Abby's House is a shelter for homeless, battered, and low income women and their children in the Worcester community. We open the shelter in the evenings, interact with the guests, and return to campus the following morning. Abby's House provides a safe, supportive environment for women in the community and Holy Cross volunteers to learn from one another. Evenings spent at the shelter are a great time to offer an ear to the stories and struggles of these women's lives.

ASB is a week-long undergraduate service trip during Spring Break to various underserved communities around the Eastern/Southern United States. Groups travel to areas in Kentucky, Mississippi, Maryland, New Orleans, Michigan and new this year, Charleston, WV and the Bronx, NY! In addition to these seven sites, a group will be heading to Puebla, Mexico. Activities performed at all the sites may include interior and exterior home repair, maintenance work, soup kitchen work, tutoring, and other projects in the community determined by the organizations we work with. Through personal interaction with community members, students learn a great deal about the importance of service, their fellow students, and themselves.

Appalacia Service Project
Each year during Spring Break, Holy Cross students travel to Appalachia and the Gulf Coast to encounter the warmth and vitality of the people in these regions, particularly those who are economically poor or marginalized. While there, students offer their time in service to the local community in a variety of ways, such as:

• painting and home repairs
• elderly assistance
• environmental clean-up
• service in soup kitchens
• tutoring school children
• new housing construction (Katrina relief)

While students work by day, evenings are dedicated to prayerful reflection and discussion as well as attending local events in the community.

A Holy Cross tradition since 1984, the Spring Break Immersion Program began with a small group of students traveling to Kentucky. Since then, the program has grown to include sites in Virginia and West Virginia. In response to Hurricane Katrina, the program expanded again in 2006 to include New Orleans and other Gulf Coast sites. In 2009, a total of 265 students took part in the program.

Currently in its 22nd year, the Arrupe Immersion Program is a faith based program responding to the call to work for peace and justice in the world. This call is central to the Christian Scriptures and to the Jesuit mission of the College of the Holy Cross. 

• The Mexico Program is currently in its 19th year. The program seeks to provide students with and experience of the reality of life in Latin America through the eyes of the poor and in light of the Gospel.

The Jamaica Program seeks to offer Holy Cross students the opportunity to encounter the poor and marginalized of Jamaica through interpersonal dialogue and service, to learn about aspects of Jamaican culture through a series of speakers and to nurture and challenge their faith.

• The Kenya Program is our semester break program. Visit the Chaplains' Office to learn about their experiences and explore possibilities of being part of the next trip.

The Arrupe Neighborhood Partnership (Arrupe), a unique service and community-based program, is central to Saint Ignatius High School's focus on developing "Men for Others."  We offer students and their parents an opportunity to become involved, serve others, build friendships, strengthen their faith, and ultimately to make a difference in the lives of neighborhood children and families in need.  Arrupe sponsors a variety of afterschool service programs and events throughout the school year and summer.

Each senior is placed in a school, hospital, child care center, elderly care center or special service program that will allow them to practice what they have been taught

The club prepares fund-raisers and bi-monthly trips to DC soup kitchens

Best Buddies Colleges pairs people with intellectual disabilities in one-to-one friendships with college students. Without friends and family, we are alone. In the past, individuals with intellectual disabilities have not had the opportunity to have friends outside of their own environment. By becoming a College Buddy, volunteers offer a Buddy the chance to explore a new way of life.

Best Buddies Colleges is the premise upon which the international organization of Best Buddies began. The mission of Best Buddies Colleges is to provide an opportunity for college students to be matched in a one-to-one friendship with individuals who have intellectual disabilities. Social experiences and relationships are a part of life; unfortunately, individuals with intellectual disabilities have historically been excluded from many of the social opportunities that most people enjoy. By becoming a college buddy, you will not only befriend someone with a developmental disability, but you will also learn about yourself in the process.

Students are paired with disadvantaged, fatherless boys from area boys/girls clubs and participate in various recreational activities, usually on Saturday afternoons. Carpools are arranged.

