Site and Community Benefits

Professional Mentor
   Each Volunteer is assigned a professional mentor at their service site to guide and support them through their year of service. This mentor is a seasoned professional in the Volunteer’s field of work. Mentors meet with Volunteers once a month to check in and assist them when needed.

LV Alum Mentor
   Each Volunteer is assigned an alumni mentor who either lives in the area where they are serving, served in their location, or graduated from the same university. This helps build connections between alums and Volunteers. Alumni mentors who live in the same town in which the Volunteer is serving are encouraged to meet with the LV in person. Otherwise, constant communication via e-mail and the phone are encouraged.
   The alumni mentor cannot only relate to the Volunteer about their service work but they also understand their Community experience. It is the common Community experience that makes the alum/Volunteer relationship most beneficial.

Financial Benefits
• Room, board and a simple living stipend
• Medical insurance
• College loan deferment or forbearance

Personal/Communal Reflection & Spiritual Direction
Volunteers live in small Christian Communities where members are invited to participate in the spiritual dimension of the Community through ways that are most comfortable to each member. Outside of scheduled Community reflection, members are invited to initiate faith sharing/reflection activities and times that increase one’s opportunity to grow spiritually, both personally and communally. Each Volunteer has the opportunity to participate in spiritual direction if interested.

What is spiritual direction?
It is similar to a spiritual coach. In this model, it is only required that the director be capable of drawing out the spiritual talents of the one being directed. This is often done by asking insightful questions and restating ideas expressed by the one receiving direction. In baseball, the best coaches are not the best players. Similarly, the spiritual coach may guide you to a place that he or she cannot go (in a sense). The spiritual coach knows what can work for others and does not limit their guidance to what has worked for them. This is not a required activity for Volunteers, but an option that is available.

AmeriCorps

The Lasallian Volunteer Program is a member of the Catholic Network of Volunteer Services. One of the many benefits we receive as a member is the ability to provide the AmeriCorps Education Award to eligible Volunteers in our program.

The Catholic Network of Volunteer Service/AmeriCorps Education Awards Program (CNVS/AEAP), funded by the Corporation for National Service, is a network of faith based programs which serves people in the areas of public safety, basic human needs, education, and the environment, with a special emphasis on working with youth and the poor. CNVS/AEAP is part of the national service movement currently engaging Americans of all ages and backgrounds in service to address our Nation’s most critical problems.

CNVS/AEAP participants are dedicated to national service and have made a specific commitment to help youth and others in need across the county. They plan to serve over 300,000 youth this year in the areas of child care, school counseling, education, recreational programs, coaching, tutoring, and literacy. They will also serve over one million people in the areas of social services, counseling, elderly outreach, shelter work, health care and poverty relief.

Terms of Service
The following terms of service are available to Lasallian Volunteers:
• Full-time (at least 1700 hours for a $4,725 award)
• Half-time (at least 900 hours for a $2,362.50 award)
• Quarter-time (between 450 and 899 hours for a $1,250 award)
• Minimum time (between 300 and 449 hours for a $1,000 award)

Lasallian Volunteers are full-time members, unless otherwise discussed with the staff and depending on award availability.

Please see the following link for more information: www.cnvs.org/americorps

Scholarships

  In the late 1990s, some of the Lasallian Colleges and Universities began to offer master level scholarships to Lasallian Volunteers who completed two or more years of service. Today, all seven Lasallian Colleges & Universities offer scholarships to former Lasallian Volunteers. While agreements differ at each school, all schools have agreed to at least one scholarship every other year. Many of the schools offer a scholarship each year. Please contact the Director of Lasallian Volunteers for more information on the latest agreement at a particular Lasallian University or College.
    In our selection of which Volunteer should receive the scholarships, we give preference to the Volunteer that is interested in a Masters Degree in Education, Counseling/Psychology or a related Human Services field. However, it has been left up to the discretion of the President of each Lasallian University and College to decide whether they would offer opportunities to obtain degrees in other areas.
    We look for a Volunteer that is committed to being a Lasallian presence on campus. This could take the form of a graduate assistantship or part-time, on-campus position in a campus ministry or a social action office, residence life department, athletics or another department within student affairs.
   The scholarships are an investment in the people who have shown a commitment to the work of the De La Salle Christian Brothers. Lasallian Volunteers that would be recommended for the scholarship opportunities are persons who have dedicated a significant amount of their time and talents to support Lasallian ministries that struggle with lack of resources. Any Lasallian Volunteers recommended for scholarships seek to maintain their Lasallian connection and commitment while obtaining the necessary skills and knowledge to continue working within Lasallian ministries.
    In recent history of the program, close to 80% of former Lasallian Volunteers have either stayed on at their Lasallian placement after they completed a year or more of service, have sought out positions at Lasallian placements closer to their home, or have made various personal commitments to support the Lasallian Mission.