Nine members of the Jesuit Volunteers Corps Midwest
will call the Wisconsin Province and Milwaukee home
for the coming year – with seven residing in a traditional
first-year house while two more continue an experiment
started last year in an additional-year home.
“We experimented with the additional year
community for the first time this past year because some
volunteers expressed a desire to more deeply explore
the organizational core values that originally attracted
them to JVC service,” says Gerry Brisson, JVC Midwest
executive director. The four core values are community,
simple living, social justice, and spirituality.
“We had very positive feedback from additional-year
participants and decided to make the program available
to two very interested volunteers again this year,” says
Cindy Schmersal, JVC Midwest assistant director. Second
year volunteers are Katy Heeren and Caroline Milne.
Fr. Rick Abert, SJ, Ignatian Associate Elizabeth
Martorell, and Kathy Mullooly, a former JVC member
working in Milwaukee
will again serve on
support teams for the
houses with assistance
from Rick Ralphson, SJ and Mary Beth Spinelli,
JVC area director for the
first-year community.
JVC, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, is the
largest Catholic lay volunteer program in the country. Since
1956, more than 11,000 college graduates have taken a year
or more to work for social justice, choosing to postpone
a career or put graduate school on hold so they can serve
others.
 |
| JVC Midwest first-year community members are (from left)
Peter Giangreco, Kristen Midon, Rob Saper, Reese Barriere,
Michael Carter, Heather Gatnarek, and Kyle Della Rocca. |
This year’s first-year volunteers and their assignments
are: Reese Barriere, health assistant at Walker’s Point
Community Clinic; Rob Saper, assistant after-school
coordinator/teacher’s aide at Notre Dame Middle School; Michael Carter, education and ministry aide at St.
Josaphat’s Parish School; Kyle Della Rocca, education
coordinator/assistant at Our Next Generation, an afterschool
services facility; Peter Giangreco, Children’s Health
Activities coordinator for the Healing Collective, a group of
three non-profit agencies offering holistic health services
to the marginalized; Kristen Midon, community support
specialist for Hope House, a community service center;
Heather Gatnarek, project representative for the New Hope
Project, assisting in activities and services designed to help
unemployed individuals get and keep work.
Additional-year volunteers and their assignments are:
Caroline Milne, who brings her background in Elementary
Education to the St. Rose Catholic Urban Academy as
a classroom aide; and Katy Heeren, assistant academic
support coordinator with the YMCA’s One-on-One
Mentoring Program.
For additional background and information, go to
www.jvcmidwest.org.
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