Opportunities to Volunteer

Los Angeles Community Action Network, a volunteer membership organization that began in 1983, assists other organizations with their fund-raising events, from painting children’s faces at a school carnival to calling bingo numbers at a veterans’ hospital. Members receive a bimonthly newsletter with about 80 to 100 listings of groups that need volunteer help. Call (310) 391-5770.

Encino Hospital, 16237 Ventura Blvd., needs volunteers for a new position called volunteer surgery liaison. Volunteers would serve as go-betweens for patients, families and their doctors. Volunteers would need to work one four-hour shift a week. Training is provided. Call Geri Klanfer, director of volunteer services, (818) 995-5036.

Hospice in the Home, a program of the Verdugo Hills Visiting Nurses Assn., needs volunteers to help with terminally ill patients and their families as part of a team effort. Volunteers run errands, give rides to doctors’ offices and fill in for primary caregivers when they need a break. Training begins July 22. Call (818) 956-1860.

Kids Kaps with Love, a group that meets weekly at the West Valley Jewish Community Center, needs donations of money and supplies to make hats for hospitalized children who have lost their hair from AIDS or cancer treatments. Call Helen Salkin at (818) 774-1109.