Get Involved

Do you want to help Chayn support more survivors around the world? There are lots of ways to get involved! You can contribute to our open-source code, join our volunteering team, donate, and support us on social media.

Volunteering

Chayn operates with a global collective of volunteers, many of whom are survivors. We are always growing and looking for new volunteers to join our team! Our volunteers are our greatest strength - they come up with ideas for projects, co-lead our governance, and contribute to our resources to make sure that they are survivor-centred and encompass diverse perspectives from around the world. Volunteers are core to our organisation, our strategy, and our success. Volunteering at Chayn is completely remote, and we welcome individuals from anywhere in the world.

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... Being a volunteer with Chayn has literally changed my life for the better; I’m more confident, understand my own trauma more, and have even found a job in the sector because of the work I’ve done with Chayn. I’ll always be grateful for finding this wonderful team! - Chloe Chross

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Tech Volunteering

There are two ways to get involved with Chayn’s tech:

1. Make an open-source contribution.
2. Join as a tech volunteer.


Chayn is proudly open-source and built in public, meaning our source code is freely available to read and contribute to on GitHub! We accept open-source contributions 24/7, whereas the tech volunteer program depends on availability of our staff. We keep issues open for contributors on our GitHub, from first-timer friendly to complex and no-code issues, and the Chayn dev team is available to help in GitHub issue discussions. The tech volunteer program builds on making open-source contributions, but with additional support and opportunities from Chayn.

Follow Chayn on GitHub
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Make open-source contributions

Chayn builds apps entirely in the open, so all development history is visible and updates are live. By building in the open, Chayn supports the open-source ethos of promoting transparency, collaboration, and accessibility. ✨
Contributions to our open-source codebase on GitHub can be made at any time! Simply check our GitHub for open issues to see what kind of contributions we are looking for, or create your own! Whether you are new to GitHub or experienced, we highly recommend starting from our Contribution Guide for guidance on how to make an open-source contribution to Chayn on GitHub. Don't forget to follow us on GitHub and star our repositories, it helps bring more visibility to Chayn tech!

Chayn Contribution Guide
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Volunteering with Chayn has helped me to process and understand my own experiences, and feel I’m making a real difference to other survivors. The open culture and collaborative ways of working are unlike anywhere else I’ve worked or volunteered - it’s a very empowering experience! - Ruth Davies

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Join as a Tech Volunteer

Tech volunteers are open-source contributors but with special access to the team, additional guidance, and more opportunities to get involved!
Currently, we are building a new tech volunteer program for 2024. We ask that volunteers can commit around 6 hours per month, post async updates in group channels like Slack, and attend occasional tech huddles where we will collaborate, share skills, and learn more about Chayn’s work. 🤗

The tech team also works in cycles of three months. Each cycle, we’ll meet and decide on a tech focus for that cycle and create GitHub issues to be tackled for the next 3 months.

Sign up for Tech Volunteering

General Volunteering

General volunteers work across Chayn on things like social media, research, content writing and analysis. Similar to the tech volunteer program, the general volunteer program depends on availability of our staff.

Generally, we ask our general volunteers to contribute at least 4 hours per week and to attend our monthly Chayn Day, a 3-hour meeting on the first Sunday of every month. Where possible, we also ask volunteers to join a weekly 2-hour work session, but we are adaptable around volunteers’ schedules. In addition to group work sessions, volunteers work on projects on their own time. Volunteer tasks include writing and editing content for our resources and external communications, research, outreach and more. We work in cycles of three months and decide on priority projects and assign project leads and teams who ensure the priorities are achieved.

Sign up as a General Volunteer

Support us on social media!

The more people find out about Chayn and our resources, the more survivors we can reach and support. Social media is a key tool in making sure survivors can find us!

✅ Liking, commenting on and reposting our content. Every follower, like, retweet and share counts!

📢 Posting about Chayn on your social media accounts and online networks. To help you do this, we’ve created these templates, but feel free to use your own words and images. And don’t forget to tag us so we can repost!

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Donate

Donating to Chayn helps us to build our capacity, invest in our organisation, and increase our resilience and sustainability for the future. We appreciate every donation - no matter how big or small!To donate to Chayn, you can make a one-off donation via PayPal or sign-up to give a monthly donation via GitHub.

Other ideas?

If you have other ideas or proposals for how you’d like to get involved, we’d love to hear them! Reach out to us at team at chayn dot co.