Two dozen University students will travel to homeless shelters in Portland and Bend next weekend as part of Alternative Breaks.
The trips are part of a series of community service learning trips coordinated by the Holden Leadership Center’s Service Learning Program.
SLP hopes that Alternative Breaks will show participants that short-term service experience can open the door to life-long service and learning outside the classroom.
University sophomore Keeley Tillotson said her participation in the Los Angeles program during spring break last year changed her perspective on social injustice, and she committed her heart and mind once again to the upcoming Bend excursion.
“It’s the best thing I ever decided to do,” Tillotson said. “I decided to pursue a journalism major after seeing the injustice … (and) I’m excited for Bend because I’ve never volunteered there.”
Students will traverse in teams of eight to 10 and engage in active service by learning about and building upon community assets, gaining new perspectives on homelessness, unemployment and poverty in Oregon cities while helping to meet community needs.
The two-day Portland trip will include a visit to Dignity Village, a formerly mobile tent city located on Northeast Sunderland Avenue striving to become a green, sustainable urban village. The handful of students preparing to make the trek will also meet with representatives of different humanitarian organizations in Portland and serve a meal to patrons in a local homeless shelter. Meanwhile, students choosing to serve in Bend will work with several different local shelters, cooking meals and learning about homeless and displaced youth’s struggles with freezing temperatures in the Central Oregon town.
Laura Grangaard, SLP’s Service Program Coordinator said popularity and participation in winter Alternative Breaks have grown in the program’s two-year lifespan, mainly through the program’s outreach efforts and word of mouth.
“We’ve had a huge reaction this year,” Grangaard said. “We’ve had twice as many people apply for winter break than could be involved. We are trying and trying to reach as many students as we can.”
The SLP has also hosted spring Alternative Breaks for the past four years, which tend to focus on more national and worldly humanitarian issues and see significantly greater student involvement. Groups of 15 to 18 students will embark on trips slated for this upcoming spring, including youth and public health education in the Dominican Republic; youth development in Negril, Jamaica; poverty, racism and disaster relief in New Orleans; homelessness and HIV/AIDS in San Francisco; immigration in San Diego and at-risk youths in Los Angeles. At this point in the year, SLP has received close to 200 applications for the 120 available slots for both winter and spring breaks.
The localized winter programs are usually more manageable for busy students because they often do not require international or out-of-state travel and are labor-intensive, rather than time-intensive.
“I think the winter break is a great opportunity because it’s not as much of a commitment as spring break,” Grangaard said. “These winter ones are kind of the kickoff.”
Interested students are expected to make a minimal $50 contribution for travel, lodging and food expenses, a price that is kept low by SLP’s shouldering of the majority of program costs.
“It is entirely student driven, and (partially) funded by our office,” SLP Coordinator Morgan St. Jean said.
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