NASHVILLE, Tenn.– While spring break is traditionally a time set aside for rest and relaxation, more than 370 Vanderbilt University students will trade academic work for community during the university’s Alternative Spring Break (ASB) Program March 6-10. The students will travel to 32 volunteer sites across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Ecuador and Guatemala as they engage in community service and learn about the problems faced by members of communities with whom they otherwise may have had little or no direct contact.
Alternative Spring Break is organized completely by students and covers a variety of social and environmental issues. This year participants will turn an old cabin into a recreational center for children in Xela, Guatemala; prepare and disperse meals to those suffering from HIV/AIDS in the Washington, D.C., area; mentor young girls in Atlanta; revitalize a national park in Saguaro, Arizona; and rescue and rehabilitate area wildlife in the Florida Everglades.
Alternative Spring Break was started at Vanderbilt University in 1987 by four undergraduates who wanted to participate in a community service opportunity but also wanted to travel over Spring Break. In 1991, two of those students, Michael Magevney and Laura Mann – by then alumni – founded Break Away, a national non-profit now based in Tallahassee, Fla., that acts as an umbrella organization for Alternative Spring Break efforts at universities across the country.
Break Away estimates that some 35,000 students across the nation will participate in an alternative spring break experience.
The following locations will serve as Alternative Spring Break work sites for Vanderbilt students March 6-10.
Primeros Pasos, Xela, Guatemala
Site Description: The participants on this site will work with Primeros Pasos, a free clinic for children. Participants will work to renovate facilities, provide assistance to the clinic and the community and turn an old cabin into a recreational center for children.
Operation Breakthrough/Niles Home for Children, Kansas City, Mo.
Site Description: Operation Breakthrough, which cares for infants to children aged six-years-old, is the largest day care facility in the state of Missouri. Many of these children are under state protective custody and have been exposed to physical and/or substance abuse. ASB participants will help the organization care for, play with, mentor and educate approximately 350 children who come from impoverished, homeless and single-parent families. Niles Home for Children, a sister organization, is both a K-12 school and a foster home for behaviorally-challenged children. Here, participants will also have the chance to act as mentors as they see up close the impact of neglect and abuse on inner city children.
Boys and Girls Club of Beaufort, S.C.
Site Description: Located in the low country of South Carolina, Beaufort is a community known for its antebellum homes and waterfront beauty. However, many Beaufort residents are gripped by poverty and are struggling to educate their children in an overcrowded school system. Participants will tutor children in elementary school classrooms.
God’s Love We Deliver, New York, N.Y.
Site Description: God’s Love We Deliver provides illness-specific nutrition education and counseling to clients and families living with HIV and AIDS, care providers and other service organizations. At this site, the participants will prepare and deliver nutritious, high-quality meals to people who, because of their illness, are unable to provide or prepare meals for themselves.
CCAR Services Inc., Green Cove Springs, Fla.
Site Description: CCAR Services Inc. is a United Way affiliate addressing the needs of the disabled population. Participants will serve as teachers’ aides at the Lighthouse Learning Center, a facility for birth to preschool age children with multiple disabilities. Additionally, participants will be assigned to various jobs and help one of the Supported Living home owners with a special need.
The Everglades and Biscayne, Fla.
Site Description: The Everglades National Park is 1.6 million acres of wilderness with nine different habitats; Biscayne is our country’s only underwater park with living coral reefs and mangrove islands called keys. Participants will attend to a coral nursery, gather and clean the corals, count sea turtle and alligator eggs, remove exotic plants, help out at a nearby recycling plant, and help to rescue and rehabilitate area wildlife.
Anthony House, Zellwood, Fla.
Site Description: Anthony House is a facility for homeless families which helps people by providing education, money management, and family counseling, shelter and meals. ASB participants will help rebuild a donated trailer so that it can be used as a transitional housing unit for a homeless family. They will also work on a photo project in which they will remember each family’s steps to success through photos.
Glide and Little Brothers-Friends of the Elderly, San Francisco, Calif.
Site Description: San Francisco is struggling to provide resources for its large number of seniors. By 2010, more than 30,000 San Francisco residents aged 60 and older will need in-home services. This number is complicated by the fact that many of San Francisco’s elderly live on the streets and are unable to secure in-home care. Glide, a local service-provider, hosts Senior Socials twice a week. ASB participants will entertain the seniors with music, skits, presentations and conversation. While working with Little Brothers-Friends of the Elderly, participants will also take meals and flowers to seniors in their homes.
Streetside Stories, San Francisco, Calif.
Site Description: Through the power of storytelling, Streetside Stories values and cultivates young people’s voices, fosters educational equity, and builds community, literacy and arts skills. ASB volunteers will work with The Storytelling Exchange, an in-school literacy arts program for 6th graders and Tech Tales, an in-school literacy arts and technology program for 5th to 8th graders. In the afternoons, ASB volunteers will work with an after school program for kids.
