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Winter Trips

AIDS Project | Los Angeles, CA

HIV/AIDS

Students will work inside the agency. They will have the chance to learn about this disease, meet clients, and be a part of an exciting event the organization has planned for the week!

Each year hundreds of people are diagnosed as HIV positive. AIDS Project Los Angeles is dedicated to improving the lives of people affected by HIV disease, reducing the incidence of HIV infection, and advocating for fair and effective HIV-related public policy. Students will be working inside the agency, while directly learning about it. An HIV 101 session will be given to volunteers, and they will help with greeting clients, and any events which may be held the week of the visit.

Child Crisis Center of El Paso, Leemoor | El Paso, TX

Youth Poverty and Development

Students will be working with children who rarely ever leave El Paso. They will have the chance to help them see outside the town they live in and to help improve their living situation.

The Lee and Beulah Moor Children's Home supports children and families who are experiencing difficulty in their lives for whatever reason by providing a nurturing, positive environment and teaching self-respect, respect for others, and the importance of taking responsibility for one's own decisions and actions. The mission of the Child Crisis Center is to protect children newborn through thirteen years of age from abuse/neglect by providing temporary short-term emergency shelter and family support services. Students will be working with these children, who rarely ever leave El Paso, to help them see outside the town they live in, and to help improve their living situation.

Coalition of Immokalee Workers | Immokalee, FL

Migrant Farm Workers

Students will get to experience the life of migrant farm workers by volunteering at various organizations to help them and their families.

First, volunteers will be staying at the Friendship House, where the homeless can spend the night and families can receive lunches and dinners. Participants will work with Harvest for Humanity, which is a fair foods and wages organization. You will get to experience working on a tomato farm in Immokalee that pays workers a fair wage. Also, you will get to meet with the Coalition of Immokalee workers. This organization was founded to fight wage injustices in the farming industry. At the Guadalupe Center participants will help with the soup kitchen at lunch time. Volunteers will learn first hand what it is like to be a migrant farm worker and how the Coalition is fighting for the rights of these workers.

Everglades Outpost | Homestead, FL

Environmental Concerns

Students will be working on building a habitat for endangered species.

Participants will get an unique chance to work with the Everglades Outpost in rescuing, rehabilitating, and taking care of hurt or endangered animals of the Homestead, Florida area. In addition, volunteers will help carry out the Everglades Outpost mission of maintaining the natural habitats of the wildlife as well as helping in educating the public about the variety of species that live in the area to better the relationship between humans and animals.

Gaits to Success | Kiln, Mississippi

Disabilities and Special Needs

Students will have the opportunity to help with horse riding classes, work with the riders, and help out around this therapeutic riding facility.

While these dreams may seem just that, Gaits to Success is working hard to turn dreams into reality for many children and adults along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. As a non-profit therapeutic riding facility in Kiln, Mississippi, we serve riders who have a variety of disabilities such as partial paralysis, autism, cerebral palsy, developmental delays, and mental retardation. Our students find physical and cognitive benefits while enjoying the freedom of horseback riding. Gaits to Success offers a unique approach to helping people with mental, physical, emotional, and learning disabilities. Therapeutic horseback riding gives the disabled person a feeling of freedom, independence and an awareness of self that is otherwise difficult to achieve by conventional therapy. Physical activity and individual accomplishment are uplifting and rewarding for the student. Improvement may be seen in increases in attention span, dexterity, auditory and visual learning motor skills, and memory cooperation. Volunteers will help with the classes, working with the riders and horses.

Homes of Hope | Greenville, SC

Affordable Housing

Students will work directly with men currently going through drug and alcohol rehabilitation to work on homes for those with health or economical difficulties. Work will include painting, sanding, building wheelchair ramps and other construction projects.

Homes of Hope exists to provide safe, affordable housing for homeless and low-income families or individuals, while also providing job training/mentoring for men overcoming drug and alcohol addictions. Rentals and home ownership are only two of the possibilities to house individuals. Students will be working directly with the men in the rehab program building these houses to be lived in. Students should be prepared for manual labor, such as painting, sanding, and other construction projects to help build a house.

National Coalition for the Homeless | Washington D.C.

Hunger and Homelessness

Students will experience homelessness firsthand by participating in the Urban Plunge, volunteering in soup kitchens, and working in shelters in the area.

Daily activities will vary from serving meals in a soup kitchen or shelter to selling copies of Street Sense, a newspaper written by and benefiting the homeless. The highlight of the trip is a 48 hour Urban Plunge during which students will live as a homeless individual in the Nation's capitol alongside homeless guides. Participants will leave this trip with a new understanding of homelessness and a sensitivity to this often overlooked population.

Navajo Community | Kayenta, AZ

Native American Issues

Volunteers will have the opportunity to work directly with Mark Dressman, a professor in the education department, as they travel to interact with students at Monument Valley High School. They will have the chance to tutor the students and be a part of several other classroom activities.

The Navajo Native American Indians were the last group of Indians to arrive in America. They are now currently one of the largest groups of Indians around. The reservation in Arizona is one of the very largest, equivalent to the size of West Virginia. This area is still very traditional; students take two hour bus rides to get to and from school. Volunteers will be working in Monument Valley High School, helping tutoring kids, and working on other activities they set up to do with the classes. This trip will be led by Professor Dressman from the Department of Education who has extensive knowledge of the Navajo community. He will accompany students on the trip and provide a unique educational element.

Rocky Mountain Community | Stilwell, OK

Community Development and Cherokee Culture

Students will work together with members of the Rocky Mountain Community in Stilwell, Oklahoma on various construction projects within the community.

Students will work together with members of the Rocky Mountain Community in Stilwell, Oklahoma on various construction projects within the community. For example, students who participated in this trip last year were involved in the fixing up of a small community church. They spent the week painting the interior of the church, installing new doors and drywall, constructing new steps, along with other important tasks. Ron Bates, a member of the community led many of the projects and students can expect to either be working again closely with Mr. Bates and the other members of this particular church or another close by. The students also received countless incredible educational opportunities dealing with the cultural history and practices of the Cherokee people and their ancestors, including a full days worth of touring the Cherokee Nation. The most memorable education experience for many of the participants involved the priceless opportunity to converse with the members of this community on a one-on-one basis.

SALS | Kincaid, WV

Rural Poverty

Volunteers will work in this rural town building houses and working on minor repairs to other homes in the area.

The mission of the Southern Appalachian Labor School (SALS) is to provide education, research, and linkages for working class and disenfranchised peoples in order to promote understanding, empowerment, and change. The Southern Appalachian Labor School is committed to developing a real comprehension of the social, economic, and legal structures which affect the lives of the Appalachian People. Volunteers will be working in this rural town building houses and working on minor repairs/improvements to other houses.