Evergreen Story

National Non-Profit Helps Colleges Across the Country Volunteer.

Each and every year college students have a ritual three times a year, school breaks. A cultural movement has started in the recent past, in which students spend these breaks volunteering rather than partying, this has been figure-headed by a non-profit organization called Break Away.
Break Away is a very small grass roots style organization. Officially only one person is on their payroll; it has a host of volunteers that pour their heart and soul in to a cause they believe in. Dan and Molly McCabe spend a large amount of time helping out around the office, working on the website, and planning conferences, and updating information packets. EMU student Sam Giacobozzi has been on nine alternative Breaks, and will be attending her tenth and final break as a student this winter. This past summer Sam was an Intern for Break Away, spending about three months in their then offices in Tallahassee, Florida doing administrative work, and helping to plan for there summer leadership conferences, The Alternative Breaks Citizenship Schools (ABCs).
The ABCs take the leadership conference and bring in the alternative break elements. Each one of the conferences tackles an issue. Break Away trainers and interns spend time educating attendees to prepare them for three days of community service they perform about said Issue. This year Break Away held two conferences The first was located in Chicago discussing Women’s Issues, which had forty-two participants. The second was in San Francisco dealing with AIDS awareness, which had fifty-two. The Leadership side of the conference covers marketing, fundraising, and the Eight Quality Components:
➢ Strong Direct Service, giving the volunteers an opportunity to get hands on experience in the issue at hand
➢ Orientation, getting the participants a greater understanding of the organizations involved
➢ Education, making students aware of both the local culture and social issue being dealt with
➢ Training, preparing the breakers for the work to be done
➢ Reflection, a structured session during the trip to help the students reflect on the their experiences
➢ Reorientation, a post break meeting to give a chance or everyone to make aware to others on the issue they worked with
➢ Diversity, a broad range of people should be involved
➢ Alcohol and Drug Free trips, to help keep the minds of Volunteers on the task.
Break Away also assists chapter schools by keeping and maintaining a database of possible sites, which informs the program coordinators of the location of the site, the service involved, if housing is provided, and who the contact for the site is. For more information on Break Away, visit alternativebreaks.org.