Life as a Volunteer with the Lutheran Volunteer Corps!

The big question: ‘What are you doing with your life after graduation?’ has come up in conversations with any and everyone over the last year—and I know lots of us got tired of answering such big questions in a few sentences! Thus, I have created a blog to answer that very question as it applies to me.  Many of you know that I am doing the Lutheran Volunteer Corps, but for those of you who are unfamiliar with my program, LVC is an organization that has 150 members in 14 cities across the US.  LVC is committed to seeking peace through justice, and as volunteers we committed to a year of intentional community living, simplicity, sustainability and social justice. I am so excited to be a part of a service program that not only reaches a lot of people in many different aspects, but focuses on the root causes that have forced people into oppression in the first place—lots of ‘isms’—racism, classism, sexism, etc.  You can’t fight injustices within the educational system without deeply understanding poverty; you can’t look at health care issues if you neglect proper nutrition and access to food.  During our week of orientation (which I liken to staff training at camp, except 10x less fun and 20x more intellectually challenging) we discussed many of these issues at length. I learned so much, enjoyed the discussions that poured over into dinner and the late hours of the night, and was left with lots of big things to think about.  Rather than getting into some of these discussions too far in depth here, I hope to apply some of what we talked about to my experiences over the course of the year…as I know I still have a lot of reflecting to do. 

Each of us in LVC are matched with a placement organization, mostly with different non-profits in all kinds of areas—health care, education, hunger and homelessness, environmental work, etc… I am working at Open Arms, which you will have to read about in a separate blog post!  Another part of being in LVC is the intentional community aspect, in which we are assigned into houses with other volunteers.  I am in South Minneapolis in the Wellstone House. We have community nights as a house every week and spirituality nights once a month to make sure that we remain a support to our housemates who are experiencing the same things that we are.  We are each given a stipend that covers housing, food and personal expenses each month, so we will be living very simply.  So far, I am finding it a very comfortable way to live!  I don’t have a car this year, so I will be getting around by bike or bus—which is a fun way to explore a new city!

All in all, I am very excited to see what this year will bring, and I am excited to learn, because I know I have a lot to learn!