Extended Service

The Extended Service program allows student volunteers to travel domestically and internationally to engage in a wide variety of service projects over Christmas, spring break and summer break.  Within the United States, the service program sends students to repair homes, prepare meals, offer friendship to people who are homeless, and provide a nurturing atmosphere for exploited women and children.  The hope is to increase awareness of global problems and to inspire local service.  Domestic trips take students, faculty and staff as close as New York City and Hartford and as far as Big Thicket National Park in Texas, or Immokalee, Florida. 

At the international level, the service opportunities range from seven to 21 days in length and occur over the semester or summer break.  Past trips have taken Saint Michael's faculty, staff and students to work sites in El Salvador, Haiti, Tanzania, Uganda and India.  Trips allow volunteers an opportunity to serve in global areas in need, while raising awareness and gaining insight into new cultures.  



Extended Service trip - Spring 2001

---Domestic Sites---

Selma, Alabama
The Southern Missions offers an intensive service experience working with the people in Selma and the surrounding communities.  A main focus will be working small construction and repair jobs, although no construction experience is necessary.  Volunteers will live with a community of Edmundite priests and lay volunteers.  They are expected to assume the lifestyle of full-time volunteers throughout their stay which includes daily prayer, reflection and general house-keeping duties.

New Orleans, Louisiana
Volunteers will work with Edmundite communities to help clean up after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Given the nature of these projects, volunteers will be asked to be flexible. Because this trip involves disaster relief work, preference will be given to those with previous community service experience.

Baltimore, Maryland
Volunteers will work at various locations in Baltimore staffing soup kitchens for people that are homeless, shelters for children and assisting social service agencies for the aged.  In addition, we will learn about the everyday experience of the homeless by working in their environment.  Volunteers will stay at the Catholic Charities Volunteer Corps organization in Baltimore.  There they will prepare meals and share reflection time as a community.

Long Island, New York
This is both a community residence for youth between the ages of 16-21 and a Human Services Center.  Hope House is a place where youth having difficulties with drug or alcohol abuse, emotional problems or socializing problems can come for help and support.  The community residence accommodates 20 teenage boys.  During their stay, residents are offered a family atmosphere and counseling services.  The Human Services Center at Hope House provides a number of social services in the Suffolk County area and volunteers will assist in these social programs.  Volunteers will also assist at a shelter for people that are homeless.  This is recommended for students who major in psychology, sociology or education but is open to everyone.

New York City, New York
Volunteers will work and stay in one of the residences owned by Covenant House, which has a primary focus of housing individuals between the ages of 16 and 21.  Volunteers should be flexible and can expect a variety of service projects ranging from painting, cleaning, working in an infancy center, or helping with clerical needs. Volunteers will also have an opportunity to work with the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Mother Teresa, at an AIDS hospice and a soup kitchen in Manhattan and the Bronx.

Boston, Massachusetts
Volunteers will have an opportunity to work at a variety of sites in the Greater Boston area, including local soup kitchens and shelters, a nursing home, and a Boys and Girls Club.  Volunteers will live in community at the Assumptionist Center in the Brighton section of Boston.

Hartford, Connecticut
Volunteers will be spending a majority of their time with one of three shelters and soup kitchens: St. Elizabeth's House, Immaculate Conception Emergency Shelter and House of Bread. They will also work with members of the Latino community at San Juan Tutorial Program.  The volunteers will stay at the Holy Family Retreat House in West Hartford, Connecticut.

Big Thicket Preserve, Texas
Big Thicket National Preserve was established to protect the remnant swamps, eastern forests, central plains, and southwest deserts of Texas.  Throughout the week, volunteers will assist with trail maintenance in the preserve including: clearing brush and small stumps to make the trails more accessible, clearing away species that are endangering the native plant species, and controlled burning to promote the growth of native species.

David, Kentucky
This is a site where volunteers will work at an alternative school, the David School, for predominately high school aged adolescents who were unsuccessful in a regular school setting.  The David School also runs family literacy programs as well as other mentoring opportunities.  Volunteers will work closely with the school staff in tutoring, mentoring and engaging in the daily school activities.  Recommended for secondary education majors.

Christian Appalachian Project (CAP), Kentucky
Participants will have a unique opportunity to serve the needs of the rural poor in the coal mining areas of Kentucky.  A week will be spent on home repair and painting projects but experience is not necessary.  Volunteers will live in a community of full-time Appalachian volunteers.

Immokalee, Florida
Volunteers at the Immokalee Friendship House will work with homeless men, women, children and migrant farm workers.  We will help the Friendship House staff by serving breakfast and dinner meals.  During the day, volunteers will work for the local Habitat for Humanity, help out at an after school program, and assist with local organizations working with immigrant farm workers.

For more information about the Saint Michael's College volunteer program dealing with domestic service, feel free to contact Katie '08.

---International Sites---

Kolkata, India
Volunteers will work with the poorest of the poor in Kolkata, India, where millions are homeless, living in train stations or on the streets, and many more are living below the poverty line.  Much of the three weeks will be spent volunteering for daily shifts at Mother Teresa’s homes, which include orphanages for malnourished children and severely handicapped children, and homes for the destitute and dying of Kolkata.  Volunteers will also fundraise, work on projects for, and visit other non-profit and charitable organizations that are providing homes, education, and sustainability for children taken out of the red-light district in Kolkata, a place where most young girls turn to prostitution merely to survive.

Uganda
Participants will volunteer at the Malayaka House, an orphanage in Uganda, founded by former Saint Michael’s College employee, Robert Fleming.  Robert and his staff currently care for eight children at the Malayaka House, and volunteers are needed to help with feeding, changing, dishes, laundry, and providing individual attention and love for the children.  Participants will have an opportunity to learn about the history and culture of Uganda and its capital city of Kampala.

For more information about the Saint Michael's College volunteer program dealing with Extended Service, feel free to contact Jason Moore.