Dare to Change: Building a Framework for the Future

In 2021, JVC began engaging in a yearlong strategic planning process to help guide our path forward for the next five years. Our team spent hundreds of hours surveying, interviewing, and speaking with the JVC community to better understand what makes this program so special. That feedback and each individual conversation shaped the critical questions that our Board and staff have tackled together this past year. And through that collaboration, we are excited to share with you what the future of JVC will look like as we do our best to support current volunteers, future volunteers, and former volunteers.

Spirituality

Rooted in Ignatian spirituality and the Catholic Social Tradition, JVC is inclusive of all religious expressions and spiritual backgrounds. We believe that diverse perspectives, in open and honest engagement, contribute to the richness of our community and our faith. We strive to perceive God in others, practice personal reflection in daily life, discern and discuss the challenges of living faithful and just lives, and pursue deep attention to the common good.
Simple Living

To facilitate lives grounded in spirituality, community and social justice, Jesuit Volunteers live simply and intentionally, reducing the distraction of consumerism, materialism, and busyness. In collaboration with local organizations, neighbors, and a supportive peer community, volunteers prioritize people before things, and make deliberate decisions about how to utilize time and resources.
Community

JVC builds intentional communities that broaden perspectives and confront boundaries. In collaboration with neighbors and local organizations, volunteers commit to developing mutual relationships across lines of difference. Volunteers engage practices of self-awareness, humility, and consensus building in cultivating inclusive and equitable communities.
Social Justice

While living intentionally and in collaboration with neighbors and local organizations, Jesuit Volunteers engage in the work of social justice. A central element of this value is JVC’s racial justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion work to identify barriers that have historically prevented the full participation of some groups. By grounding this value in the Catholic social tradition and in pursuit of a more just world that honors the inherent, sacred dignity of all, JVC supports practices, attitudes and actions that produce equitable power, opportunity, access, treatment, and outcomes for all people.

Our Guiding Principles

Committed to spirituality, simple living, community, and social justice, we hold ourselves accountable to the following principles.

We commit to our Jesuit Volunteers...

to provide a safe, challenging, and nurturing environment to support them throughout their service.

We commit to donors...

that we will be good stewards of the gifts and grants that are entrusted to us to advance our mission.

We strive for effective and transparent communication...

with former Jesuit Volunteers, our campus and agency partners and internally with staff in all our processes, policies, and procedures.

We work to stay rooted...

in our Jesuit tradition and guided by the wisdom of the Catholic social tradition.

We provide accompaniment...

to each other, meeting each individual where they are on their journey and assuming positive intent.

We show up...

to adapt and take risks with open minds and hearts, listening to understand before responding and recognizing the importance of being nimble in a changing environment.

We use an equity lens...

in planning, decision-making, and implementation of policies, practices and programs to be deliberately inclusive and consistent as an organization.

We value psychological safety...

and make it an explicit priority through facilitated dialogue and the establishment of norms that hold each of us accountable to maintaining this culture.

We agree to center norms...

for breakthrough social change and be vocal around any deviations: speak your truth; lean into discomfort and lean into each other; accept non-closure; embrace paradox; and seek intentional learning, not perfection.

We invest in staff...

by empowering and trusting them to be creative and innovative, respecting capacity and supporting lifelong learning, having fun and developing the whole person.

Methodology

The JVC Strategic Plan provides a roadmap for action that speaks to our goals and vision, while remaining malleable to the inevitable changes and opportunities that will occur in the environment and within the organization.

To get where we are today, we embarked on an 18-month process which involved a Kickoff Phase that identified major themes to investigate, a Research & Discovery Phase that included interviews, surveys, and focus groups that engaged more than 750 JVC community members; a Strategic Plan Development Phase led by staff and Board members who utilized the findings to build the plan; and an Implementation and Coaching Phase that supported the launch and operationalization of the strategic priorities.

Jesuit Volunteers to immerse yourselves during your time of service, to be open to learn, to let your heart lead you and to be challenged by your experiences. We call on JVs to be ambassadors to your friends and family to encourage more young people to join JVC.

Former Jesuit Volunteers to remain connected to the impact of your time of service. You know better than any others, the power of the JV experience and how transformative that experience can be in a person’s life. We call on FJVs to give back and pay forward—give back by engaging other FJVs and providing support to JVs in your community; pay forward by becoming lifelong donors. Your generosity enables us to make the JV experience available to more people and supports our engagement with agency partners who provide placements for our volunteers.

Donors to continue your financial support and share the good news about JVC with friends and family. We call on our benefactors to make a lifelong commitment to walk with us and our volunteers and to continue to help make JVC a strong and sustainable organization.

Jesuit Communities to accompany volunteers and FJVs in local communities and to help us deepen our roots in Ignatian spirituality and Catholic social tradition. We call on the Jesuits to help us make a local Jesuit connection for each community and be available for spiritual needs.

Agency Partners to continue to provide impactful placements for JVs and for creating a space for them to support your mission and accompany your constituents. We call on our agency partners to join us in forging a new relationship where we can work in a closer way to support JVs in their learning and formation.

You represent the JVC family. We will be stronger together inspired by stories of transformation, by forging mutual relationships and by keeping JVs and the JV experience alive in our hearts and mind.

To you all, we are extremely grateful.

Stand with JVC

“Now, more than ever, young people are seeking connection and utilizing every opportunity to build a community. This is why JVC is so important at this point in time. We will continue to harness that energy in new ways to create a formative experience for all volunteers past and present.”

– Tom Chabolla, President of JVC

Special thank you to all who participated in the strategic planning process, especially our Board and staff who worked tirelessly and collaboratively to develop a plan that will ensure a bright future for our organization and the entire JVC community.

Read a letter from JVC's leadership about our strategic plan!