basis and bring them to us. We also need transport for special events like Art-Bike and the Bike-A-Thon. Or, become our Recycling Volunteer by dealing with the paper, plastic, and aluminum recycling in our Center.
Setup a Bike Drive
Maybe you want to collect bikes in your area or from a specific group, through your school, community group, church, etc. Contact Steve Bosco to discuss, at .
Are You a Bike Mechanic?
Depending on your skills and our needs, we might want your help in our full-service bikes shop. You may also be able to help teach mechanics job skills to teenagers in our Vocational program, which happens every January-March. Email , or call 617-522-0222 during the shop hours.
Special Skills
We can sometimes use network and computer diagnostic support. Carpenters can build us more shelves on Wednesday nights, and we sometimes have special projects to build. Photographers help document the people and activities here. Contact us if you have skills in these or other areas, and we may become eternally grateful!
Internships
If you want to take on a specific project and commit to a number of hours per week for a month or more, then let's talk! Our last intern learned mechanics, worked with youth, helped in the office, wrote a newsletter article, and then took the initiative to use the skills she learned here to spend a year in Ghana replicating our youth programs there!
- Wed Jul 30th
- Wed Jul 30th
VOLUNTEER FOR SPECIAL PROJECTS / INTERNSHIPS
Here are some specific projects or positions which require a committed volunteer or an intern, who can put in some amount of time in a reasonably consistent way on a weekly basis. If you have lots of time you could potentially combine some of these. Let us know your interests, background, and skills, or you could even include a resume.
Bike Donations
Coordinate a network of BNB volunteers who can pickup bikes or are drop-off spots in outlying areas.
Transportation Advocacy
Keep BNB involved in bike advocacy developments in the Boston area. Attend meetings to represent BNB, develop BNB's bike advocacy volunteers, design a section of the BNB website for bike advocacy resources, extend opportunities to BNB youth programs to get involved in advocacy.
Youth Programs:
Public Health Focus on OSHA standards in the shop and the youth program area, and create solutions to these problems Focus on environmental hazards in our waste stream and figure out affordable/free methods of recycling/re-using/disposing of our waste.
Youth Programs: Curriculum Development
We want to expand our curriculum in multiple areas; let us know where your skills can help: environmental issues, health, science, math, social studies and social justice, etc.
Youth Programs: Summer On-The-Bike
Work with the On-The-Bike program, help supervise bike rides, etc.
Youth Program: Donations
Work with current intern Nicole on donations for our youth programs. -Food donations: Fair foods, Chris Yoder, Nature Valley and other Granola Bars, Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Stop and Shop, America’s Food Basket, Harvest Coop, Shaws, Market Basket, Clif Bar
-Gloves donations
-Helmet and pads donations
-Skate Park deals (Rye & others)
Youth Programs: Graphic Design for MyRide (starting very soon!)
Each year we collaborate with MyTown's youth programs, to do a bicycle tour of urban neighborhoods, all youth-led. We need someone to design flyers, T-shirts, and spoke cards for the ride. Ideally you'd connect with youth here to give input to the design and to introduce some youth to graphic design skills.
Graphic Design: Outreach
Remake our photo/info boards that we use for outreach events!
Drupal
We have a website team that works with Drupal to improve our website, but it's all been learn-as-we-go. We could use a volunteer with real Drupal knowledge to give us some tutorials and evaluate how well we're using Drupal's features on our website.
Office Tech: Backup System
Implement a new backup system for our computer network.
Office Tech: Database People-Side
We have a team of programmers building a new database in Ruby On Rails. We can potentially use a volunteer with some experience to interview staff and give input to the redesign of the database GUI and functionality so that it will better serve staff needs.
Other
If you want to suggest a project or just let us know your skills, we'll look for ways to plug you in!
Here are some specific projects or positions which require a committed volunteer or an intern, who can put in some amount of time in a reasonably consistent way on a weekly basis. If you have lots of time you could potentially combine some of these. Let us know your interests, background, and skills, or you could even include a resume.
Bike Donations
Coordinate a network of BNB volunteers who can pickup bikes or are drop-off spots in outlying areas.
Transportation Advocacy
Keep BNB involved in bike advocacy developments in the Boston area. Attend meetings to represent BNB, develop BNB's bike advocacy volunteers, design a section of the BNB website for bike advocacy resources, extend opportunities to BNB youth programs to get involved in advocacy.
Youth Programs:
Public Health Focus on OSHA standards in the shop and the youth program area, and create solutions to these problems Focus on environmental hazards in our waste stream and figure out affordable/free methods of recycling/re-using/disposing of our waste.
Youth Programs: Curriculum Development
We want to expand our curriculum in multiple areas; let us know where your skills can help: environmental issues, health, science, math, social studies and social justice, etc.
Youth Programs: Summer On-The-Bike
Work with the On-The-Bike program, help supervise bike rides, etc.
Youth Program: Donations
Work with current intern Nicole on donations for our youth programs. -Food donations: Fair foods, Chris Yoder, Nature Valley and other Granola Bars, Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Stop and Shop, America’s Food Basket, Harvest Coop, Shaws, Market Basket, Clif Bar
-Gloves donations
-Helmet and pads donations
-Skate Park deals (Rye & others)
Youth Programs: Graphic Design for MyRide (starting very soon!)
Each year we collaborate with MyTown's youth programs, to do a bicycle tour of urban neighborhoods, all youth-led. We need someone to design flyers, T-shirts, and spoke cards for the ride. Ideally you'd connect with youth here to give input to the design and to introduce some youth to graphic design skills.
Graphic Design: Outreach
Remake our photo/info boards that we use for outreach events!
Drupal
We have a website team that works with Drupal to improve our website, but it's all been learn-as-we-go. We could use a volunteer with real Drupal knowledge to give us some tutorials and evaluate how well we're using Drupal's features on our website.
Office Tech: Backup System
Implement a new backup system for our computer network.
Office Tech: Database People-Side
We have a team of programmers building a new database in Ruby On Rails. We can potentially use a volunteer with some experience to interview staff and give input to the redesign of the database GUI and functionality so that it will better serve staff needs.
Other
If you want to suggest a project or just let us know your skills, we'll look for ways to plug you in!