Junior Big Brothers is open only to juniors and seniors who have access to a car. Students are paired with boys ages 5-10 and participate in various recreational activities, usually on Saturday afternoons.

Our Mission

Composed of and directed by student volunteers, the Loyola University Community Action Program (LUCAP) is a campus organization having three primary goals, the first being to provide and direct volunteers in service-oriented activity within the community and the university, the second being to inform and promote involvement in the area of social justice, and the third being to aid in the volunteers' social and spiritual growth through their involvement in service and care-giving activities.

Who We Are

LUCAP offers over a dozen great ways to become actively involved in advocacy and service projects which help the Loyola, New Orleans, and Global communities. This active community is student-directed, and LUCAP volunteers work with a variety of issues in different ways, including feeding the homeless, tutoring learners of all ages, spending time with the elderly, attending protests, rebuilding the Gulf Coast, and sponsoring speakers and events for social justice. Participation in our programs provides a chance to make a real difference while attending Loyola.

The Center for Community Action and Service Learing is a resource center for students, faculty, and community partners who are engaged in curricular and co-curricular community service initiatives.  It empowers students to take action through community involvement, education, and public service to strive for social justice.

The Center for Service and Social Action believes that, through service, we can deepen our understanding of and be a conduit for positive change within our local, national, and international community.

The Center for Service and Social Action seeks to develop service opportunities which build relationships, enhance learning, encourage active citizenship, and support the John Carroll University mission to "inspire individuals to excel in learning, leadership, and service in the region and in the world." We offer a variety of programs to meet the needs of our community partners and the interests of our service participants, including Service Learning, Voluntary Service, Service Projects and Events, and service-based Immersion Experiences.

Volunteer Service Placement

This program conducts community based construction and repair projects in Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia.

 The program requires students to accrue steadily more hours of volunteer service throughout the student's four year career.

We help mentally handicapped / developmentally challenged young adults to lead meaningful and happy lives with dignity and respect. In association with the Ray Graham Training Center, our members contribute as friends to such events as sporting games, dances, holiday parties, a clothing drive, a concert, etc. The members benefit from ongoing education and training in the areas of mental and physical disabilities. The group is about social inclusion and making real friends.

• Amnesty International
• Music For Others
• Social Justice
• Frosh/Soph Social Justice
• Environmental Club
• Pro-Life Club
• United Students Against Sweatshops
• S.M.A.S.H.

Each senior at Strake Jesuit is required to complete 100 hours of community service in order to graduate. Senior projects have taken students to soup kitchens, Native-American missions, summer camps for special-needs children, and many places locally, nationally and abroad. Senior Service Project must involve service to the poor.

The Community Tutoring Alliance tutors students from neighboring elementary schools. Tutors and tustees work one-on-one throughout the year on all areas of the grammar school study. A very special relationship often develops between the pair of students as the year progresses. Social activities such as parties near holidays and field trips are planned throughout the year. Participation in CTA can be a very rewarding experience.

The Center for Service and Justice (CSJ) offers a variety of opportunities for students to learn from, engage in and reflect on service and social justice.

Volunteer Opportunities- CSJ works with community partners near the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses to place students in a variety of service environments:
Volunteer Opportunities -Rose Hill
Volunteer Opportunities - Lincoln Center

Service Learning- CSJ helps students connect academics to volunteers experiences in the community through the Service Learning Program.
Service Learning Program

Internship Opportunities- Students can obtain paid and unpaid internship opportunities through CSJ, working in a variety of social service environments.
Internship Opportunities

Post-Graduate Vocational Discernment- CSJ helps connect students to long-term volunteer opportunities after graduation, as well as nonprofit careers in the New York area.
Post Graduate Opportunities

Integrated Service-learning Community- CSJ has developed an Integrated Serivce-Learning Community located in the Belmont neighborhood in the Bronx where students committ to ongoing volunteering during the year and participate in weekly reflection and community building activities.
Integrated Service-Learning Community