Leaders: Elise Pizzi and Anna Barlow

This Alternative Break trip is going to Minneapolis to work with the Boys and Girls Club. We will be playing, doing some educational projects, tutoring, crafts, etc. In addition to playing, we're going to be doing some manual labor (outside if the weather cooperates, but we have backup projects in the event of a blizzard). We will be helping clean up a park on Boys and Girls Club property. The paths need to be widened, the tennis courts cleared, and plenty of other work in the park to make it usable.

Leaders: Claudia Ochoa and Marta Hernandez

The goal of our trip is to bring information about college life, leadership skills, and self-esteem through creative means such as workshops, skits, and panels. The organization we are working with is the Latino Youth Organization, which has served the Latino Community of Pilsen/Little Village in Chicago. Specifically we will work with the alternative high school that brings students who drop out of the Chicago schools back to an educational path. We are looking for people with creative talent to come up with fun ideas to present this material.

Leaders: Diedre Murch and Ursula Hill

Hundreds of years worth of economic, political, and cultural exploitation in addition to institutionalized racism have resulted in the severe impoverishment of communities such as Pine Ridge, a Lakota Sioux Reservation located in South Dakota. During this trip, we hope to work on projects that will help us gain greater insight into the struggles of Native American communities. We hope that our experience will force us to question and challenge our understanding of both Native American culture (and its relation to dominant American culture) and our role as volunteers in the community.

Leaders: Sara Weiss and Rachel Dreyer

Our trip will work with a variety of different community-centered direct service organizations in Chicago. We will be preparing breakfast two mornings at that Living Room Café: A gateway to social services for people who are homeless or at risk for homelessness. We will also be working with Open Hands Chicago, an organization that provides food to people affected by HIV/AIDS. Two other potential work sites are Theresa House, a Transitional Family Shelter, and Su Casa Catholic Worker, which assists homeless Latino families who are in need of shelter, food, clothing, and hospitality.