Oklahomans for Equality relies on a core of dozens of volunteers to operate the Equality Center, facilitate programs and services, and coordinate events. With so many ways to volunteer, there’s something for anyone’s talents. Volunteering is a great way to contribute your time and talents to the community. You’ll also meet people, get involved with OkEq, and have fun!

To find out more about any of these opportunities, contact Robert Eubanks at (918) 743-4297.  To sign up, fill out the volunteer form and mail, fax, or bring it to the Equality Center.

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Volunteer Program and Services Opportunities

We greatly appreciate your interest in becoming more involved. Below are some of our most frequent volunteer opportunities. Generally, you sign up for a weekly shift. Most require some training and a longer commitment of several months to a year.

Center Crew
The Dennis R. Neill Equality Center is almost entirely run by volunteers. The day-to-day operations — answering the LGBT Info Line; greeting visitors; giving tours; processing donations, memberships, and sales; and ensuring the daily operations run smoothly — are the responsibility of our Center Crew, who make the Equality Center a welcoming place. This position is a great way to meet new people and get to know the resources in our community. The time commitment is one three-hour shift, from 3-6pm or 6-9pm. Frequency is weekly or bi-weekly.

Library
We need volunteer librarians to help visitors at the Nancy & Joe McDonald Rainbow Library, to shelve and catalog books, and to maintain the collection of thousands of books. A great opportunity for people who love books, like to use their organizational skills, and work well with people.

Tulsa LGBT History Project
Volunteer archivists help sort through videos, periodicals, and other historical documents to maintain the History Project, a permanent record of the history of Northeast Oklahoma’s LGBT community. This is a fun, meaningful volunteer opportunity for anyone who has a love for the history of our community.

Pride Store
The Pride Store is the region’s greatest resource for LGBT-related gifts and merchandise. Find new items, maintain inventory, manage sales and design displays. This is great for people with retail experience and a love of niche sales.

Gallery
The Equality Center Gallery hosts a new local artist each month. Gallery curators find new talent, coordinate exhibits, and host gallery openings on the first Thursday of each month.

Committees

Program committees don’t require as consistent a commitment, and usually entail a monthly meeting with a committee of five to ten other program volunteers. You’ll usually spend a few hours between monthly meetings working on various tasks to prepare for events and programs. Work gets more intensive just before an event you help organize. These committees are a great way to get to work closely with a small group of people, and to really contribute your own ideas, creativity, and leadership to OkEq. Current committees include:

Development: Finding financial support for OkEq involves coordinating corporate giving, writing grants and maintaining membership

Facilities: The Dennis R. Neill Equality Center is managed and maintained by a core group of people who oversee policies, facility usage, equipment and general maintenance.

Programs: Our programs committee is currently developing a needs assessment to guage where the program and service needs of Tulsa’s LGBT community. Committee members will assess the wellness, social, cultural, educational and advocacy needs of our community, while researching program possibilities and coordinating the existing program slate.

Advocacy: Keeping up to date on the latest LGBT-related legislation, coordinating public demonstrations, and advocating for members of our community at the local, state, and national level. Great for activists who have a passion for making systemic change at every level.

Public Relations and Marketing: Members represent OkEq’s mission, programs and services to the LGBT community and the public. Great for people with print and web design or writing talents, a zeal for communications, and a desire to raise awareness about OkEq and Equality Center

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Other Opportunities

If a weekly or monthly commitment sounds too intense for you, you may want to think about some of these other volunteer opportunities, which are more sporadic and require less commitment. Many of them are very social and involve working with large groups of volunteers, and others are more individually focused.

Office Work
We always need help with data entry, organizing mailings, copying, filing, developing marketing materials and more. There’s no better way to get to know the Center.

Special events
Volunteering for special events is a great way to get involved on a short-term basis. OkEq hosts many special events including Wild Hearts Ball, Gay Bingo, Equality Gala, Pride & Diversity Celebration. We also have many smaller events at the Equality Center, including speakers, presentations, and panels. These programs are impossible without help from volunteers, and we are always looking for people who can dedicate their time to setting up, overseeing, and cleaning up events. Typically, larger events require pre-event orientations, while smaller ones only require folks to help prepare for and take down the event.

Craft Your Own Volunteer Experience!
If you don’t see what you’re looking for here, then just ask! Many volunteers also help the Equality Center in very specialized ways: IT professionals offer a basic computer skills course, financial planners provide a seminar on estate planning, lawyers develop a legal clinic! And we’re always looking for volunteers to take on leadership roles.