Alternative Break Sites

International

San Lucas Mission - San Lucas Tóliman,  Guatemala

Students will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the Guatemalan culture, as well as build relationships with the community of San Lucas.  Father Greg, a Minnesota native and priest of San Lucas, is the founder of the mission.  Student work may include but is not limited to the following: assisting in cooperative community projects such as helping with the reforestation project, sorting coffee, assisting families on their land, and helping to restore buildings that are in desperate need of repair.

Experiences: Spanish immersion, cultural diversity, restoration, hands-on

San Lucas Web Site

Working Boys Center - Quito, Ecuador

You will work at the Working Boys Center.  This is an organization that takes in children who were working on the streets.  They give them schooling through job training and provide them with food and showers.  They also help their families and parents.  After completing the training, there are factories on-site they can work at.  Participants can help teach English classes, tour the factories, and spend time with the children.

Experiences: Spanish immersion, cultural diversity, social justice, children

Working Boys Center Web Site

Fundacion Mahatma Gandhi - Dominican Republic

You will have the opportunity to be involved in various programs.  You can: work with children between 6-15 years, do small building projects, hold soccer or sports camps, do environmental education in the community, visit the elderly, learn more about issues in the community, assist with teaching girls about sports, English tutoring, work in classrooms, do theatre projects, or create your own projects.  You will stay at Casa Paz, volunteer housing for Fundación Mahatma Gandhi. 

Experiences: Spanish immersion, cultural diversity, social justice, children, hands-on

Fundacion Mahatma Gandhi Web Site

Educational and Justice Issues

Operation Breakthrough –Kansas City, MO

Operation Breakthrough is the state’s largest day care center.  Its mission is to help children who are living in poverty develop to their fullest potential by providing them a safe, loving and educational environment.  This organization provides day care, meals, Children’s Mercy Clinic, a dental clinic, speech therapy, play therapy, housing assistance, food and clothing to children and families of the inner city of Kansas City.

Experiences: Working with inner city children, education, poverty

Operation Breakthrough Web Site

Reservation Experience – White Earth Reservation, MN

Participants will learn about the Native American culture of Minnesota.  Working with the people you will come to understand their way of life.  The participants will have an opportunity to work in the Circle of Life School, volunteer at Boys and Girls Clubs throughout the reservation, and shadow home care nurses and doctors at the local clinic. 

Experience: Learning about the culture, working with youth, health care disparities

Jonah House- Baltimore, Maryland

Jonah House is a faith-based organization intent on seeking justice through nonviolence, resistance, and community.  Participants on this trip will spend the first part of the week living at Jonah House in Baltimore.  Here, they will take time for prayer, violence resistance training and community reflection each morning and evening.  During the day, work will include various service projects and forms of community action.  Mid-week, the group will travel with the Jonah House community to Washington D.C. and participate in the annual Faith and Resistance Retreat at the capital.

Experiences:  Justice, resistance and non-violence training, living in a graveyard

Jonah House Web Site

Environmental

Cumberland Trail Conference—Crossville, TN

Volunteers will help build and revitalize the Cumberland Trail, a 280-mile historic footpath in the Cumberland Mountains of East Tennessee. Volunteers will possibly be working with volunteers from other colleges as well as participating in some educational programs and activities.  At this site participants should be prepared to camp outside during the week and participate in lots of hands on physical work on the trail.

Experiences: Physical labor, environmental, hands on

Cumberland Trail Conference Web Site

Ghost Ranch -- Abiquiu, NM

Situated in north central New Mexico, this ranch is a place where issues of environmental ethics and eco-justice are lived out in a beautiful natural setting.  By experiencing the local community, cultural history and mission of the church, the examination of our own lifestyles is a main component of this trip.  The week will also include a community work project - cleaning irrigation pathways or tutoring, as well as helping with various projects on the ranch.

Experiences: Environmental, eco-justice, Native American culture, hands on

Ghost Ranch Web Site

Hurricane Relief

Spend the week working in Louisiana to help reconstruct houses and repair damages of Hurricane Katrina. 

Experiences: Physical labor, culture, hands on, restoration