Alternative Breaks

Lakeshore Foundation is a non-profit organization that promotes independence for persons with physically disabling conditions and provides opportunities to pursue active, healthy lifestyles. They are hosting a spring break camp for kids with physical disabilities ages 3-21. They will engage in a variety of different sports, recreation, and aquatic activities.

Situated in a renovated steel mill, the Steel Yard is an enormous industrial space that caters to local artists, artisans, and community small businesses. In addition, the Yard coordinates outreach training programs to equip the homeless with job skills in the steel-working industry. Participants will be engaged with both the disadvantaged and artistic communities in their work through the Steel Yard.

Participants will work with a variety of groups to give an all encompassing view of what it is like to be homeless.

The Autism Society of Colorado helps the families of individuals with autism, as well as the individuals themselves, in a variety of ways, from home visits to policy reform at the state level. Participants in this site will take at least one trip into the mountains to visit and volunteer with the ASC’s camp retreat for autistic individuals.

The G! Institute is Patch Adam’s novel pilot program to build a totally free hospital on 300 acres of land acquired in West Virginia. Since the hospital construction phase of the mission has not yet started, volunteers will work with landscaping and community outreach on the grounds, which include a teaching center and clinic as well as three waterfalls and a cave.

Humane Borders is an organization devoted to humanitarian aid delivered to immigrants as they cross the US-Mexico border. Although illegal immigration is an intensely debated issue, Humane Borders maintains that regardless of the legality, no one deserves to die alone and lost in the desert. This site involves camping, hiking, and other adventures in the borderlands of the southwest.

The Foundation is devoted to delivering AIDS services in the Houston area, from benefit parties to individual treatment delivery. The Foundation also attempts to impact social change on a state and national level. Participants in the past have been involved in a variety of aspects of the AIDS Foundation, from serving at benefit dinners to handing out condoms.

Teach For America
Denver, CO
http://www.teachforamerica.org/

Participants will assist first and second year teachers who dedicate two years to teaching in urban and rural under-resourced schools. Participants will have the opportunity to observe classroom dynamics and help with classroom, extra-curricular and community activities. Participants will interact with a variety of age groups in the K-12 range.

Rebuild the Lower Nine
New Orleans, LA
lowernine.org

The Lower Ninth Ward was one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods in the New Orleans area. Rebuilding in the Lower Nine has lagged behind that of other neighborhoods as a result of poverty, the scale of the devastation and local, state and federal government inaction. We will be working with lowernine.org to rebuild this historic neighborhood in a sustainably economical way.