Colonials Serve Communities in Need

By James Irwin

Economic reality remains harsh in Detroit. Unemployment in the city at the end of 2013 was at 8 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Abandoned homes and buildings are falling apart. Last July, the city filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

But Andie Hession, a senior in the Milken Institute School of Public Health, and a group of GW volunteers also see hope in the form of city residents working to revive their community.

Ms. Hession was one of 229 George Washington University volunteers who recently returned from weeklong service trips to 11 domestic and international communities, part of the GW Alternative Breaks program, hosted by the Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service.

“We wanted to look at the actions being taken to address abandoned properties in Detroit and the safety concerns that come with them,” she said. “The focus was on a transition to the positive and inspiring projects that members of the community are undertaking on these properties.”

Ms. Hession and 19 GW volunteers were on the Detroit trip. Through partnerships with the AmeriCorps Urban Safety Project, the Heidelberg Project, Fourth Street Church and the Michigan Urban Farming Initiative, members of the GW community helped renew and revitalize once-abandoned neighborhoods. They helped build out urban farms on vacant properties, volunteered alongside AmeriCorps members to help ensure safe routes for children walking to and from school, and worked at a multi-service downtown soup kitchen.

“There is so much that could be depressing, and the issues really do affect people,” Ms. Hession said. “But there’s also a part of the story that is about the city coming back. The focus was on community in every group we worked with, in everything from working on the abandoned properties to reaching out to the unemployed. The soup kitchen offered so many services— medical, a barbershop, a closet where they could outfit people with clothes for job interviews. It was really comprehensive. People are trying to take care of each other.”

GW volunteers in Harlan, Ky., help with landscaping at the construction site of a new home for a low-income community member. (Rauvin Johl)

Appalachia participants prepare to plant grass. (Rauvin Johl)

GW volunteers build a fence in Harlan. Participants built and repaired homes during the service trip, which focused on rural poverty. (Rauvin Johl)

A group of GW volunteers serving in Tahlequah, Okla., focused on Native American cultural issues. The group worked with Cherokee Nation Head Start, an early childhood education program. (Julia Dippel)

Each day, GW volunteers in Oklahoma drew a picture in the morning to represent how they intended to serve. Each night, group members reflected on their service. (Liviya David)

Alternative Break students in Washington, D.C., spread awareness about sexual assault and domestic violence by holding signs in front of the Washington Monument. (Jennifer Solt)

The D.C. group takes a quick photo at the Capitol before heading to the Sewall-Belmont House & Museum, where they learned about the women's suffrage and women's equality movements. (Jennifer Solt)

D.C. volunteers participated in a phone bank to help spread awareness about Beyond Borders, an organization working to end child slavery and violence against women in Haiti. (Ty Miranda)

GW volunteers in Detroit helped the Wayne State AmeriCorps Urban Safety Project board up 21 abandoned houses over two days to make the walking routes to school safer for local students. (Max Chen)

Tina Pierre gets help from Martuly Louis and Nicole Dunsmore to measure and cut the boards that will be used to board up homes near Osbourn High School. (Max Chen)

ASB Detroit volunteers pause for a photo with Detroit artist and Heidelberg Project founder Tyree Guyton. The group had just finished cleaning up the Penny House, which had been affected by arson the previous week. (Andie Hession)

Two GW volunteers teach math to the young students in Guachinguero, a small community outside Otavalo, Ecuador. (Michelle Suarez)

Participants collect sand and dirt to mix cement and build part of a school. (Michelle Suarez)

The Otavalo, Ecuador group on its final day of service. (Shannon Ongaro)

GW students on the Gullah Nation trip in Georgia clear land belonging to a local descendant of Sapelo Island, a historic island where only 45 original Gullah descendants remain. Members of the Gullah Nation having ancestral relations to slaves. When slavery was abolished the Gullah people remained to cultivate a new life. Gullah Nation members speak Gullah and Geechee and depend largely on their land for sustenance. (Floyd Jones)

Volunteers stop for a photo in the middle of the historic Sapelo Island Shell Ring complex. The Shell Ring is one of the oldest manmade structures in the United States, with has radiocarbon date of 2170 B.C. (Floyd Jones)

ASB Immokalee participants Conor McGrath and Catherine Betancourt work in the community garden at Immokalee Housing and Family Services. (Allison Casey)

ASB Immokalee volunteers pose for a group photo at Immokalee Community School after a day of volunteering at the charter school for children of migrant farmworkers. (Dominic Homac)

GW volunteers in Joplin, Mo., visiting the tri-state border of Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas. (Emily Levial)

ASB Joplin volunteers dig trenches to plant trees. (Danielle Dettling)

GW students did some exploring in Joplin. These participants discovered a cave while picking trash along trails. (Kat Rodrigues)

GW sent more than 50 volunteers to New Orleans for a week of rebuilding, including service projects with Habitat for Humanity. (Audrey Alexander)

A small note written on what will be the windowsill of a Habitat for Humanity home. (Nick Harnish)

GW volunteer Mary Bowlby reads with a student at KIPP Central City, a school in New Orleans. (Chris Kim)

Detroit was one of three new locations for 2014. Another new domestic location was in Washington, D.C., where 13 GW participants explored women’s issues of homelessness, hunger, prostitution, sexually transmitted diseases and domestic violence.

“This was a great opportunity for our students to learn from organizations in Detroit in terms of community development and rebuilding,” Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service Executive Director Amy Cohen said. “And in D.C., I don’t know that we’ve ever had a trip that emphasizes women’s health. These elements certainly have enhanced the variety of our service trips.”

GW volunteers amassed 8,800 service hours during the 11 trips, which also included an international project in Otavalo, Ecuador, where 14 Colonials worked with the Tandana Foundation and spent the week expanding space in a local school. Domestic trips included reconstruction and recovery projects in Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Joplin, Mo.; and New Orleans; rural poverty issues in Harlan County, Ky.; Native American issues in Tahlequah, Okla.; cultural awareness and historical preservation in South Carolina; labor justice in Immokalee, Fla.; and LGBT youth empowerment in New York.

The Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service hosted a record 17 volunteer trips in 2014—six during its Alternative Winter Break program in January. The Ecuador trip was the first international service trip to be hosted during the spring in at least five years, Ms. Cohen said.

“It was such a joy to be part of this growth in the Alternative Breaks Program,” said Ecuador trip co-leader Eleanor Aldous, a senior in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. “I learned the importance of establishing an interaction of equality between people with mutual learning and friendship. The experience was nothing short of incredible.”