Volunteers
Volunteers are mission critical to Allegro!
A core component of Allegro’s FREE programs is the inclusion of more than 700 community volunteers, generous individuals just like YOU, who donate their time and talents to work one-on-one with our students with disabilities and at-risk each week.
No previous child experience is necessary, and Allegro’s skilled instructors provide training in preparation for your first Allegro volunteer experience.
All volunteers also receive manuals with guides to medical terminology and other resources, and they are always encouraged to discuss concerns or questions with the Allegro Foundation staff.
Want to Join the Allegro Team? Download a Volunteer Profile and Fax it to us at 704-364-4041!
Current Opportunities
Preschools:
Allegro conducts weekly movement education classes at local preschools, empowering children at risk with unidentified disabilities to learn healthy living strategies and pre-literacy skills.
Allegro’s preschool students are from very poor families where participation in organized activities cannot be afforded, and most live in neighborhoods where it is unsafe to play outdoors. Many have even become homeless and lost their healthcare benefits due to the current state of our economy!
Many of our students at risk with unidentified disabilities were born to parents who are addicted to drugs or struggle to make ends meet, so they are unable to spend time with their children. Allegro’s volunteers equip these children with new hope and wonderful role models in a supportive educational setting.
During a typical preschool class, each volunteer begins with structured one-on-one conversation with a student at risk with unidentified disabilities of his or her choice. This interaction is designed to improve social skills. Next, volunteers help preschool students to stretch their muscles and warm-up for class. Allegro instructors then teach specific movement sequences and ask academic questions, incorporating the use of props and literacy curriculum.
Metro School:
Allegro’s 3 weekly programs at the Metro School, a CMS school that serves only the district’s most severe children with disabilities (ages 3-22), provide abundant volunteer opportunities.
Three separate programs are currently being offered for high school, middle school, and pre-kindergarten age children with disabilities.
Allegro volunteers help Metro students with disabilities develop mobility to improve their adaptive living skills and independence. Here is an opportunity to make a huge impact on the life of a child living with disabilities!
Carolinas Medical Center:
First launched in 2004, Allegro’s free classes at Carolinas Medical Center empower medically fragile children with disabilities to reap the benefits of movement education without serious risk of medical complications out of close proximity to emergency doctors. Serving 20 children with disabilities each week alongside 20 one-on-one volunteers, Allegro’s activities enhance the academic learning process, while transforming the hospital into a positive environment rather than a frightening one.
During a typical class, Allegro volunteers practice social communication skills with individual students with disabilities before beginning one-on-one movement education activities. Volunteers actively assist these medically fragile students with disabilities in their movements. Volunteers often tell us that these particular hands-on opportunities are extremely rewarding.
Sardis Community Outreach:
Allegro Foundation’s weekly program at Sardis Presbyterian Church enrolls students with disabilities in a unique, after-school outreach setting. Similar to our Carolinas Medical Center classes, those offered at Sardis offer our volunteers an exciting and rewarding experience working on-on-one with students with disabilities.
An Allegro lead and assistant instructor teach every class, but this 2 to 20 ratio of teachers to students is not enough to transform the lives of these children with disabilities in twenty-six weeks we have to teach them. Children with disabilities truly need one-on-one attention from volunteers like you to learn because their individual needs are so dramatically different across a broad spectrum of abilities.
Additional Volunteer Opportunities include:
- Help at our Ambassador's Ball and Allegro Golf Invitational
- Refreshments at Performances and Events
- Performance Set-Up/Clean-Up
- Administrative Support (mailings, copies, computer work)
- Fundraising/Grant Research
- Donation of Items
- Sewing/Construction of Costumes and Props
Want to Join the Allegro Team? Download a Volunteer Profile and Fax it to us at 704-364-4041!
