Service Trips

UA students and co-workers travel to Ellington, MO, to serve people who are living in an area lacking a local economy, where job resources are scarce, and the skills of healthy parenting often go unlearned. The Whole Kids Outreach Camp offers children from these families an opportunity to feel important, loved, and connected to each other. From the first Group Circle until the Closing Ceremony, each child is welcomed with excitement, enthusiasm, and song. These are emotions experienced too infrequently by the children of this area. Our students will participate with the children in activities such as swimming, arts, and crafts, hikes, horseback riding, etc and they will volunteer on some service projects in the community. 

You can learn more about Whole Kids Outreach and the wonderful work they are doing here.

Students will be volunteering through the Br. David Darst Center. Students will do service work Thursday night through Saturday night. Sunday morning we will have final reflection, go to church and then depart for St. Louis. The “Urban Immersion” serves as a tool to introduce and explore issues of justice and the reality of oppression. Through partnerships with local agencies, retreat participants are able to get to know people, to challenge stereotypes, to confront fears, to break down barriers that "protect" us from the unknown, the different. 

You can learn more about the Brother David Darst Center and their mission here.