For Volunteer-Activist Onboarding

Onboarding for Volunteers in a Psychosocial Container

Overview

Volunteer work asks a lot of you. Before you show up for others, something in you needs to be tended to first.

This is part of an ongoing onboarding path for Legal Dignity’s volunteers.

Rumah Empati supports this by creating a Psycho-Social Container in a form of peer-support, sharing and learning sessions.

The Current Format

① Google Meet Gathering: 16 May 2026, 10 AM – 12 PM

Three self-paced async mini courses:

② I Am Here: Rooted Breath, Ready Heart

③ I Am Not Alone in This

④ I Practice Nonviolence

⑤ Peer-Group Support, on a need basis.

We’re absolutely thrilled that you’re with us. Welcome to the container.

Disclaimer: This structure is in its pilot/experimental phase. We have never done it this way before. We are finding out more as we go forth. We all have blind spots. Your patience is highly appreciated.

What Will You Learn?

This programme does not add more to your plate. It helps you find steadier ground beneath it.

Across the live session and three short self-paced units, you will:

Find your footing. Learn a simple grounding practice you can use any time the work gets heavy. Before a difficult conversation. After a hard day. Before you sit with someone in pain. Five minutes. Repeatable. Yours to keep.

Name what you carry. Explore what it actually costs to do this kind of work, and why carrying it alone makes the cost higher. Discover what becomes possible when you bring the weight into a shared space.

Build a language for it. Pick up a four-part framework for putting your inner experience into words. Not to perform vulnerability, but to understand yourself more clearly, and to be heard more accurately by the people around you.

Find your people. Connect with a peer group of fellow volunteers who understand what this work asks of you. Nothing but honest checking in with people doing similar things.

By the end, you will have one practice, one framework, and at least one space where the cape can come off.

The Structure

① Google Meet Gathering | 16 May 2026

Dear volunteers and advocates,

You completed the onboarding modules with Andi and Meg. We’re glad you did.

Before we start the real work, it’d be an honour to meet you online. My name is Azzad and I am hosting a session:

Inner Tools for the Work We Do
As part of LD volunteers onboarding

Saturday, 16 May • 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/gqq-vgpc-qjk
Or dial: +1 727-835-5907 PIN: 156 969 084#
More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/gqq-vgpc-qjk?pin=6324165592155

The session will consist of:
Guided grounding practice.
To listen to what folks are “carrying” and its resonance with LD or volunteerism.
Introduction to Nonviolent Communication as a way for a universal empathetic framework.
To walk through the upcoming self-paced materials to support working for the grassroots.
To form access for group/peer support, as a strategy for collective care culture.

One thing we need from you: some of you are using a nickname in Google Classroom. Our admin can’t find your email that way, which means we can’t send you the session link. Please update your name to your full name as soon as you can. We don’t want you to miss this.

We’ll see you there.

With care,
Azzad on behalf of
The Legal Dignity Team

② I Am Here: Rooted Breath, Ready Heart | 17 May 2026

Unit 1: I Am Here: Rooted Breath, Ready Heart
A practice for activists who keep forgetting to arrive.

Estimated duration: 12 to 15 minutes
Available by: 17 May 2026

People doing justice work are skilled at showing up for others. Showing up for themselves is harder. This unit starts there.
Through a short grounding practice drawn from contemplative and somatic traditions across our region, Unit 1 introduces the body as the first place of learning.
Before frameworks, processing language, before going to the grassroots, I invite you to first arrive in your body.
Participants will leave with one repeatable practice and one honest observation about themselves.

③ I Am Not Alone in This | 19 May 2026

Unit 2: I Am Not Alone In This
What becomes possible when you stop carrying it all by yourself?

Estimated duration: 20-25 minutes
Available by: 19 May 2026

There is a name for what happens to activists who learn to carry the weight quietly. Researchers call it superhero syndrome. The cape looks like dedication. Underneath it is exhaustion, and often, a deep aloneness.
This unit names that pattern honestly. Research shows that the most protective factor against burnout is not a self-care routine. It is the presence of others who understand what you carry.
Participants leave with a clearer sense of what collective care actually looks like, and an invitation to name who they carry this work with.

④ I Practice Compassion | 22 May 2026

Unit 3: I Practice Compassion

A language for what is already true in you.

Estimated duration: 20-25 minutes
Available by: 22 May 2026

Most practitioners were trained to face outward. To document, advocate, persuade, and frame.
What most of us were never taught is a language for what is happening inside, and for what happens between the people we are closest to in the workplace.
This unit introduces Nonviolent Communication as a practical framework for that inner territory.
Four tools: Observation, Feelings, Needs, Request. Simple enough to remember. Precise enough to change the quality of how you hear yourself and how others hear you.
Participants leave having used the framework on their own experience first, before bringing it to anyone else.

⑤ Peer-Group Support | On Need Basis

To strategise collective care suitable for each individual volunteer, you may choose:

1:1 peer-facilitated session with Azzad. Get a slot here: cal.com/azzad
Online collective gathering format. (To be decided with other peers)
1:1 peer-to-peer or buddy system. Ideal for those who opt for independence or those who already have access to support system.

Want To Go Deeper?

Security and Protection of Earth Rights Defenders

Download here.

Then, refer to Section 6: Wellbeing and Sustainable Activism.

Resilience Strategies for a Sustainable Human Rights Movement (OMCT)

Download here.

5-page version of AI-assisted summary. Download here.

The Structure

Want To Go Deeper?

Follow our Socials