Yes, our ECSLA Volunteer Program is still running, and we would love to host you and your group! Though our Rebuild Program has come to a close after gutting over 900 houses and rebuilding over 75 homes, our Volunteer Program is still open and accepting volunteers.
What do we do now? We are still your one-stop shop. We house groups, coordinates work projects, and provides programming for short-term mission groups all across the country. We house groups in our own housing bases or coordinate alternative housing arrangements, and coordinate work projects through our partners. We are proud to introduce a mission trip companion guide of social justice and spiritual readings and reflections, designed to facilitate discussion and enable true transformation, which begins when we move from charity to solidarity, or right relationship, recognizing Christ in those we serve and in each other.
We have many partners, and rebuilding is a fluid process. We will do our best–but cannot guarantee–to accommodate your first work project request. We appreciate your flexibility, and ask that volunteers arrive ready to serve with willing hearts in whatever context needed.
Many dates are still available, and since we provide housing it’s easy to coordinate a trip! Contact Pete Nunnally for more details, or complete and return an intake form to reserve space!
Pillars of the Volunteer Program
Education
Our Education Pillar provides an introduction to, and examination of, key social justice issues plaguing low-income residents. It bridges the gap between volunteers and local residents, and connects service work to the larger mission of the church. ECSLA’s education provides depth and context to the service work, and grounds that work in the teachings of Christ. It challenges volunteers to think beyond the hammer in their hand and enter into true transformative change. With our Education Pillar we introduce social justice issues like affordable housing, educational inequality, and access to health care
Service Work
Service work is the backbone of our volunteer program. Most of our programs provide a direct service. Our volunteer service opportunities target low income residents, primarily elderly and those with families, and those who struggle with hunger and access to housing. We always strive to put you in a position to help make progress and effect positive change. Groups are scheduled with partners who are also in the rebuilding and community development fields.
Reflection
Reflection is an integral part of a volunteer experience. If the service work represents the backbone of the experience, the Reflection Pillar serves as the inner organs, promoting vitality of spirit, and facilitating transformational change. Our volunteer program attends to the spiritual needs of volunteers by providing a unique liturgy developed specifically to dovetail with your service work project. Other prayer and reflection resources offered by parishes in the diocese are also available, including an organ and labyrinth service, a gospel service, and much more!
Continuing Action
The Continuing Action Pillar represents the simple fact that your mission trip does not end when you leave New Orleans. Volunteers are invigorated and filled with the spirit of service and wonder of transformation. We urge them to take their experience serving in ECSLA and invest it in their communities back home, using a new lens to identify and address social injustices. We urge you to engage in local and national governmental issues, using the knowledge you’ve gained here as a driving force to bring others into the fold and effect real change. In order to help volunteers become partners in change we remain in contact with them, and offer supporting materials and avenues to organize and stay connected.
Plan your trip
Pricing
Download Volunteer Forms