Metro Teen AIDS, Washington D.C.
Site Description: Metro Teen AIDS is dedicated to preventing HIV infection among young people in the Washington D.C., area and improving the quality of life of those affected by the virus. Participants will work with the street outreach and peer education programs, and prepare and disperse meals with the Foods and Friends organization to people living with HIV/AIDS and other life-challenging illnesses throughout Washington, DC.
St. Gabriel’s Mercy Center, Mound Bayou, Miss.
Site Description: At St. Gabriel’s Mercy Center, ASB participants will spend their time getting to know senior citizens, who will share their personal stories about life during the civil rights movement, and playing with and tutoring children at this community center’s after-school program. They will also work with students who are part of the center’s GED program and do some manual labor for the St. Gabriel center and the local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity.
Native American Connections, Phoenix, Ariz.
Site Description: Native American Connections’ (NAC) mission is to provide comprehensive behavioral health services and transitional and permanent affordable housing to low-income Native Americans throughout the Southwest. Participants will become a part of the Native American community for a week, staying at the NAC center and helping with various projects, including a 32-bed women’s shelter where women and their dependent children find lodging and comfort.
The Islamic Society of Greater Lansing, Mich.
Site Description: Refugees and immigrants of Islamic faith are increasingly calling Lansing home. The Islamic Society of Greater Lansing looks to ease this transition and has programs which help with problems ranging from health care services and high school transition issues to low quality housing. Participants will take part in these programs while being immersed in the refugees’ rich culture.
The Southern Appalachian Labor School (SALS), Kincaid, W. Va.
Site Description: The Southern Appalachian Labor School (SALS) provides education, research and linkages for working class and disenfranchised people in order to promote understanding, empowerment and change. SALS programs include: Youth Build, a program providing empowerment, job training, quality housing, and education for 17-24-year-old high school dropouts; New River Safe Housing, which provides rehabilitation to dilapidated and energy inefficient homes for low income families in economically devastated rural coalfield communities; and New Page Housing, which pairs YouthBuild volunteers with college students to construct a new housing development for low-income families in the former coal camp community of Page, W. Va. ASB volunteers will assist these programs in various capacities.
White Oak Elementary School, White Oak, Tennessee
Site Description: White Oak, set atop a mountain in Appalachia, lacks the modern conveniences of urban healthcare. Poverty is a reality and expensive healthcare is out of reach. Participants will learn about issues surrounding poverty and rural medicine and will be exposed to the unique Appalachian culture. Volunteers will work with students in the classrooms at White Oak Elementary School, where they will participate in various in-school and after-school educational and athletic activities. Volunteers may also shadow family physicians at the Day Spring Family Health Center and make house visits with nurses in White Oak and surrounding communities.
Pine Ridge Reservation, Kyle, South Dakota
Site Description: The Lakota Sioux are a group of people who have managed to preserve their unique culture throughout the turbulent events of their past. The lack of employment opportunities on Native American reservations has led to widespread poverty among the residents, resulting in low funding for the local schools. Participants at this site will have the opportunity to work in elementary school classrooms on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Additionally, participants will be immersed in the Lakota Sioux culture and have the chance to interact with elders and other leaders of this community.
National Coalition for the Homeless, Washington, D.C.
Site Description: Students will work with the National Coalition for the Homeless and other organizations in Washington, D.C., during a week of intense service, education and experiential with Washington’s homeless population. Participants will spend 48 hours actually living on the streets of Washington in a program dubbed the Urban Plunge. Participants will also serve in homeless shelters and kitchens and look at homelessness from a policy perspective to learn more about how to effectively fight this problem.
Cool Girls, Inc., Atlanta, Ga.
Site Description: Participants will help with the programs of Cool Girls, Inc., an organization dedicated to the self-empowerment of girls in low-income communities. Cool Girls and volunteers provide the tools to help girls make positive choices, achieve academic success, break the cycle of teen pregnancy and poverty and overcome the barriers of racism and sexism. The programs instill confidence and provide exposure to a broader world of opportunity through mentoring relationships, field trips, health and life skills education and academic support.
COMARCA, San Lorenzo, Ecuador
Site Description: The northernmost city of Ecuador, San Lorenzo, is a coastal city primarily serving a population made up of Afro-Ecuadorian and indigenous people. The city, like most of the country, lies below the poverty line. Participants will work in conjunction with COMARCA, an organization made up of local representatives from San Lorenzo and area communities. COMARCA is part of the Afro-Ecuadorian movement and provides basic services to the community including school materials, food and leadership workshops. ASB volunteers will assist the teachers with English courses and work in the local preschools.
Project Angel Food, Los Angeles, Calif.
