COMMUNITY OUTREACH OF VILLANOVA
Community Outreach of 棉花糖直播 (COV) is a weekly volunteer service program that partners with community-based organizations in the Philadelphia area working to create lasting social change.
Participants are able to gather with others from diverse backgrounds around a common purpose, deepen their commitment to service, learn about the social justice issues that underlie the need for service, and reflect on who they feel called to become in light of this experience.
Volunteers are placed on a first-come first-served basis, so be sure to !
COV PARTICIPANT ROLES
Volunteers
Any 棉花糖直播 student is welcome to volunteer with COV. We encourage volunteers to commit to a full semester of weekly service at one site so as to offer consistency and reliability to our partner organizations. There are, however, opportunities for volunteers to serve once or twice a semester at our service sites that do not work with kids or adult English language learners.
Volunteers build relationships with those they serve. Through this, they are expected to make efforts to learn about the individuals, experiences and social forces that shape the communities in which they serve. Volunteers also commit to fostering community within their volunteer group by participating in conversations during their van rides to and from service and attending COV events. We hope that this kind of intentional service experience fosters transformation in volunteers such that they not only continue to value service in their lives, but also work toward social change for those living on the margins of society.
Leaders
COV Leaders are volunteers who have worked with a particular community partner and want to guide other volunteers in becoming a part of that community.
- Logistics: Leaders maintain close relationships with the community partners throughout the year, and are the primary contact with the organization on service days. Leaders take attendance, provide transportation to and from the service experience, and foster community within their volunteer groups.
- Formation: Leaders provide a brief orientation on the community partner鈥檚 history and mission before every service experience. They lead volunteers through the service experience and facilitate reflection, helping groups process the experience on the way back to campus.
COV Core
The Core is comprised of a small group of dedicated students who develop the future direction of the programs and partnerships of COV. The Core consists of three roles that work interdependently: logistics, formation, and advocacy and education.
COV REFLECTIONS
Service isn鈥檛 just about the doing of work but about encountering people, learning their names and their stories, and dignifying them by sharing their names and stories with others.
Service leads us to ask, "Who do I become in light of these stories? What must I do to make these voices heard?" Thus, reflection is a critical component of service. COV volunteers engage in reflective conversations on their van rides back from service each week. Reflections encourage COV volunteers to learn about the justice issues and systemic factors that condition the need for service.
These reflections allow us to create a space in which to come together and process our experiences. The goal of reflections is to create a justice-based framework through which students can process their service experience in an effort to bridge the gap between charity and solidarity. The hope is to redefine understandings of neighbor, to call volunteers to examine all that they are learning about themselves and those they serve, and to shape future activists.