Season of the Ancestors · Egungun · Remembrance
In kinship with the land · Ongoing invitation

Volunteer with the Center

Hands on the land, presence in the ritual. Five sacred acres in the Russian River corridor need care: the paths, the garden, the altars, the redwoods that hold our ceremonies. The rituals themselves need hands to prepare, to welcome, to hold space, and to break down when the fire goes out.

Fill the volunteer form
What this is

An ongoing invitation to serve on the land.

The Jambalaya Center sits on five acres in the Russian River corridor, on overlapping unceded Pomo and Coast Miwok territory. Chief Iyanifa Yeye Luisah Teish lives on this land, and the ritual work of the Ile happens here. The garden, the paths, and the sacred clearings all need care through the seasons.

This is ongoing service, not one festival or one weekend a year. When you volunteer, you become part of the rhythm of the Center and show up when the land calls. In return, you are invited into the rituals and festivals we open to the wider community, as a participant rather than as staff.

The exchange

Service is reciprocity.

What you bring

  • Your hands: land work, garden work, path clearing, defensible space, seasonal maintenance
  • Your presence in ritual: setup, breakdown, holding space while ceremony unfolds
  • A spirit of service that isn't looking for a stage or a platform
  • Willingness to take direction from Yeye, the Egbe, and senior staff
  • Right relationship with your own tradition, whether Ifá, another diasporic practice, or an Indigenous tradition you carry
  • Openness to what comes. The work follows the season, the moon, and the needs of the land

What you receive

  • Participation in open rituals and festivals on the land, the primary ebó in return for your service
  • Direct time with the land and with the elders who carry it
  • Learning by doing. You don't come to a workshop; you come to the work itself
  • Community: the people who show up together, again and again, across the seasons
  • Room to go deeper. Some volunteers move into Egbe pathways over time, though that isn't the reason to come
The work itself

What volunteers actually do.

Land care

Garden, paths, defensible space clearing, seasonal maintenance, the redwoods and the creek edge.

Ritual preparation

Altars, ceremonial spaces, materials, and offerings.

Festival hands

Setup, kitchen, welcome, and breakdown for the open festivals we host.

Sacred space

Presence during ritual, holding the perimeter, tending the fire.

Kitchen & welcome

Meal prep, service, and cleanup; greeting arrivals and orienting them to the land.

Behind the scenes

The small tasks nobody sees that make everything else possible.

The work shifts with the season. You may be called for one thing this month and something else the next.

How we begin

Fill the form. We reach out.

The form is short. Tell us who you are, how you came to know the Ile or Yeye, what gifts you bring, and where you feel called to serve.

We read every form and respond personally. Matching happens over time, in conversation, with attention to what the land needs and what you bring. This is a relationship, not a hiring pipeline. Volunteer inquiries are reviewed by Queen Mother Iya Sobande Greer, Oludari of Egbe Osain, and Shylah Hamilton-Touré, Executive Director.

Fill the volunteer form
Questions first?
shy@jambalayacenter.org

Rather give things than hours? The Center keeps a living list of material needs.

Land acknowledgment

The Jambalaya Center sits on five acres in Guerneville, on overlapping unceded Pomo and Coast Miwok territory. We hold these acres in kinship with the land and its first peoples, and hold their sovereignty as we do our own. Aboru Aboye.