Site Description: While staying at a homeless shelter on Skid Row, where there are approximately 17,000 homeless people in a six block area; participants will drive along Sunset Boulevard where they will have the unique opportunity of working with Project Angel Food. That organization delivers free and nutritious meals to men, women and children affected by HIV/AIDS and other serious illnesses.
Heartland Alliance, Chicago, Ill.
Site Description: The Heartland Alliance is an anti-poverty, human rights group that provides housing, health care and human services to improve the lives of impoverished Chicagoans. Participants will work with the alliance’s Neon Streets Program that helps homeless and at-risk teens become healthy adults by providing counseling, education, employment assistance, a daytime drop-in center and residential services. Participants will also work with the Inspiration Corporation, a not-for-profit organization that serves meals in a restaurant-style setting to Chicago’s homeless community.
National School and Community Corps (NSCC), Philadelphia, Pa.
Site Description: The mission of the National School and Community Corps (NSCC) is to engage a diverse group of Americans in national service help children, their families, schools and communities improve their quality of life. Participants will work alongside corps members as they implement new programs in local schools.
Friendship House, Immokalee, Fla.
Site Description: Since its opening in 1989, the Friendship House has provided an average of 660 shelter nights and 1,320 meals each month to the homeless in Immokalee, a rural farming community. Participants will provide a vital service to the homeless in this community by serving dinner at the Friendship House and interacting with its residents.
Southeast Elementary School, Rome, Ga.
Site Description: Nestled in between Chattanooga, Tenn. and Atlanta in the Northwest Georgia foothills, Rome is a growing city that was recently named one of the “Best Places to Live” in America. Yet, Rome still faces many social problems that hit growing cities. Participants will be working at Southeast Elementary, a K-6 grade school in a low-income, public housing district of Rome. Most of the students live below the poverty line. Participants will tutor and mentor children, do school maintenance, and learn about the efforts to help mothers and their children get out of public housing.
Brownsville Youth Build and Jesus is the Only Way Ministries, Brownsville, Texas / Mexico border
Site Description: Located in the heart of the Rio Grande delta, with Mexico at its doorstep and the Gulf of Mexico beaches close by, Brownsville, Texas is a dynamic, bustling city consisting of a predominately Hispanic community. Participants will spend the week working with a variety of organizations dealing with a range of issues such as poverty, troubled youth and unfit living conditions. Volunteering on each side of the border, participants will see the vast difference in lifestyles that only a few miles can make.
Groove With Me, Bronx, N.Y.
Site Description: Combining artistic achievement and service learning, this site will work to help get children off the streets and escape lives of extreme poverty, drugs, prostitution and violence. Such programs allow children to rebuild their identity; offer them a tool for social advancement; develop their emotional and intellectual abilities; and help them to better apprehend and affront the future working world. Participants will engage in an artistic exchange with students at a dance/assistance center teaching the students dance and learning dance from the children.
Jeunesse au Soleil, Montreal, Quebec
Site Description: At this site, participants will volunteer and stay at the Jeunesse au Soleil (Sun Youth) organization, where they will design and help conduct a day camp/after school program in the inner city for youth who come largely from troubled homes, and are all too often lacking positive role models. Vanderbilt students will serve as mentors to the youth.
Southern Animal Rescue Association (SARA), Seguin, Texas
Description: Southern Animal Rescue Association (SARA) provides rehabilitation to abused or abandoned domestic and factory farm animals on its 380 acre preserve. Participants will feed, clean and socialize the animals ranging from goats to pigs to donkeys on this old dairy farm just outside of San Antonio, Texas.
Harvest Farm, Wellington, Colo.
Site Description: The Denver Rescue Mission is a Christian-affiliated organization that provides outreach programs to men, women and families in the Denver area. Harvest Farm, located 90 miles north of Denver, is one such program. Harvest Farm is a rural rehabilitation facility for men who are former drug addicts. Approximately 55 men reside on the 100-acre working farm, which features a comprehensive long-term rehabilitation program that includes on-site education and work training. ASB participants will work on the farm alongside the men who will share their testimonies of addiction and recovery.
Saguaro National Park, Saguaro, Ariz.
Site Description: Saguaro National Park is situated in the unique Sonoran Desert. Participants will learn enviro-friendly camping techniques. They will camp under the stars at night, remove invasive species from the park and help clean old mining sites during the day.
The Faith House, St. Louis, Mo.
Site Description: The Faith House is an organization that cares for children who are exposed to drugs prenatally, or whose parents are substance abusers. Since 1991, it has been home to more than 800 children, preparing them socially, emotionally and physically for life outside their walls – either through adoption, foster care or care by the children’s relatives. An extension of Faith House, Faith Village houses a center for child development, an adoption center, drug awareness programs and HIV/AIDS awareness programs as well as providing for special needs children. Participants will have the opportunity to assist in each of these programs while interacting with the children.
Media Contact: Amber N. Sims, (615) 322-NEWS
amber.sims@vanderbilt.edu