OUR CORE VALUES
What sets us apart from other post-graduate options? Our values. Jesuit Volunteers engage in a year or two of intense service, framed within four interrelated values of the Jesuit tradition: spirituality, simple living, community, and social justice. Learn more about how these core values inform every aspect of the Jesuit Volunteer experience.
COMMITTED TO FAITH IN ACTION
Core to the JVC experience is an open, honest engagement with spirituality and faith. The JVC formation program facilitates prayer, retreats, and other activities grounded in the Ignatian tradition.
While volunteers come from a multitude of spiritual identities and interests, we encourage everyone to engage with Ignatian models for reflection and analysis. Whether it involves a deeper commitment to religious faith or a renewed interest in finding God in all persons, Jesuit Volunteers learn how best to incorporate spirituality and faith into their path to justice.
ACCOMPANYING THOSE IN NEED
JVC creates valuable opportunities for Jesuit Volunteers to live a simple, practical life. Living in solidarity with marginalized communities, volunteers learn to separate needs from wants and gain freedom from the material. And as part of a supportive community, they learn how to prioritize, put people before things, and make deliberate, intentional decisions about how to use their time, money, and talents.
In a culture that values what we have over how we give, JVC allows volunteers to reflect on simple living, define it in their own terms, and explore how to carry it into the rest of their lives.
BROADENING PERSPECTIVES TO CONFRONT BOUNDARIES
JVC creates intentional communities that broaden perspectives and confront boundaries. During their term of service, Jesuit Volunteers live in peer communities that foster growth and engagement: JVs share meals, reflect and pray together, challenge and support one another, and learn how to address poverty and injustice collaboratively and inclusively.
By fostering communities built on accountability, respect, and mutual support, JVC helps its volunteers understand their place in the world and how they’ll engage with it
ADDRESSING THE ROOT CAUSES OF INJUSTICE
The JVC experience brings a global perspective on living and seeing the world.
Jesuit Volunteers accompany and serve marginalized and disenfranchised communities, learning more about the repercussions of poverty and inequity. JVs make a real impact in the world by increasing the capacity of local organizations to provide direct service, and they become true advocates for compassion, fair treatment, and systemic change that addresses the root causes of injustice.