How will we serve?

No two Young Neighbors sites are exactly alike. Although programming is similar at each site, the program location, work opportunities and the communities that we enter into help guarantee that each event is a unique experience. Below are the three basic types of service that a Young Neighbors team might be a part of…

Clean-up, paint-up, fix-up, construction, and repair
Examples: yard work for ill and needy individuals or families; landscaping, planting, weeding at shelters or in community gardens; neighborhood clean-up or graffiti-removal; minor home repairs; scraping and painting; major renovation or construction projects with Habitat for Humanity and similar groups.

Regular involvement in children’s and family programming
Examples: helping with summer tutorial and recreational programs; assisting with day camp or daycare programs for infants, toddlers, young children and pre-teens; helping out at children’s and/or family centers; serving as aides for migrant Head Start programs; working with developmentally disabled children, youth, or young adults; organizing arts and crafts, and Bible School programs; working at orphanages and children’s homes.

Providing direct assistance to those in need
Examples: cooking and serving meals in soup kitchens and shelters; working with food banks and clothing shops, Catholic Charities, and St. Vincent de Paul; helping out in homeless shelters or family abuse centers, Catholic Worker Houses, and AIDS hospices.

Almost every site offers the chance to both meet people and work on a concrete task, how these pieces balance out will differ from one site to the next. While the three types of work sound quite distinct, work sites often end up offering a combination of these different kinds of work.

Teams that come together to Young Neighbors, also work together during the week.  Participants are assigned to a single work site for the entire program week.  Large teams may be divided up and sent to several job sites.  Teams have the opportunity to express their work preferences from a list sent out in advance of the service week.