Urban Outreach adapts to one day service opportunity
Photo courtesy of Student Leadership Council.
Students can receive up to ten service hours in one day by participating in Urban Outreach on October 24, a student-led event organized by the Student Leadership Council to enable students to serve in Cleveland and the surrounding area.
This semester, Urban Outreach has four different service opportunities for students to choose from. Sign-ups for each trip begin Wednesday, October 14 at a booth in the PCSU from 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.
City of Refuge Dalton (10 hours of service)
City of Refuge Dalton is an outreach organization located in Dalton, Georgia. Students on this trip will help set up a new building that will provide valuable services to the local community.
Hope4One (5 hours of service)
This Cleveland-based ministry has a foster closet for children who arrive in the foster care system with very few personal items. Students will be helping with cleaning and renovating a new location for the foster closet.
KARM Stores (10 hours of service)
Knox Area Rescue Ministries (KARM) helps those in need in Knoxville, Tennessee and all the profits from the KARM thrift stores in and around Knoxville fund that mission. Several teams of students that sort, tag, and organize the donations each store receives.
Local Senior Living Facilities (5 hours of service)
Students won’t need to leave campus to participate in this semester’s Urban Outreach. Students participating in this “trip” will be writing cards on campus to send to seniors in local long-term care facilities and retirement homes.
In previous semesters, trips included an overnight stay, but this year, due to COVID-19 safety precautions, all Urban Outreach trips will take place on Saturday. All service activities will be monitored for social distancing and carpools will be limited to three people per car.
Rather than being frustrated by the added precautions, Jen Condon, SLC cabinet member and Urban Outreach coordinator believes that the pandemic should be a catalyst for students to serve.
“I think a lot of us think that it’s hard to serve in our communities right now but service doesn’t stop just because a pandemic hit us,” said Condon. “If anything we should be serving more because there are a lot more people who are going to need help. Urban Outreach trips are a great way for students to see the needs we have in our community and in the surrounding area.”
Junior discipleship and French major Abigail White has served at both City of Refuge Dalton and Hope4One on previous Urban Outreach trips.
“It takes you outside of the Lee bubble for sure,” said White. “I think for a lot of students seeing there is a community outside of yourself that you can have an opportunity to serve and be a part of even in a small way can be incredibly impactful. You get to help another person and it will ultimately change the way you look at things.”
Secretary to the Director of First Year Programs and Urban Outreach trip sponsor Ashley Crass has seen the work of ministry through her involvement in prior trips.
“It’s more than just checking a box,” said Crass. “You are given a great hands-on opportunity to invest your time, talents, really your whole self into being the hands and feet of Jesus. And even if you don’t see the fruit of that on the day, you know those seeds are being planted.”
Students can sign-up for Urban Outreach by filling out this Google form or in the PCSU from October 14-21, 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. Questions can be directed to Jen Condon at jcondo01@leeu.edu.
