Creighton University

Creighton Center for Service and Justice

• Community Involvement
• Service and Justice Trips
  • Spring Break Service Trips
    • About
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Pillars
    • Fundraising
    • Host Sites (The Places We Go)
    • Pictures
    • video
    • Applications
    • Spring Break Service Trips - Now What?
  • Fall Break Service Trips (FBST)
• Ignatian Family Teach-In
• Justice and Advocacy
• Leadership Development
• Beyond Creighton
• CCSJ Facebook Fan Page

Spring Break Service Trips - Now What?

• 230 of us from Creighton University served and learned during Spring Break 2009. We witnessed challenging situations, engaged prophetic people, heard powerful stories, and helped where we could. The challenge for us now is to decide what to do with our experiences. "Now What?"
• We offer here a few suggestions of how to get involved here in Omaha and beyond. We do not have all the answers, but we can help you to stay engaged in the seven pillars of the SBST program while you ask better questions and live into the answers.
• Please come by the CCSJ to talk to someone for more information or about more options.

Read about the seven pillars of the Spring Break Service Trip program

“If every American donated five hours a week, it would equal the labor of 20 million full-time volunteers.” - Whoopi Goldberg

• CCSJ weekly service sites (transportation provided)
• Contact info for Local Service Agencies
• Get involved with your residence hall's community partner
• Catholic Relief Services has many programs and ideas
• Organize a drive for the food bank, school supplies
• Try a service-learning course to integrate community service with your academic work
• Participate in Project Homeless Connect
• Event: Creighton Clean-up - Sat. April 18th.

• Participate in local community organizing events (Omaha Together One Community, etc) 
• Think of no one as “them”
• Notice the workings of power and privilege in your culture
• Know how your lettuce and coffee are grown: wake up and smell the exploitation
• Visit people, places, and cultures- not tourist attractions
• Watch films with subtitles, learn another language, culture and history
  Know that no one is silent though many are not heard, work to change this
• View Fr. Boyle and his talk about working with LA gangs as part of Homeboy Industries

• Justice Web Resources
• Use your voice- tell your senators and representatives about your experience and your concerns.
• Go on CUnity, Ignatian Family Teach-In November 2009
• Sign up for action alerts about Immigration, Hunger, OxFam.
• Get involved in local community organizing Omaha Together One Community.
• Read international news sources for other perspectives (NPR, Aljazeera, BBC)

• SBST Gatherings (SBST Reunion Sunday March 22nd 2-4 pm Harper Ballroom)
• Keep in contact with your SBST group, write letters to your host site- consider spending more time with them 
• Join a service, justice or cultural student organization
• Consider the Cortina Community for sophomores or the Spirit of Peace community for juniors/seniors
• Go to conferences to meet others doing similar things across the country (Fair Trade, Sweat-free, Hunger & Homelessness)
• Get to know East Omaha on an East Omaha Community Orientation through the CCSJ

• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Compost
• Clean out your closet- donate anything that you don't use
• If you have to buy something, consider buying second-hand
• Fix or sew what you can instead of buying something new
• Support sustainable agriculture, buy organic (try Whole Foods) and locally (at farmers' markets), learn about vegetarian options, check out the Nebraska Food Co-op 
• Walk, ride a bike, carpool or use the shuttle, try riding the bus 
• Bring your own shopping bags
• Take time to listen to people's stories
• Go for a week without tv, ipods, e-mail.
• Story of Stuff
• The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
• Check out the Green America website

• Walk, ride a bike, carpool or use the shuttle
• Support sustainable agriculture, buy organic (try Whole Foods) and locally (farmers' markets), learn about vegetarian options
• Bring your own shopping bags
• Local Sustainable Education on the news in Omaha about bottled water.
• Support the idea of building green buildings on campus
• Conserve! http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102062969 
• Learn about Nebraska's Food Coop

• Sign up for Soup & Stories
• L.I.F.E. (contact Campus Ministry)
• Faith & Pasta
• Keep a Journal or Blog (send your SBST reflections to korbik@creighton.edu to be put on the CCSJ website)
• Seek out a spiritual advisor/mentor
• Go on a retreat
• Take a Faith and Moral Development course (Justice & Peace Studies)
• Do hi's and lo's with your roommate(s)
• Do a daily examen, yoga, meditate or pray with your faith tradition

• Go on an another service or immersion experience (watch for details:Omaha homelessness, El Salvador)
• Fall Break/Spring Break Service Trips (applications out the 1st week of the fall semester)
• Coordinate next year's SBSTs
• Consider Post-Graduate Volunteer work
• Work or Intern with a non-profit this summer! (Check out Creighton CareerTRAK - Creighton's Link for internships)