Volunteers and interns make an invaluable contribution of their time, compassion, and commitment to the Asian Women’s Shelter. Shelter volunteers, interns, and language advocates complete a 64- hour training to qualify them as California-certified domestic-violence counselors. Training topics include but not limited to domestic violence 101, human trafficking 101, peer counseling, public assistance, family law, immigration law, intro to DA's office and victim services, anti-oppression training, anti-homophobia, heterosexism training, and women's and children's programs.

Volunteers

Volunteers complete the training course and are asked to commit four hours of their time per week for a year. AWS typically trains 20 – 30 volunteers per year. Volunteer trainings are eight weeks long and are offered twice a year: one in the Fall (usually October/November) and the other in the Spring (usually March/April). 

Interns

Most interns are undergraduate or graduate students who complete summer, 10-month, or 12-month internships for credit. They work 16–20 hours a week at the shelter. During the first half of their tenure they work closely with a Direct Services staff member and receive training on supporting women and children directly. In the second half, they begin to take their own cases and support residents through accompaniments (legal, medical, mental; helping with transitional housing applications, etc.). Interns complete a special project during their time with AWS. 

Language Advocates

Language Advocates are bi- or multi lingual and cultural women from diverse communities and backgrounds who go through the 72 hours training of training to become on-call, paid workers as part of AWS internal and Citywide MLAM programs.