Benefits of service may include:
- The opportunity to serve others full-time for 1-2 years
- The opportunity to live in community with other volunteers
- An environment in which you can grow spiritually
- The opportunity to live and worth in a place culturally different than your own.
- Commitment to living a simple lifestyle
- Working for social justice
- Stipend, room, and board; health insurance; student loan deferment
- AmeriCorps Education Award (in some cases)
Response Directory (online database of faith-based service programs)
Catholic Volunteer Network is a non-profit membership organization of 200 domestic and international volunteer service programs; this directory is the largest and most comprehensive guide to Catholic and Christian volunteer programs available.
Popular Faith-based Programs
Abundant Table Farm Project
A young adult Christian community seeking a contemporary Benedictine rhythm of life with a land based ministry. Young adults will work for a small scale organic farm and/or intern with a local community organization addressing justice issues facing the community.
— Ventura County, CA
Agape Community
A lay Catholic residential community committed to simple living, sustainability, and nonviolence.
— Central Massachusetts
ALT Year
ALT Year is a “gap-year” opportunity for young adults age 18 to 25 to explore their gifts, passions, and calls through relationships with peers and the support of a host community. Participants are asked to pay for Living Expenses for this 9 month experience, no additional tuition cost.
—Toledo, OH and Twin Cities, MN
Amate House
A service program through the Archdiocese of Chicago where young adults live in community houses in the neighborhoods where they serve, spend 40+ hours a week at nonprofits, parishes, and schools in the city, and participate in a formation program that encourages them to understand and explore the link between Christian faith and service.
— Chicago, IL
Border Servant Corps
Full-time volunteers live in intentional community, learn about living simply, work for social justice, and explore spirituality while serving at the U.S./Mexico border region. Volunteers work with issues such as poverty, immigration, domestic violence, education, and health care with opportunities to work in churches, shelters, legal centers, after-school programs, clinics, and more. Volunteers receive a living stipend during their year of service. BSC also offers two short term volunteering opportunities: January and Summer (June & July).
Episcopal Service Corps
A federation of young adult service programs across the US that help young adults discern the inner “voice” that is calling them to their life’s work, and to develop the skills to listen and respond through a life of service.
Episcopal Urban Intern Program
EUIP gathers a new class of young adults to live in Christian community and to work for change by serving in some of Los Angeles County’s most innovative and effective social service agencies.
— Los Angeles, CA
Good Shepherd Volunteers
Full-time volunteers have the opportunity to work in social service ministries serving women, adolescents, and children affected by poverty, violence, and neglect.
— Philadelphia, PA and New York City
Haley House Live-In Community
A residential community of four to nine people who – in exchange for managing a variety of Haley House social services – receive free room and board.
— Boston, MA
Jesuit Volunteer Corps
A full-time service program dedicated to serving the poor by integrating Christian faith in the pursuit of justice; volunteers work with people who are homeless, unemployed, refugees, people with aids, the elderly, street youth, abused women and children, the mentally ill and the developmentally disabled.
— 39 cities
Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest
Provides full-time opportunities for young, motivated individuals to reach out to persons living on the margins of society and vulnerable places throughout the Pacific Northwest.
— Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington
Johnson Intern Program
Blends social ministry, intellectual inquiry, and intentional community into a year that enables young adults to explore their spiritual lives within the context of servant-leadership.
— Chapel Hill, NC
L’Arche
Enables people with and without disabilities to share their lives in communities of faith and friendship; community members are transformed through relationships of mutuality, respect, and companionship as they live, work, pray, and play together.
— 16 cities in 14 states
Lasallian Volunteers
Provides dedicated, well-trained Volunteers for one or more years of service in schools and agencies of the De La Salle Christian Brothers whose Mission is to serve the poor; sharing community with the Brothers, Lasallian Partners, and other Volunteers provide an intergenerational support structure.
— 18 states
Living on Purpose: NOLA Service Corps
Participants will spend 11 months living together and working with creative programs started in the wake of Hurricane Katrina: rebuilding homes, revitalizing communities, and working with young people. The spiritual formation curriculum exposes Corps members to different spiritual practices, and educates through reading books together, journaling, and discussion.
Lutheran Volunteer Corps
Unites full-time stipend Volunteers with non-profit organizations with an emphasis on building community, working for peace with justice, and living simply and sustainably.
— 13 cities in 11 states
Mercy Volunteer Corps
In partnership with the Sisters of Mercy, Volunteers enter into relationship with people who are economically poor or marginalized through a one-year commitment. In a spirit of mutuality, volunteers cultivate mercy and justice in the world by embracing compassionate service, social justice, spirituality and a simple lifestyle in community.
— 23 cities
New Seeds
A residential internship program for young adults in the Episcopal tradition. The interns will live simply and will serve in local social service agencies and centers and develop a rule of life that balances their service work placement with service and prayer in the church, along with fun and fellowship.
— Louisville, KY
Newark Acts
A service-learning program for young adults that will emphasize social justice, community service, spiritual formation, and communal living.
— Newark, NJ
Notre Dame Mission Volunteers – AmeriCorps
Places volunteers in educational programs for at-risk children and adults in economically disadvantaged communities.
— 17 sites in 14 states
Servant Year
Enables young men and women to work full-time for one year within social service agencies to serve the under-served.
— Philadelphia, PA
St. Joseph Worker Program
A one-year volunteer experience for women who are passionate about social change.
— Twin Cities, MN
Urban Servant Corps
A one-year, full-time Lutheran volunteer program involved in ministries serving the inner-city; seeks to fulfill Christ’s mission of love demonstrated through action by working for peace with justice, by advocating for and with oppressed persons, and sharing our power and abundance with those most in need.
— Denver, CO
Sojourner’s Program
The Sojourners Internship Program is a spiritual formation program that embodies Sojourners’ commitment to Christian discipleship, community and vocation. Currently in its 34th year, the yearlong program combines full-time jobs in our office with an opportunity to live in an intentional Christian community. Between 9 and 10 interns are selected into the program each year.
— Washington, D.C.
AVODAH
A year long program for individuals ages 21-26 to build a lifetime of leadership skills, an active Jewish community, a powerful professional network, and a more just America. The Avodah Jewish Service Corps operates in Chicago, New Orleans, New York City, San Diego, and Washington, DC. The Avodah Justice Fellowship runs in Chicago and Kansas City, and our resources are available to synagogues, organizations, institutions, and others nationwide.
— 7 Cities