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.

Alternative Spring Break (ASB) is a program sponsored by University Ministry that seeks to educate student volunteers about specific social issues by immersing them in diverse cultures and environments across the country to engage in service-oriented learning. Participating offers a chance to put into action the charisms of the Religious Sisters of Mercy and the Society of Jesus, the sponsors of the University. The participants travel together and live in a community atmosphere, sharing chores, meals and reflection opportunities. As everyone has a different persepctive, studnts learn to respect the dignity of each other and of those they serve Over the past 13 years, students have helped in many parts of the USA: Michigan, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Missouri, and even South Dakota.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (“To the Greater Glory of God”): Alternative Means of Discovering Grace.

Our service immersion program offers rising seniors an opportunity to put their faith into action in a very challenging and real way. They are about responding to the Gospel call to serve those in need, while questioning the reasons behind why people are in need. While each immersion has its own unique slant, they all encourage participants to learn about living in solidarity with people and experiencing a different way of living, often without many material possessions.

Founded in 1977, ASPI cultivated a demonstration area in rural Livingston has low-cost buildings and homes, organic raised-bed gardens, a nature trail, and a nature center. ASPI's aim is to show people how to live a simpler life in harmony with the environment.

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.

 A week-long summit exploring immigration through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching that will feature, among others, Fr. Sean Carroll, S.J., of the Kino Border Initiative.

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.

The objective of the Border Awareness Experience (BAE) is to facilitate face to face meetings and encounters between BAE participants and people in the border community in order to raise consciousness and help break down barriers and promote social justice. We feel that the US/Mexico border is a unique place where we can better understand our role in an increasingly globalized world.

The goal of the New Orleans chapter of Bread for the World is to organize people and collaborate with community organizations in developing solutions to poverty and hunger issues through prayer, education, advocacy and fundraising. BFW New Orleans seeks to accomplish this goal by:

• educating adults and children regarding the causes and solutions to poverty and hunger;
• networking with churches, schools and community organizations to develop community responses to issues of poverty and hunger;
• advocating for legislation at the local, state and national levels that will benefit poor and hungry people.

Community service sites include clinics, hospitals, schools, youth centers, service centers and homes for the physically and developmentally disabled, retirement facilities, therapeutic riding and youth sports programs, nursing home, and homes for unwed mothers. By the end of any semester, Brebeuf Jesuit students will have give more than 900 hours of service to the community.

Campus Ministry is dedicated to educating and challenging the Canisius community on a variety of justice issues. We offer a variety of ways to become engaged in the pursuit of justice: social justice movie nights, justice newsletter, Ignatian Family Teach-ins, the annual Sleep-out in the Quad, For Your Consideration weekly emails, tabling on various peace and justice issues, and various speakers and trips.

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.

Children and teens, ages six and up, go to the Shehan Center because it offers a safe, positive, fun environment. Volunteers may assist with the two afterschool programs (one educational, one recreational) by helping with homework, reinforcing English language skills, playing games and sports with the children, and acting as positive role models. You may also choose to be a volunteer coach for sports such as basketball and flag football.